Singaporean support player ponlo talked with us about his time before and on Team Zero, qualifying for TI13, and what he hopes for at TI and in the future.
The International 2024 is in full swing and after just one day, Dota 2 fans are talking about Team Zero's unexpected – and very promising – start.
Only six invites were bestowed directly to the teams. Of those, only Xtreme Gaming from China received one. The rest of China was left to battle things out. So it was a tremendous surprise when Team Zero delivered a big upset in China as the first team to qualify for The International 2024. Playing in only qualifiers so far this season (except for ONE Tier 3 event), this team was barely a blip on the qualifier radar.
Team Zero is the second Dota 2 team of Xtreme Gaming formed in May 2023. But it wasn’t until March that Team Zero had a stable line-up again with the arrival of Yang "Erika" Shaohan and Remus "ponlo" Goh. Once they settled in, Team Zero slowly started to pose a threat in the Chinese qualifiers, playing extremely aggressively, matching the Western European type of gameplay.
They have a high-risk, high-reward type of mentality and they will not slow down their tempo even when they are on the back foot. And it really showed right out of the gate. On the first day of the Group Stage Team Zero forced Team Falcons to a 1-1 draw in their opening series. They then went on to sweep through BetBoom to take the top seed at the end of Day 1.
We had the opportunity to talk with ponlo before the group stage even kicked off. The support-player spent time talking with GosuGamers about his thoughts and feelings about the path of his career, playing in various regions, his perspective on Dota 2 in Singapore, how Team Zero landed at TI, and what his hope is at The International.
ponlo interview with GosuGamers at TI13
‘Welcome to The International!’ How does it feel to finally hear those words? To finally be playing in TI?
I guess now I feel just fine.
Can you talk about your career path since you started in 2016 and now finally playing in TI? What kept you going?
It was very long and took a lot of trial and error. When you are not as talented as other talented players and you have to face off against them constantly, it just takes a long time to get good enough. Now that I'm here, I'm just trying my best not to waste it. I'm not sure that I can properly savour it right now. I will try.
You have played in quite a few regions through the years. Southeast Asia being your home region, then NA with Quincy Crew, Europe with Alliance, and now China with Team Zero. How have you been able to adjust and adapt to the different cultures and playstyles of the regions?
I think for sure both culture and playstyle are very important. When you change regions they change a lot -- maybe much more than you know because you don't sit down and analyze how you used to play in another region, how your coach or teammates want you to play now, what was valued then, and what is valued now. It's not black and white. In reality, I think it changes a lot.
photo courtesy of Valve
Which has been your favorite [region] and which was the most difficult one for you to adjust to?
I think going to the US was really ass because the pubs were bad and I was on the side of the US I couldn't play Europe pubs. I think that was the worst.
Playing in China, the scrims are ok but the pubs are still SEA pubs, which are not the best. Europe definitely has the best pubs, but also Europe has the most number of toxic people so that's annoying as well.
Which team do you think you learned/grew the most within your career? What was it that happened or who was it that helped you?
I'm not sure. I think I grew in every team in different ways. You mature sometimes outside of the game and sometimes it is about in-game.
I learned a lot from Quinn/CC&C who is super good in-game. Often times I think back to the things that he taught me in Quincy, that he still plays to that style now and the things that he values -- so I know that they are right and I can lean on it. That's one thing.
In Alliance, I think I learned a lot more outside the game and also learned stuff from S4 theorywise.
How did you end up with Team Zero in China? Take us through the story including what things did you have to consider before making your decision!
Before I went to Team Zero, I was playing in a stack I made with SEA players - very unknown players. I was reluctant to drop them since I was the one who made that stack and go play for this 2nd team – Team Zero. I didn't even know who they were and the way the manager approached me was quite sudden. I thought, 'this doesn't feel very thought out' so I wasn't very sure. But… I would still get paid something and I wasn't getting paid anything making my own stack in SEA, so I decided to come and try and it worked out.
Almost immediately the team started to take 2nd place in qualifiers, but it wasn’t enough for LAN spots. Did it discourage you --to narrowly miss them – or did it feel good knowing that you were so close each time?
I never really thought or cared about it. To be very honest, I thought the Dota we were playing in those qualifiers wasn't top-tier. I don't even know why we were in the finals and we got so close. I genuinely don't believe that the team was playing that well and I think these Chinese teams (iG, Azure Ray) performed better at LANs against international teams compared to us, so I didn't feel like ‘oh I missed out on some LANs.’ I didn't feel that way at all.
Were you surprised to take the first spot in the TI regional qualifiers or were you pretty confident going into them that you would make it?
Oh, I didn't even know we had a chance to make it. Qualifying for TI is obviously crazy, but to do it as first seed....I don't feel like we did it, I feel like someone else did it. *laughs* Some other Team Zero, doesn't feel like us.
photo courtesy of Valve
Are you happy with the 7.37 patch and do you think the small balance updates changed things much?
I think there are some OP heroes in pubs, but I don't think it changed that much.
What are your expectations for this TI? Other than winning, what result would you be satisfied with?
I think aside from getting last place – that would be pretty that stings your butt, it's annoying to think about, annoying to hear. Aside from getting that, 16, 15, 14th, I don't really care what result we get, to be honest, I just want to play Dota that I am proud of. I know I can play today and just improve and play better Dota next year. I don't really care about the placing. But being last place is annoying.
You are the only player at this TI from Singapore. In fact, the first one since 2021. How does it feel to be the only Singaporean at TI this year?
iceiceice is washed up *laughs* just kidding. It feels like all of my comrades over the years have fallen to societal pressure, to the army, to earning money.
It's kind of sad – all of my friends have stopped playing, but I'm not good or confident enough to say 'I'll hold all the hopes and dreams of all the Singaporean players' but maybe in the near future I'll feel like that and people can pin their dreams on me, but for now no…
photo courtesy of Valve
Do you feel any comparisons to other ex-Singapore pros?
No, not really. My offlane calls me Ponloson [reference to Wilson "poloson" Koh, Singaporean who last played for Bleed Esports] sometimes for fun. Actually, he calls me Ponlosong which is polno and song ... “Song” in Chinese means to give [as a present] something for someone else [which in this case it means feeding] PonloSONG…[gifting them a kill] .... like that aside from that, I don't get reminded about the other players.
What do you think about Dota 2 in Singapore? Do you think that having The International in Singapore in 2022 elevated the game or interest for new players?
I'm not sure about that. I don't know any new players. In my case, it legitimised it more to my parents, and my family about what Dota is because TI happened in Singapore so they could see it was a real thing, it is grand.
What do you think needs to happen to attract more serious players to enter the scene?
I think it could use more onboarding. The onboarding experience for Dota is still poor.
I'm not sure how good the new player tutorial is now but it used to be pretty bad. When you just hope in a new game of Dota as a completely new player you have no idea what to do. Even the guide teaches you that you have to hit towers. I did that guide 2 years ago and it doesn't give you the sense of the game.
Watching TI gives the essence of how Dota is played and the extent that you can play it to. I think they could do more to onboard players to Dota.
How do you feel about esports events like Blast coming back to Singapore?
I think I read about it. I'm just happy *smiles*
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