Jie 'Ruru' Pan, owner and CEO of LGD Gaming was recently interviewed by China Electronic Atheletes on what happened to the international team from the start to the end. In the interview, Pan revealed the communication problems within the team and how culture differences destroyed their chemistry. The interview is translated by 2P.
Starting off the interview with a few questions about LGD International's first venture to China, Pan told CEA that she "originally wanted a stable international roster, to better interact with DOTA2 players worldwide and to expand LGD’s brand." While LGD.Int enjoyed minor success in G-League 2012, they fell into a deep slump and they were not able to recover the playstyle that made them so successful at the end of 2012.
Per Anders 'Pajkatt' Olsson-Lille and Rasmus 'Misery' Filipsen were vocal about their thoughts on the Chinese scene and treat the game as a form of art and not work, scrimming on a fixed schedule everyday. Pan disagreed with their thoughts and stated, "I thought about this, and felt that you have to work hard no matter what it is that you want to achieve; you must keep a positive mentality, work hard, and the entire team needs to have the same objective. TI2 champion IG and TI3 champion Alliance are like that." Pan thinks that the cause of this conflict of interest is due to cultural differences.
Due to their minor success early in the year, LGD.Int was invited to The International 3 and performed better albeit still not good enough to make it into the cash. Despite the sub-par performance in Seattle, Pan was happy with the team in general and thinks that a team needed to go through hardship to become strong.
After The International 3, Pan stated that the players were hesitant to return to China but their confidence rose after they finished planning their next step. Pan was very happy with the team and even considered "establishing a gaming house in Europe if everyone thinks that it’s unsuitable to stay in China."
Unfortunately, the newly reformed LGD International continued to underperform in Chinese tournaments despite LGD hiring them a manager. When Olsson-Lille's visa expired, he returned to Sweden to renew his visa and the team more or less fell apart after Filipsen followed suit because he was quoted "too lonely." Pan went on to expose that Olsson-Lille and Filipsen refused to continue playing with their newest addition Dominik 'Black' Reitmeier because the duo believe that Reitmeier refuses to interact with them in-game.
It was clear that Pan sympathizes the currently team-less Reitmeier and said that LGD will be doing their best to find a new team for him, and if not, a new team that will suit him best.
Pan ended the interview saying that she don't regret forming the team, but she does regret reforming the team after The International 3. "I shouldn’t reform an unpredictable roster that doesn’t share the same goal. I will try to be more rational with my decisions in the future."
Upon finding out about the interview, Filipsen reached out to us moments before the publish of this article. His reply to the interview will be found here.
