Ferrari at Starladder XII. Image by DotaBlast.
The interview was conducted in Mandarin Chinese and translated into English.
This is your fifth The International event with Invictus Gaming. Are you proud of that?
I feel very lucky to be able to participate in so many TI events because it has not been easy. A lot of luck and coincidence came into factor.
Since you came so far with iG, which iG squad do you think is the strongest one for you with the exception to this year's?
If we use results to judge, it is obviously The International 2. I mean if you win, then it is everything but if you lose, there will be nothing for you. So finishing as champion at TI2 means that we are the strongest.
What do you think about the iG coming into The International 5? I'm sure you guys practiced a lot in China prior to coming here. How was the practice?
We practiced a lot against Chinese teams and they practiced a lot as well. I feel that we are lacking something in comparison to the western teams. So, we don't exactly know whether it is good or bad because the playstyle we use to play against Chinese teams could be different to how we could defeat the western teams. I'm not sure if the things we trained for would be the best or perhaps the western teams have a superior playstyle. I guess we will have to wait and see.
Prior to The International 5, most of the tournaments end up with the western teams like Secret and Evil Geniuses winning. Did you try to learn the way they play?
I think all the Chinese teams tried to learn from their playstyle to pick AoE heroes to push the lanes, kill the neutrals and then find chance to kill heroes. After trying out the playstyle, we found out that the playstyle is not exactly suitable for us. Not exactly sure if we didn't play it well or unsuitable in fact, so we just revert back to our usual game plan which is a lot more efficient for us.
iG recently added KingJ as coach. Can you tell us on how he became your coach?
BurNing recommended KingJ. At that time, we have no coach and BurNing is really close to KingJ and after some discussion, we decided to let him be our coach.
Is he a good coach? What did he teach your team?
Well, having a coach is definitely better than not having a coach. During our post-scrims discussion, we have one extra guy to help us brainstorm and analyse the game. Besides that, he watch the game as a spectator and he could probably notice some stuff we did not
What do you think about being placed in group A? Many people thinks that group A is the harder group because Secret, LGD, iG and C9 are in it. Do you agree with the seeding of the groupstage?
I think it is okay. This is TI and there are no weak teams here and the skill gap is really small. In fact, some of the lesser known teams do have the ability to cause a few upsets. Also, if you meet a lot of good teams in the groupstage, that means you also don't have to face them in the initial rounds of the playoffs.
I talked to a few players about this and they did not seem too happy about the way the points will be given during the groupstage. 3 points will be awarded to a 2-0 sweep and only 1 point will be given to a 1-1 finish. They think that instead of 3 points, they should only award them with 2 points for finishing 2-0. Do you agree with them?
Actually a lot of tournaments in China uses the same format. We have played in this format countless times. We are quite used to it and I think it is quite fair.
How far do you think you will make it in The International 5?
We are hoping to reach top 4 this year. It is hard to guess who will finish first, second, third or fourth after but we are aiming for top 4.
Assuming that you do make it to top 4, which teams do you think will be joining you there?
I feel that Secret, EG and LGD or VG. These four are really quite strong.
LGD didn't play in international tournaments a lot recently. How can you judge their capability?
We practiced a lot with LGD. We know the way they play really well.
Did your team played with a specific team a lot more than others or do you just mix around and play everybody?
All the Chinese teams played against one another a lot. Nobody set up any other arrangement to just train against one another. Typically, we arrange to play against 2-3 teams per day. So, we normally play against one another every few days.
If you win TI this year, what will you do with the money? The prize this year is $6,000,000.
I will invest in something I suppose because the money I won from the past TIs are used for investments as well, especially in real estate. Maybe because I do not have a specific interest, so I just buy properties and leave them there. When the price goes up and then I sell them. There is nothing I really want.
You have played Dota for many years. What do you have planned after The International 5?
I will most probably continue playing. This is the thing I love the most and I don't know what I can do if I stop playing. I really love playing games.
Well Ferrari, that's the end of the interview. Do you have any shoutouts you want to give to your family and friends?
Thank you for all your support year after year. Thank you so much!
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