All Pick - Wong Hock Chuan April 30th, 2013 18:04 GMT Text by riptide Graphics by Meko All Pick Chuan

by riptide, SirJolt, and Kupon3ss



Name Wong Hock Chuan Age 21 Country Malaysia Team Invictus Gaming



Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.



In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.



Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.



It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll.

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.



- Invictus, by William Ernest Henley It is one of competitive Dota’s great injustices that the life of a strong support player is not a glamorous one. As a support, you are unlikely to find yourself on many lists of favourite players. The odds are slim that you will ever hear crowds of fans chanting your name; even in the modern everyone farms style of play, your cut of the gold always seems to come up just a little short. Indeed, in a progaming world whose spiralling obsession with statistics has been met by ever more granular numbers, it seems that there is still no satisfactory means by which to gauge the effectiveness of the support player.



The flawless support player inhabits that poverty-stricken space between positions four and five. Theirs is a world in which there is every opportunity to drop the ball and few chances to take a team to victory. Botch a single initiation and the stream chat’s “throw” spam will blot out the sun and yet, even after a perfect Spell Steal into a great Reverse Polarity or Black Hole, one rampage is all it takes for a carry to overshadow you, to say nothing of his kill/death/assist statistics, his genocidal creep score, and his Midas-touched gold-per-minute. Though we tend to think of “support” as a single role in Dota 2, the truth is that a true support, at least a support who stands shoulder to shoulder with the best the world has to offer, has many, many roles to fill.



In that sense, Invictus Gaming’s Wong Hock Chuan is the perennial support. With a background in team sports, he well understands the importance of roles in the game he has now come to call home. Further, having made the journey from amateur to professional, and with it a shift from Malaysia to China, Chuan knows better than most the importance of adapting to suit new circumstances. The world he inhabits in-game is one of shifting ephemera, one that demands constant and keen awareness. It is an environment in which he must maintain focus on both allies and enemies, adapting his own skills and abilities to suit the situation. In this world, it’s all about making sure that you’re in the right place at the right time.



This highlight reel from SMM 2011 shows just how Chuan’s positioning helps propel the then newly formed Invictus Gaming to the championship. Though the video is somewhat grainy, and the content is perhaps a little dated in the high resolution world of Dota 2, the beauty of Chuan’s play shines through. As Earthshaker, you never seem to see him in view, and then - BAM! - a fissure fills the screen. This, if anything, is the hallmark of the perfect support - to never be in danger and yet always appear exactly when needed the most.







You don’t need 1080p to appreciate terrific positional play.



Keep watching and you will see him do the same with a Windrunner. In fact, his signature heroes is his early iG days were Windrunner and Mirana, both of whom benefit tremendously from immaculate positioning. Today, we call him the best #4 in the world, and it’s easy to see why. Chuan understands the team, and more importantly, the team fight, and that, fans of Dota 2, is why he is among the best at what he does. “As long as their abilities need some microing, I like them,” says Chuan, when we ask about the heroes he prefers. “I don't like playing heroes like Anti-Mage and Faceless Void.”



There is some irony in this statement, if only because Chuan was almost exclusively a #1 and #2 player before moving to iG. In fact, he was well known for his terrifying Shadow Fiend play at the time, and still plays the hero brilliantly in pubs. Thus, it is perhaps inaccurate to call Chuan the perennial support. After all, he has played support exclusively for less than two years. On the other hand, there is no doubt that the positionally aware, highly accurate micro-management he has displayed since his rise to stardom with iG is no fluke. Chuan, in at least a spiritual sense, has always a been support. It was the role he was made for, and his move to iG is perhaps what made him fully realise this. He had no qualms about moving from the a more prominent #1 or #2 position to a #4 position that made him more of a facilitator than anything else, and it is this willingness to take one for the team that has taken his team to two championships in the past year. Thus, it is perhaps fitting that Chuan retained the spotlight despite his move, and that even though he plays #4 on iG, he is by far its most visible player. Keep watching and you will see him do the same with a Windrunner. In fact, his signature heroes is his early iG days were Windrunner and Mirana, both of whom benefit tremendously from immaculate positioning. Today, we call him the best #4 in the world, and it’s easy to see why. Chuan understands the team, and more importantly, the team fight, and that, fans of Dota 2, is why he is among the best at what he does. “As long as their abilities need some microing, I like them,” says Chuan, when we ask about the heroes he prefers. “I don't like playing heroes like Anti-Mage and Faceless Void.”There is some irony in this statement, if only because Chuan was almost exclusively a #1 and #2 player before moving to iG. In fact, he was well known for his terrifying Shadow Fiend play at the time, and still plays the hero brilliantly in pubs. Thus, it is perhaps inaccurate to call Chuan the perennial support. After all, he has played support exclusively for less than two years. On the other hand, there is no doubt that the positionally aware, highly accurate micro-management he has displayed since his rise to stardom with iG is no fluke. Chuan, in at least a spiritual sense, has always a been support. It was the role he was made for, and his move to iG is perhaps what made him fully realise this. He had no qualms about moving from the a more prominent #1 or #2 position to a #4 position that made him more of a facilitator than anything else, and it is this willingness to take one for the team that has taken his team to two championships in the past year. Thus, it is perhaps fitting that Chuan retained the spotlight despite his move, and that even though he plays #4 on iG, he is by far its most visible player. Though Earthshaker and Windrunner were his signature heroes for iG in the world of DotA, many of Chuan’s Western fans will know him best for sterling plays in Dota 2 on the likes of Lina, Tidehunter, and perhaps most prominently, Rubick. Since his entrance into Western Dota, Chuan has stretched the telekinetic powers of this hero the maximum, snatching the spells that would produce some of the most memorable plays of the year. His kleptomanic abilities, however, should not come as a surprise to Dota fans. Chuan is almost peerless when it comes to the art of reading situations, heroes and skills, he is adept at reaching into the maelstrom of the team fight and extracting the one skill he really wants. As the frames flip by, he seems almost to read them one at a time, and indeed he is most effective at the edge of the team fight, watching and waiting. His is a world that unfolds in slow motion.







”Net on Chuan! Chuan steals that net, tosses it right back. No, XBOCT, you will not run away, he says. [...] iG will probably prevail. Everybody low, everybody living. And they’re not done... they want Dendi!” - David “LD” Gorman, casting that play.



Rubick’s ability to steal spells and overcome his enemies comes from his capacity to trace the arcane emanations of his opponent’s spellcraft, gaining the strengths needed to unravel their team. iG’s strength comes from its capacity to scour the depths of its opponents’ play and to unravel it... and Chuan is that team’s Rubick. He is at home in this changing world, a world that ultimately centers around him: Chuan, the Grand Magus. Chuan, who has a mind like this.





When we spoke to Chuan, one of the questions we felt we should ask was about how difficult it was for iG to make the transition from DotA to Dota 2, seeing that they would eventually go on to become the powerhouse they are now. Given that the clear intent has always been for as close to a complete parity between the two games as possible, his answer comes as something of a surprise to those of us who never played the original game.



“They're completely different. The nuances are completely unalike. Regarding the professional players of both, you could say you were talking about two different games.”



It is this attention to detail, the consideration that the minutiae of the two games being different renders two such different games, that gives Chuan’s Rubick its flexibility and utility. Where others might fish for one specific spell, it is Chuan’s keen eye for the subtleties of the game that makes him a danger. There are few Rubick players whose knowledge of other heroes’ spells seems quite so intimate, though there are doubtless many who remember Dendi’s outings on Rubick in The International 2.



If nothing else, the fact that we would pick him for an All Pick feature after Dendi is a fine indication of just how far the Chinese figurehead has come worldwide. We’re writing this not only because Chuan is a world class support player, nor because he’s a charismatic guy whom fans have grown to love, and no, we’re not just writing about him because he has come to be the face of a team that has been dubbed unbeatable. We approached him because he is living the shared dream of an entire community, a dream that deserves to be chronicled, if only because so few ever get to live it. It’s one thing to make it to the professional level and maintain that level of play, but to reach the dizzying height of being the very best in the world at what you do is quite another.



If Dendi is considered the Northern Star of Western Dota, then Chuan is undoubtedly his counterpart in the East. Between the players there exists the juxtaposition of a wiry, chaotic figure and a vast, imposing presence, tied together by their indomitable spirit and boylike mirth in pursuit of the game they love. In game, the sense of contrast deepens between these two of the world’s finest Rubicks; one as a constant shining beacon to light the path for his team, and the other a blinding firework, ready to burst forth with sudden and unrivaled brilliance, precisely when and where he is needed.



When we Rubick’s ability to steal spells and overcome his enemies comes from his capacity to trace the arcane emanations of his opponent’s spellcraft, gaining the strengths needed to unravel their team. iG’s strength comes from its capacity to scour the depths of its opponents’ play and to unravel it... and Chuan is that team’s Rubick. He is at home in this changing world, a world that ultimately centers around him: Chuan, the Grand Magus. Chuan, who has a mind like this.When we spoke to Chuan, one of the questions we felt we should ask was about how difficult it was for iG to make the transition from DotA to Dota 2, seeing that they would eventually go on to become the powerhouse they are now. Given that the clear intent has always been for as close to a complete parity between the two games as possible, his answer comes as something of a surprise to those of us who never played the original game.“They're completely different. The nuances are completely unalike. Regarding the professional players of both, you could say you were talking about two different games.”It is this attention to detail, the consideration that the minutiae of the two games being different renders two such different games, that gives Chuan’s Rubick its flexibility and utility. Where others might fish for one specific spell, it is Chuan’s keen eye for the subtleties of the game that makes him a danger. There are few Rubick players whose knowledge of other heroes’ spells seems quite so intimate, though there are doubtless many who remember Dendi’s outings on Rubick in The International 2.If nothing else, the fact that we would pick him for an All Pick feature after Dendi is a fine indication of just how far the Chinese figurehead has come worldwide. We’re writing this not only because Chuan is a world class support player, nor because he’s a charismatic guy whom fans have grown to love, and no, we’re not just writing about him because he has come to be the face of a team that has been dubbed unbeatable. We approached him because he is living the shared dream of an entire community, a dream that deserves to be chronicled, if only because so few ever get to live it. It’s one thing to make it to the professional level and maintain that level of play, but to reach the dizzying height of being the very best in the world at what you do is quite another.If Dendi is considered the Northern Star of Western Dota, then Chuan is undoubtedly his counterpart in the East. Between the players there exists the juxtaposition of a wiry, chaotic figure and a vast, imposing presence, tied together by their indomitable spirit and boylike mirth in pursuit of the game they love. In game, the sense of contrast deepens between these two of the world’s finest Rubicks; one as a constant shining beacon to light the path for his team, and the other a blinding firework, ready to burst forth with sudden and unrivaled brilliance, precisely when and where he is needed.When we wrote about Dendi last August , we focused squarely on his individual skill, and sheer creativity he brings to every game of Dota he plays. By contrast, with Chuan our focus must be on the victories his team has achieved. He has not led them to victory, as he might have in those days when he played positions that would place a larger share of the gold on his shoulders. Instead, iG’s way to victory is paved with the manifold manipulations a perfect support brings to the table. Upon the grandest stage of esports the two have met only once before, yet in each other they had found kindred spirits, friends and rivals who early await their next appointment in Seattle. In fact, if this combined interview of them at WCG 2012 shows anything, it’s the fact that they are now good friends, fierce competitors in game, but good friends in real life.







“Chuan is my bodyguard.” - Danil “Dendi” Ishutin

For those of you not familiar with Chuan, the odds are that you’ve already seen him play at least once. If you kept track of any of the coverage of the event, the storyline that was almost universally presented for The International 2 was one of “China versus the rest of the world.” Two of your three humble correspondents were no less guilty in that regard than anyone else, but the truth is that that storyline is just another in the string of minor injustices that have conspired to anonymise this most capable of supports.



The International should have been the first opportunity Chuan had to soak up some of the spotlight on a global stage, in spite of his playing support in a world obsessed with carries. Instead, the vast majority of viewers were primed to watch Na`Vi versus iG with a very specific mindset. We weren’t watching Na`Vi play against iG; we were watching Dendi, Puppey, Xboct, ARS-ART, and LightofHeaven versus China. For the vast majority of the audience not already following Chinese Dota, this was a victory for a Chinese team that had become the nebulous villain of the proceedings, a slow-farming steamroller that would, as it happened, go on to crush all opposition.



What space could there be for a dazzling support like Chuan to shine under those conditions?



If support players in Western Dota are underappreciated, their Chinese counterparts have been all but effaced. For years, the Chinese game revolved around the now infamous four-protect-one strategy, and so the few Eastern names Western audiences knew coming into TI2 were Zhou, BurNing and Sylar. They may not have known much about the players themselves, but the names were forerunners of the domination that the Chinese dished out in Seattle last August. For those of you not familiar with Chuan, the odds are that you’ve already seen him play at least once. If you kept track of any of the coverage of the event, the storyline that was almost universally presented for The International 2 was one of “China versus the rest of the world.” Two of your three humble correspondents were no less guilty in that regard than anyone else, but the truth is that that storyline is just another in the string of minor injustices that have conspired to anonymise this most capable of supports.The International should have been the first opportunity Chuan had to soak up some of the spotlight on a global stage, in spite of his playing support in a world obsessed with carries. Instead, the vast majority of viewers were primed to watch Na`Vi versus iG with a very specific mindset. We weren’t watching Na`Vi play against iG; we were watching Dendi, Puppey, Xboct, ARS-ART, and LightofHeaven versus China. For the vast majority of the audience not already following Chinese Dota, this was a victory for a Chinese team that had become the nebulous villain of the proceedings, a slow-farming steamroller that would, as it happened, go on to crush all opposition.What space could there be for a dazzling support like Chuan to shine under those conditions?If support players in Western Dota are underappreciated, their Chinese counterparts have been all but effaced. For years, the Chinese game revolved around the now infamous four-protect-one strategy, and so the few Eastern names Western audiences knew coming into TI2 were Zhou, BurNing and Sylar. They may not have known much about the players themselves, but the names were forerunners of the domination that the Chinese dished out in Seattle last August. For many fans, the TI2 bracket was an invitation to experience a sort of profound culture shock, with commentators struggling to explain to us the manifold superiorities of the Chinese carry in tones more often reserved for myth and legend. Even Na`Vi, by general consensus the best of the West, stood little chance. By the end of the tournament, we were no longer talking only about Na`Vi, though their performance at TI2 had given fans all the more reason to love them. No, by the time TI2 wound down, it was clear that Na`Vi’s reign as supreme rulers of our Dota world was drawing to a close.



Invictus Gaming, moments after being crowned TI2 champions. Invictus Gaming, moments after being crowned TI2 champions.

We had been living in the dark and now, with the other hemisphere exposed by Valve’s massive tournament, we had crossed into another world. A world ruled by the meticulous, farm-heavy style of cold, systematic killers. A world of Zhou. A world of Sylar. A world that was BurNing.



And yet, in this photograph, it is not Zhou who holds aloft the Aegis of Champions. It is not even Ferrari. It’s Wong Hock Chuan, the little Malaysian that could. Indeed, as you look at his posture, his confidence, and the easy-going way in which he holds their victory high, it’s easy to forget that this didn’t come easy for him.



The story of how Chuan came to Dota has passed almost into legend. As with so many legends, it begins with an ordinary boy brought low. Just four years ago, Chuan was almost as far as you could get from a prestigious Dota tournament, holding aloft a million dollar prize. He was playing pubs on Garena from a wheelchair. In those early days after he first found the game he has now come to know, love, and rule, he hadn’t even begun to nurture the nascent dream that would lead him to China and then to Seattle; he was just a teenager recovering from a basketball injury and, as so many of us would, in those long hours of recovery he turned to his PC.



It’s not hard to imagine him sitting there, the glow from his CRT throwing the cold blue of the Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne interface across his little desk. In those days, his play was accompanied by the tapping of fingers on his old mechanical mouse, the ball rattling inside it as he swept it from side to side, waiting for the latest map to download. All of this with the red Garena dragon in the background and the soft chimes of his IM client on the taskbar. For many Dota players, this scene will not be an unfamiliar one, and yet somewhere in that space between injury and stardom, Chuan stepped out of that darkness.



He soon rose to play among the best in Malaysia, and finished in 4th place at SMM 2009 with KS.my. “That was a much more difficult age since we had absolutely no sponsors and had to pay all of our own expenses,” Chuan told us, talking about his early Dota days. “The Malaysian DotA environment was really bad, and sometimes you'd win a championship and still lose money.” We had been living in the dark and now, with the other hemisphere exposed by Valve’s massive tournament, we had crossed into another world. A world ruled by the meticulous, farm-heavy style of cold, systematic killers. A world of Zhou. A world of Sylar. A world that was BurNing.And yet, in this photograph, it is not Zhou who holds aloft the Aegis of Champions. It is not even Ferrari. It’s Wong Hock Chuan, the little Malaysian that could. Indeed, as you look at his posture, his confidence, and the easy-going way in which he holds their victory high, it’s easy to forget that this didn’t come easy for him.The story of how Chuan came to Dota has passed almost into legend. As with so many legends, it begins with an ordinary boy brought low. Just four years ago, Chuan was almost as far as you could get from a prestigious Dota tournament, holding aloft a million dollar prize. He was playing pubs on Garena from a wheelchair. In those early days after he first found the game he has now come to know, love, and rule, he hadn’t even begun to nurture the nascent dream that would lead him to China and then to Seattle; he was just a teenager recovering from a basketball injury and, as so many of us would, in those long hours of recovery he turned to his PC.It’s not hard to imagine him sitting there, the glow from his CRT throwing the cold blue of the Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne interface across his little desk. In those days, his play was accompanied by the tapping of fingers on his old mechanical mouse, the ball rattling inside it as he swept it from side to side, waiting for the latest map to download. All of this with the red Garena dragon in the background and the soft chimes of his IM client on the taskbar. For many Dota players, this scene will not be an unfamiliar one, and yet somewhere in that space between injury and stardom, Chuan stepped out of that darkness.He soon rose to play among the best in Malaysia, and finished in 4th place at SMM 2009 with KS.my. “That was a much more difficult age since we had absolutely no sponsors and had to pay all of our own expenses,” Chuan told us, talking about his early Dota days. “The Malaysian DotA environment was really bad, and sometimes you'd win a championship and still lose money.” Thus, in a sense, he always had his sights set on the mainland. “In China, Chinese teams have good salary, and you can devote your undivided attention on how to become champion. But in Malaysia you also have to think about where to get the money you need to keep playing this game so let's not even talk about becoming champion.”



Eventually, his chance came along, and Chuan jumped at it. “I got the opportunity to go to China because I'd left Nirvana.my and was playing in a Chinese inhouse league called CDEC,” said Chuan. The story, refined over the years, seems straightforward. “Then, I got to know Ksssssss who,'d just left team CH. One day he suddenly asked me whether I was interested in going to China to play professional DotA. He also told me over there, I'd get a salary. This made me want to keep playing DotA and since I could make some money, I decided to go.”



When he relates it to us, that’s all there is to it; he decided, and he went. Of course, it’s unlikely that it was anything like as simple, as anyone who’s ever coordinated a move like that will attest. If anything, the way Chuan relates events gives us some indication of the way that he approaches the world. Wong Hock Chuan is a pragmatist. He sees the playing field as it is, watches events as they unfold, and makes the right decision. When he looks back, even on his own life, he describes things as they were, without adornment or pretense.



That impression only deepens when we ask Chuan if he could name his favourite four players, to which he replied, “I haven't paid much attention to other players.” His attitude towards other players is one that is mirrored in iG’s play; no matter who they play, and no matter how far ahead or behind they may seem, iG is a team that plays its own game. Whether they are coming back from the losers’ bracket at TI2, or demolishing their competition in G-League like they did earlier this year, iG is a team that makes itself very much at home in every situation.



It would be easy to mistake that response for bluster, or even arrogance, but it’s clear from our interviews that he has never felt he was owed any glory or greatness. If there’s one thing that has shone through in our conversations with Chuan, it was a sense of gratitude for the opportunities he’s had. He is conscious of the fact that he is living the dream, and he is emminently grateful for it.



“After we won [The International 2], the feeling was of how inconceivable it all seemed,” he said. “We were simply amazed. I couldn't believe that something like this could happen to someone like me. Sometimes when I look back, I think that no matter how fantastic my daydream may have been I couldn't have imagined myself where I am today.”



In spite of his own sense of breathless wonder, it’s easy to look at the picture of Chuan holding the Aegis of Champions and take it for granted. He was, after all, a player on the best team in the world. It’s hard not to fall into the trap of teleology and think nothing of their winning the world’s most prestigious tournament. Maybe it was inevitable that he would one day hold a million dollar cheque. As we write this, iG’s continuing dominance has all but become a fundamental law of the Dota universe. A big part of iG’s invincibility, of course, is that they can play anybody, anywhere, and win. At TI2, they played teams from all over the world, and yet adapted beautifully to each outfit they faced. Knowing their opponents’ strengths and weaknesses, they exploited them beautifully in their playoff run. If, as he said earlier, Chuan is a player who hasn’t paid much attention to other players, then it hasn’t prevented him and iG from maintaining a laser focus on how other teams play. In fact, it is the very force of that attention that allowed the team to dominate The International 2, as Chuan himself explains.



“Our TI2 win was the result of much training and discussion,” said Chuan. “We thought about every opponent a lot and put together specific strategies to defeat them. For example, we had to be passive in the Game 3 vs. LGD and we had to be aggressive in Game 1 vs. Na`Vi.”



Now that he had introduced it, we took the opportunity to ask him about the finals. “[Na`Vi] were a very formidable opponent,” said Chuan. “Puppey especially. That guy's a genius.” That’s high praise, especially coming from someone who said he doesn’t pay much attention to other players. He also readily admits they iG “weren't very familiar” with the difference between the Naga Siren/Tidehunter combo in DotA and Dota 2, strengthening once again his argument that the minutiae of both games were “very, very different”. (Without getting too technical, the difference between DotA and Dota 2 in this regard, is that in the original game, the impact timing for Ravage exists through the entire spell animation, meaning that you can turn off Song of the Siren while the spikes extend underneath the enemies, stunning them as soon as Song ends, giving them no chance to use BKB. This didn’t happen in Dota 2, and Na`Vi turned the fight around on them.)



This did not stop them, however, from adapting quickly to it and responding with the now famous facerush strategy, which centers around a strong midgame oriented ganking lineup that perfectly counters what Na`Vi were trying to do in the finals. When asked about it, Chuan is quick to downplay it. “Actually, face-rush is something other people told us we'd discovered. We weren't even aware of it ourselves.”



If anything though, all serves to highlight the fact that iG is an adaptive team, a team that, like its de facto Malaysian figurehead, see a world in motion, a world that they move through, one frame, one spell, one skill at a time. From their patented facerush strategy, to the more traditional four-protect-one farm heavy style, iG plays an interpretation of Dota that transcends conventional theory about styles and lineups.



In fact, their understanding of the game is so fluid that perhaps they themselves have ceased to realise when and where the breaks are between plan and adaptation; it actually seems to happen seamlessly, from series to series and tournament to tournament. The fusion of past and present, and of China and SEA, has created an Orchestral Fantasia in iG, whose individual skill, experience, and understanding allow them to adapt to any tempo and to play any tune with perfection. They are skilled at reading their opposition and know exactly what goes where, when, and why. More importantly, they are able to execute the exact countermeasures to these plays with unrivaled finesse. They are, in effect, the Grand Magi of their world. Thus, their absolute destruction of G-League in March 2013 perhaps even went a little unnoticed. After all, the inevitable isn’t very exciting. We tried to get in touch with Chuan a day after G-League, only to learn that he was on holiday in Macau. The jokes flew back and forth in the Dota 2 staff chatroom here on TeamLiquid about what exactly the Malaysian superstar was up to in the Las Vegas of Asia. Regardless of how he spent his holiday, his stint in China’s up and coming tourist destination was symbolic of the transformation he had undergone. From his wheelchair in Kuala Lumpur, to the glittering Macau strip, Chuan had made the journey that thousands dream of. He had crossed the river.



Yesterday, he was sitting at home playing pubs.



Today, he’s helping bring home a million dollars.



He’s vacationing in Macau.



He’s wearing a suit, on national TV.







Chuan is on the other side, and it’s not just prize money that he found there. He has gone from being Chuan胖 (Chubby Chuan) to Chuan神 (Chuan-God). While chubby has always been a term of endearment in China, a country in which a little weight is seen as a sign of prosperity, it’s clear that our Malaysian hero has now well and truly risen above being described by anything as simple as his physicality.



Of course, there’s no way around the fact that Chuan’s physicality is at odds with the rest of his team, indeed, with that of the average professional Dota player. In a world of short players, with many thin almost to the point of emaciation, Chuan’s height and weight lend him a presence that other players just don’t have. The rest of iG feel somehow insubstantial by comparison, as though a stiff breeze might blow them away if not for the anchorage lent them by their most imposing member. When the team lines up to collect their winnings, the impression is that Chuan is under the effects of an active Black King Bar. Chuan is on the other side, and it’s not just prize money that he found there. He has gone from being Chuan胖 (Chubby Chuan) to Chuan神 (Chuan-God). While chubby has always been a term of endearment in China, a country in which a little weight is seen as a sign of prosperity, it’s clear that our Malaysian hero has now well and truly risen above being described by anything as simple as his physicality.Of course, there’s no way around the fact that Chuan’s physicality is at odds with the rest of his team, indeed, with that of the average professional Dota player. In a world of short players, with many thin almost to the point of emaciation, Chuan’s height and weight lend him a presence that other players just don’t have. The rest of iG feel somehow insubstantial by comparison, as though a stiff breeze might blow them away if not for the anchorage lent them by their most imposing member. When the team lines up to collect their winnings, the impression is that Chuan is under the effects of an active Black King Bar. Somehow, his broad neck and torso lend him an air of innocence and, while fans are now used to making fat jokes about him in stream chat, those same fans know that he would destroy them many times over at the game they’ve come to love. If anything, the jokes evince the swiftness and warmth with which he’s been accepted into the western scene. They underscore the fact that, from California to the CIS, Chuan has become a household name in non-Chinese Dota. In fact, it’s nigh impossible to not love him, if only because his is the ultimate Cinderella story, a story that has been immortalised in this video titled I am Chuan, this is my story.







Don’t let the cutesy animation and the catchy music fool you. It wasn't close to being that simple, regardless of how straightforward Chuan makes it sound even in his own descriptions. Though Chuan made the move from Malaysia to China in June of 2010, he didn’t morph overnight into the superstar he is today.



“At the time, I think my understanding of the game wasn't deep enough,” said Chuan, speaking of his early days in China. “Perhaps due to personal reasons, I wasn't very stable or consistent back then either.”



Over time, however, he adopted the playstyle of mainland teams, and slowly but surely became the consistent player he is today. “In Chinese Dota, the focus is on playing a tighter and more controlled game,” he said. “It’s about mentality, and what you hope to accomplish.”



When conversation strayed to those early days in China, Chuan gives some insight into just how high his expectations of his own play were, even then. “I'd played for a year, and from ToT to Deity, I hadn't managed to get my much desired championship. The best result was a second place finish, so I decided not to play anymore. I paused to reflect on what I wanted to do with my life.”



For Chuan, that moment of doubt came long after it might have for so many others. He had given up everything in pursuit of his dream, and chasing potential success far from home and into another country. He was putting in the work on a daily basis, but the results just weren’t manifesting. Then, just when things were looking bleak, it all turned around.



“However, just when I wanted to give up, YYF asked me to join LGD and told me we'd have very good chance at winning tournaments,” said Chuan. “I thought about it for a long time. My mom was very supportive of me and told me that if I had a dream, I had to chase it.”



Chuan also pauses for a rare description of Jiang "YYF" Cen, a man who was seen by many as the best all round Dota player of 2012. Having been cagey on the topic of other Dota players, Chuan opened up, “I see him as a big brother. From gaming to personal life, I've spoken to him a lot. I'm still on a team with him and he's been my teammate the longest out of any other player.” Don’t let the cutesy animation and the catchy music fool you. It wasn't close to being that simple, regardless of how straightforward Chuan makes it sound even in his own descriptions. Though Chuan made the move from Malaysia to China in June of 2010, he didn’t morph overnight into the superstar he is today.“At the time, I think my understanding of the game wasn't deep enough,” said Chuan, speaking of his early days in China. “Perhaps due to personal reasons, I wasn't very stable or consistent back then either.”Over time, however, he adopted the playstyle of mainland teams, and slowly but surely became the consistent player he is today. “In Chinese Dota, the focus is on playing a tighter and more controlled game,” he said. “It’s about mentality, and what you hope to accomplish.”When conversation strayed to those early days in China, Chuan gives some insight into just how high his expectations of his own play were, even then. “I'd played for a year, and from ToT to Deity, I hadn't managed to get my much desired championship. The best result was a second place finish, so I decided not to play anymore. I paused to reflect on what I wanted to do with my life.”For Chuan, that moment of doubt came long after it might have for so many others. He had given up everything in pursuit of his dream, and chasing potential success far from home and into another country. He was putting in the work on a daily basis, but the results just weren’t manifesting. Then, just when things were looking bleak, it all turned around.“However, just when I wanted to give up, YYF asked me to join LGD and told me we'd have very good chance at winning tournaments,” said Chuan. “I thought about it for a long time. My mom was very supportive of me and told me that if I had a dream, I had to chase it.”Chuan also pauses for a rare description of Jiang "YYF" Cen, a man who was seen by many as the best all round Dota player of 2012. Having been cagey on the topic of other Dota players, Chuan opened up, “I see him as a big brother. From gaming to personal life, I've spoken to him a lot. I'm still on a team with him and he's been my teammate the longest out of any other player.” Of course, as DotA aficionados now know, Chuan’s acceptance of YYF’s invitation, and his subsequent move to LGD signalled a change in his fortunes, “Back then, I'd just joined the team and thought all my teammates were very strong,” said Chuan. He was right. LGD’s roster in 2011 comprised of ZSMJ, CH, 830, ChuAN and YYF, a terrifying lineup. “I told myself I had to work hard and not drag them down. Later on we also won several tournaments.” It sounds offhand, almost dismissive, but those “several tournaments” would include the 2011 WCG Qualifiers, StarsWar6, and perhaps most importantly, G-League 2011 over DK, which they won.



Chuan and LGD on stage after their first big win - G-League 2011. Chuan and LGD on stage after their first big win - G-League 2011.

Those of you who have made it this far will know that, for the most part, Chuan seems to see his greatest successes as almost beyond him; The International 2 was a win that he could never have dreamed of, but when he talks about that first G-League victory it is the one time in our interview that he really steps up and owns a victory.



“After winning that, I experienced a sense of karmic justice in all my hard work paying off and all my mom's support coming through for me,” said Chuan. He and his team now stood at the absolute top of the Dota world along with CCM, a team that included the likes of Zhou, Ferrari_430, Yao, and Xiao8, many of his current teammates. In a sense, the iG we know was already there, waiting to come together to become the powerhouse it is today.



However, it was still 2011, and Chuan was still one step away from superstardom. It was a year of change for him, and indeed, iG. In August that year, iG was created by buying out the entire CCM team. Then, the organisation recruited CH, 830, YYF and ChuAN from LGD to form iG.Y, a second team. These two teams, while at the time of acquisition the best teams in the world, underperformed due to a combination of roster changes and a rising DK helmed by BurNIng. Thus, in the face of adversity, the teams would merge in November that year to form the iG we know today. “The reason for this must have been our lackluster results,” said Chuan. “We were getting stomped by DK all the time.”



In a sense, it was DK’s dominance at the time, then, that created the iG we know and love today - Zhou, Ferrari_430, YYF, Faith and Chuan. The new iG soon went on to win SMM in December 2011, one of the last major titles in the original DotA.



A juggernaut is born - iG team photo, circa 2011. A juggernaut is born - iG team photo, circa 2011.

“It was really difficult at the start,” said Chuan. “We lost essentially every single competition. Fortunately we persisted through that.” This did not stop them, however, from going back and forth between the two games. As we all know, in August 2012 they took TI2 to by storm.



Then, though it went under the radar for much of the Dota 2 scene in the West, they returned home to China to take the ACE DotA League championship in September. If, as Chuan says, professional players in one game cannot even be compared with their counterparts in the other, then this underlines the fact that iG were in effect able to conquer two separate worlds, moving with ease and panache through the professional scenes of both games, and picking them apart, one frame at a time. In August and September 2012, they proved once and for all that they were, in every sense of the word, masters of the minutiae. Those of you who have made it this far will know that, for the most part, Chuan seems to see his greatest successes as almost beyond him; The International 2 was a win that he could never have dreamed of, but when he talks about that first G-League victory it is the one time in our interview that he really steps up and owns a victory.“After winning that, I experienced a sense of karmic justice in all my hard work paying off and all my mom's support coming through for me,” said Chuan. He and his team now stood at the absolute top of the Dota world along with CCM, a team that included the likes of Zhou, Ferrari_430, Yao, and Xiao8, many of his current teammates. In a sense, the iG we know was already there, waiting to come together to become the powerhouse it is today.However, it was still 2011, and Chuan was still one step away from superstardom. It was a year of change for him, and indeed, iG. In August that year, iG was created by buying out the entire CCM team. Then, the organisation recruited CH, 830, YYF and ChuAN from LGD to form iG.Y, a second team. These two teams, while at the time of acquisition the best teams in the world, underperformed due to a combination of roster changes and a rising DK helmed by BurNIng. Thus, in the face of adversity, the teams would merge in November that year to form the iG we know today. “The reason for this must have been our lackluster results,” said Chuan. “We were getting stomped by DK all the time.”In a sense, it was DK’s dominance at the time, then, that created the iG we know and love today - Zhou, Ferrari_430, YYF, Faith and Chuan. The new iG soon went on to win SMM in December 2011, one of the last major titles in the original DotA.“It was really difficult at the start,” said Chuan. “We lost essentially every single competition. Fortunately we persisted through that.” This did not stop them, however, from going back and forth between the two games. As we all know, in August 2012 they took TI2 to by storm.Then, though it went under the radar for much of the Dota 2 scene in the West, they returned home to China to take the ACE DotA League championship in September. If, as Chuan says, professional players in one game cannot even be compared with their counterparts in the other, then this underlines the fact that iG were in effect able to conquer two separate worlds, moving with ease and panache through the professional scenes of both games, and picking them apart, one frame at a time. In August and September 2012, they proved once and for all that they were, in every sense of the word, masters of the minutiae. We ask him about his team, and he is once again brief, though we are more than used to this by now. “I feel we're like family living together every day. From gaming to personal life we discuss and explore together.”



Chuan with iG after their ACE DotA League win in September 2012. Chuan with iG after their ACE DotA League win in September 2012.

We then stepped into 2013, and Dota fans from around the world gathered to watch the G-League finals. While there can be no doubt that many of us rooted for LGD.int, the great foreign hope, it’s no overstatement to say that iG’s overwhelming skill left the majority of the 50,000 viewers on the live stream in awe. “Unbeatable” was the refrain throughout the display, at first in shock, but eventually in a sort of hushed reverence. If game four was some of the best Dota we’ve seen all year, and if LGD.int was indeed the best team the rest of the world had to offer at the time, iG was better.



Still, this was not the Western world’s first encounter with iG. At The International 2, iG was the nebulous Eastern war machine that people loved to hate even as they rooted for fan favourites like Na`vi. iG came to us from behind the Great Firewall last August, when we were first introduced to a pudgy Chuan, and a shy, if not reserved, Ferrari_430. We didn’t know them, though. They were the enemy, the faceless void. Yet there we were, just half a year later, making food jokes about the the chubby support as though he’d been a beloved figure of the scene for years.



The truth, then, is that 2012-2013 hasn’t just been the year of iG. It’s been the year of Wong Hock Chuan. If the picture of him holding the Aegis of Champions above his head marks the beginning of iG’s worldwide reign, then their March 2013 G-League win represents a victory lap, solidifying the team’s dominance. iG, and by extension Chinese Dota, is here to stay.



We ask him what was left out of This is my story. What would he talk about if he had more time? “I think I would talk about my family, a single-parent family, and how my mom raised me.” His answer is short, as always, but the picture is clear. Chuan comes from resilience, from persistence, from courage in the face of adversity, and though he is now a superstar, he carries with him an easygoing simplicity that perhaps stems from his humble beginnings. We then stepped into 2013, and Dota fans from around the world gathered to watch the G-League finals. While there can be no doubt that many of us rooted for LGD.int, the great foreign hope, it’s no overstatement to say that iG’s overwhelming skill left the majority of the 50,000 viewers on the live stream in awe. “Unbeatable” was the refrain throughout the display, at first in shock, but eventually in a sort of hushed reverence. If game four was some of the best Dota we’ve seen all year, and if LGD.int was indeed the best team the rest of the world had to offer at the time, iG was better.Still, this was not the Western world’s first encounter with iG. At The International 2, iG was the nebulous Eastern war machine that people loved to hate even as they rooted for fan favourites like Na`vi. iG came to us from behind the Great Firewall last August, when we were first introduced to a pudgy Chuan, and a shy, if not reserved, Ferrari_430. We didn’t know them, though. They were the enemy, the faceless void. Yet there we were, just half a year later, making food jokes about the the chubby support as though he’d been a beloved figure of the scene for years.The truth, then, is that 2012-2013 hasn’t just been the year of iG. It’s been the year of Wong Hock Chuan. If the picture of him holding the Aegis of Champions above his head marks the beginning of iG’s worldwide reign, then their March 2013 G-League win represents a victory lap, solidifying the team’s dominance. iG, and by extension Chinese Dota, is here to stay.We ask him what was left out of This is my story. What would he talk about if he had more time? “I think I would talk about my family, a single-parent family, and how my mom raised me.” His answer is short, as always, but the picture is clear. Chuan comes from resilience, from persistence, from courage in the face of adversity, and though he is now a superstar, he carries with him an easygoing simplicity that perhaps stems from his humble beginnings. We ask him what he wants from the future. “I want to able to do what I enjoy every day,” he says. “I want to be able to live together with the person I love most and my mom.”



Though Chuan is of Chinese descent, he is from Malaysia, and is, in a sense, a foreigner on the Chinese team. Though he is without a doubt one of the most integral parts of iG, he was unable to play for them at the World Cyber Games 2012. Since he carries a Malaysian passport, he could not represent China. Rules are rules, of course, but the situation casts a melancholic shadow, one that shows Chuan in the role of outsider on the otherwise all-Chinese team.



However, when issues of nationality came up in our interview, Chuan made it clear that he takes a great deal of pride in having been the only foreigner to have been as successful as he has been in China.



We speak about fame and its many trappings. Do you get recognized by fans often when going out? we ask him. “There are too many people in China,” said Chuan. “Once, at the airport, we were waiting in a really long line to get our boarding passes. Then an employee came up to me and asked if I was ChuaN. When I told him I was, he took me to a station that wasn't open and helped me through the usual procedures. Then he printed two boarding passes--one for me to board and one for me to give my autograph on. When I went to security check, the security guard recognized me as well when he checked my passport. He got another customs declaration card and asked me for my autograph as well. I must admit this was the first time I gave autographs on a boarding pass and customs declaration card.”



His fandom is growing outside of China as well. An enthusiastic streamer, you often see Chuan queuing for games and chatting to his English viewers. In fact, he told us that he feels that in terms of enthusiasm, his Western fans are right up there with their Chinese counterparts. “I feel it's the same kind of enthusiasm. I must thank them for the support they have shown towards me!”



Fans now await the presence of of iG at TI3 with bated breath, and news of them being invited to the event was met with mass euphoria across the Western scene. Worlds collided at the last The International last year, and if iG and the rest of China were the feared, foreign unknown at the event, they will come to Seattle this year as old friends.



As our interviews with Chuan wound down, we slipped in a question. If you could now have a conversation with the ChuaN who had just started playing Dota, what would it be about? The reply came quickly, the hanzi quickly repeating itself across our screen.



Persistence, persistence and more persistence.



Despite feeling wronged, despite the bitter training. Indeed, persistence is a much brandished word these days, particularly in eSports, and yet perhaps no one knows its true meaning as much as Wong Hock Chuan.



In fact, at one point we asked him about what he does in his Dota downtime, a question that appeared to puzzle him. “Due to the lack of tournaments, we haven't been training much. However, we're going to enter a preparation phase soon, so I have to say that outside Dota 2 there is just Dota 2.”



Finally, we asked him about how iG trains. “If we're preparing for a big tournament like The International, we start training at noon and stop when there are no teams left to scrim against,” he said.





It is as we were tying up this article that Invictus Gaming received their invitation to The International 3. This picture, taken just moments after they received the coveted missive, is telling. There is an aura of happiness around the five of them, of course, but there is also, above all, a feeling of inevitability. They look, in a word, bored. It’s not even that they knew they were going to get invited. As defending champions, they certainly were going to be flown to Seattle this year. It’s something even deeper than that. As you look from superstar to superstar and see their calm, nonchalant faces, you realise that TI3 is, in a sense, iG’s to lose.



Perhaps the most telling part of all this, however, is this - standing behind his four teammates, a head and shoulders above nearly all of them, is Chuan. He stood behind them through a gruelling TI2 bracket, stood in front of them on the stage when they were crowned champions, and will now stand behind them again as they head towards another victory.



This confidence, of course, is once again tempered by Chuan’s trademark humility. “We have to let ourselves know that having won it once doesn't mean we're going to win again,” he says.



He is their face, their forcestaff and their fulcrum, the point at which all four of his teammates converge and meet to make iG the best Dota 2 team in the world. He is the foundation of iG, the weathered old wizard who can stand tall in the maelstrom and steal the right spells, and liberate the right abilities to get the job done. He, like the rest of iG, are on the best team in the world because they are able to stand firm in a universe that is in flux.



In closing, we ask him to describe his team’s playstyle to us.



“We play however we need to play to win,” he says, and in the stark white glow of the skype chat window, the statement looks deceptively simple.



When we spoke to Dendi for our first All Pick article just after The International 2, we suggested that the one thing Dota needed to thrust Dota 2 into the spotlight in the West was a hook, and, we asked then, who better to deliver it than the man with the signature Pudge play? Now, as teams receive their invitations to The International 3, that spotlight is already lit. For the time being, Chuan is waiting in the wings once again. He was center stage last August, along with the rest of iG, but he’s here again now, in familiar territory, off to one side, on the edge of the fight, watching it all unfold. He’s watching and waiting, knowing that he is the master of his, and indeed, their fate, and that it is by his hand that they will rise or fall once again.



Invictus Gaming will be there in Seattle this August to defend their title, and we can be sure that the world will throw every available spell at them in pursuit of the same.



But that’s the thing about spells – they can be stolen.

Editor: heyoka

Gfx: Meko, vykromond, heyoka

Translations: CtChocula, kupon3ss

Images:



Note: check out our previous All Pick on Na`Vi's Danil "Dendi" Ishutin, and rest assured that more APs will be coming your way soon!



Writers: riptide, SirJolt, kupon3ssEditor: heyokaGfx: Meko, vykromond, heyokaTranslations: CtChocula, kupon3ssImages: BnJx (Rubick's mind), Valve (TI2 images), CNFrag (ACE League images), Invictus Gaming (iG team images)Note: check out our previous All Pick on, and rest assured that more APs will be coming your way soon!



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