Singapore Expo, License2Play

SCOGA HoN 5v5 Competition
From the 28th to the 30th of May, SCOGA held a 5v5 HoN Qualifier tournament @ License2Play 2010 which was hosted in the Singapore Expo. The champions of this tournament walked away with tickets to represent Singapore at the Digital Youth Awards being held at the Shanghai Expo in mid august, as well as tickets to attend Dreamhack Winter 2010 in november, the largest Lan-gaming competition in the world.

I went down to cover the finals with a substitute photographer (one of my original picks having to cover a wedding, and the other having deserted me to play at a cybercafé and deciding to simply lend a complete rookie his camera) and managed to get to talk to some of the competition managers, participants and ultimately get an exclusive interview with the champions.

One of the highlight plays of the finals as Team Princess Council aids its Chronos in a GENOCIDE fetching fountain dive

HuaHero from SCOGA quickly brought my up to speed on the progress of the competition upon my arrival. According to him, the starting few days saw the elimination of all but the final 3 outstanding teams, with large crowds coming down to check out a new game and observe the matches. We gathered with a small crowd around a large spectator monitor to observe the games as they progressed in real time.

The final three teams competed in a Round Robbins Tournament style with each team playing against the other two teams one after another, the winner being whoever won 2 games straight. Due to the champion’s dominance, it only took 3 games before the winner was decided.
These three finalists were:

1.    Team ABC / AKA Team Darkness (WinterWar DotaSG Tournament)

2.    Team DSD / Aka Mianbao

3.    Team Princess Council IV / AKA Team Babe / AKA Team GAL

The Final Lineups & Scoresheet

WINNER	vs
	vs	WINNER
	vs	WINNER

 
Princess Council Takes Championship

Contestants await

After the final match I had a brief talk with the runner ups and Team ABC / AKA Team Darkness believes Princess Council to be “the team to beat, the best in Singapore”. With such a lofty title to defend, you can be sure to see the Princess Council working to remain on its throne.

Team DSD, 2nd Runner up

And what competition would be complete without a prize giving ceremony. The players from the 2nd runner up team received a Razor goodie bag and a surface from Razor.

Team ABC, 1st Runner up

 1st runner ups went home with the same goodie bag as well as a new keyboard each.

Team Princess Council, Champions, wondering why player Ken (extreme right) always wears that jacket to play

Ironically the champion’s prize looked the least gaudy and the least rewarding beside the bags and boxes brought home by the runner ups. But the tiny envelope brought home by each of them was certainly worth its weight in gold, granting them air tickets to the Shanghai World Expo as well as Sweden’s Dreamhack Winter 2010 for all 5 players.

Interview with the Champions, The Princess Council

Ladymelissa (extreme right) : Hey Ryurial, why you so sexy? (well, no they didnt say that, they asked why i was so short)

After the prize giving ceremony I managed to get the champions to give DuskBin a sneak preview into their lives and the team as a whole. Their 5th player, Ken, was unable to attend, having more important things to do, such as eat.

Ryu : So, I’ve really gotta ask you guys,  why ARE you called the Princess Council, all of you appear to be guys.

Ladymelissa : *Laughs* we thought it would be more embarrassing for our opponents to lose to a team called Princess Council.

Ryu : So you are called Ladymelissa, What about the rest of your team? Do they all have female alter egos?

Ladymelissa : No la. Our lineup is Ladymelissa, me as leader, MissSally, BakaBen, Ken, Capellzor.

BakaBen wondering : How'd my Chipper die... Again...

Ryu : How long have you guys been playing as a team?

Ladymelissa : Actually, the first day of this competition was our first day meeting Ken. But yeah, the rest of us have been together for quite awhile.

Ken, Who went to eat.

Ryu : Right, so how did you guys get together?

MissSally : Actually we last time play WoW and Dota together. Won some WoW Tournament. Also, we competed against Ken’s team in the Winter War HoN competition organized by Dotasg.

Ryu : What do you look forward to in your upcoming overseas competitions? (Shanghai,Sweden)

Ladymelissa : Winning

Ryu : So in order to win, what kind of team trainings will you guys be having in order to prepare?

Ladymelissa : Oh actually, we are already scrimming against teams like Dwi, PoL, T7h quite regularly.

Ryu : That’s quite impressive, your PSRs must be quite high then.

Ladymelissa : *laughs* Quite.

MissSally : You aint seen my 2k PSR bro, is smexy

Ryu : Do you guys feel pressured to perform since you are the only team that will be representing Singapore to these international events?

Ladymelissa : Nope
*group laughs*

Bakaben : *points at Capellzor* Only he is anxious.

Capellzor : *looks at his knees*

Capellzor : >.<

Ryu : So what are your day jobs when you guys aren’t kicking ass in HoN?

Ladymelissa : I’m going for national service soon, Capellzor is currently doing an internship, MissSally is still in Poly, And Ben is studying as well.

Ryu : Are you guys looking forward to playing in Garena HoN and being part of the community?

Ladymelissa : Not sure about that yet, never gave it much thought.

Ryu : Aite, that's a wrap. I'm hungry.


And so we concluded our interview. What followed was lunch and drinks. And the rest, as they say, is history.