Year when gamer started competitive/pro gaming: 2005 (DOTA)
Favorite Gaming Hardware (e.g. mouse,keyboard - please mention brand): Logitech G5 Mouse
Major Tournaments Won/Ranked In:

Rapture Gaming Season 1 (2004) – 2nd Runner-Up
Games Xtreme League Season 2 DOTA (2005) – Champion
Games Xtreme League Season 3 DOTA (2005) – 2nd Runner-Up
Rapture Gaming Season 2 (Nov 2005) – Champion
E-Games $10,000 DOTA Tournament (Dec 2005) – Champion
E2Max Overnight New Year DOTA Tournament (Dec 2005/Jan 2006) – Champion
SengKang CC Tournament @ E2Max (Mar 2006) – Champion
ESWC Singapore qualifiers @ Asteroids (Apr 2006) – Champion
WCG Singapore qualifiers @ Lanlab Online (May 2006) – Champion
CAPL Spring Season (May 2006) – Champion
ESWC Singapore finals (May 2006) – Champion
WGT qualifiers @ Ngee Ahn Poly (July 2006) - Champion
GXL Season 1 (July 2006) - Champion
CAPL Summer Season (August 2006) - Champion
Asian WCG (August 2006) - 2nd Runner-Up
CPL Singapore DOTA Event (September 2006) - Champion
TKA World DOTA tournament (October 2006) - 2nd Runner-Up
Zion.Net Malaysia Call Of The Wardrum Challenge (October 2006) - Champion
CAPL Autum Season (November 2006) - Champion
GXL Season 2 (December 2006) - Champion
RGN Season 3 (December 2006) - Champion
Intel Gaming Cup (May 2007) - Champion
CAPL Spring Season (June 2007) - Champion
Batu Pahat Resurgence Tournament (July 2007) - 1st Runner-Up
CAPL Summer Season (July 2007) - Champion
WCG Singapore (August 2007) - 1st Runner-Up

The Genesis of a Passion

I played my first computer game, Red Alert, when I was just 10 years old. I still remember the game’s first Allied campaign mission that I spent a good amount of time figuring out (I jumped into it without the manual) – the thrill of navigating the Colt-blazing, C4-strapped Tanya through the Cruiser-sieged tundra kept me going for hours on end.

I took part in my first gaming competition at the tender age of 13. At the time, I played lots of Counter-strike (CS), and formed a small team with my brother and some other gamers we met online. Bored of just playing casually online, we decided to take part in small LAN shop tournament to pit our skills against other teams in the scene. My brother (11 at the time) and I had to be the youngest players around that day; most of the competitors were in their late teens. Nervous and excited, I focused intensely on the matches that day. The competition didn’t go too well for my team (think an accidental weapon switch during a crucial defuse), but it had opened my eyes to the world of competitive gaming.

I dabbled with a few other games over the following years, finally finding my calling in the popular Warcraft III custom map, Defense of the Ancients (DOTA), in 2005. I was in my fourth year of secondary school then, scheduled to take my GCE ‘O’-Level examinations at the end of the year. Nonetheless, I decided to form a team with my brother and a group of friends that year to take part in Singapore’s first DOTA LAN League, organized by Rapture Gaming. My expectations weren’t particularly high when I entered the league, but my team’s successive win in the round-robin stages reversed my pessimistic outlook. By the time we hit the LAN playoffs at the previous LanLab at Thomson Road, I was brimming with anticipation, preparing myself for my first big win. My championship dreams were dashed after my team’s loss against the Bonkers in the semi-finals, but getting that far was in itself a great accomplishment to me.

The Yellow Brick Road

Encouraged by my team’s performance in the tourney, I continued venture into competitive DOTA. I played under DsD for a few months in 2005 and then under mVp later in the year, switching team line-ups every few competitions. It was only in November that year that I formed my dream team – what many long-time DOTA players might remember as the definitive team mVp – comprising Ant, Ice, Lux, Tofuboi (my younger brother) and me. We made our début in the $10,000 E-Games DOTA Tournament that month, mowing down the competition (think 53 to single-digit enemy kill scores) to clinch the top prize.

Things took off pretty quickly after that. We stuck together as a team, with me as the captain (presumably due to my aptitude for administration), sweeping every local competition for the following 9 months. In September 2006, with some help from Herman from Rapture Gaming, we secured a corporate sponsorship from HP and AMD and officially declared ourselves Team Zenith. We made our debut in the World Cyber Games (WCG) Asian Championships in that month.

Of Highs and Lows

The Asian Championships of 2006 was, and still is, the most memorable gaming tournament of my entire career. It was the first regional DOTA Tournament on LAN, with prominent teams from countries like the Philippines and Malaysia flying down to Singapore to compete. It had long been my dream to pit my skills against world-class gamers from other countries; the Asian Championships was my window of opportunity. It was the first time I had entered a competition with the backing of corporate sponsors, and that certainly heightened the degree of pressure I put on myself. What more, I had a team reputation to defend – Zenith (or the previous mVp, if you prefer), the undefeated kings of Singaporean DOTA – and I had no intention of giving it up.

We played hard in the competition, making it through the round robin stages with ease. The top 32 and 16 matches were relatively uneventful, but the top 8 match was truly the highlight of the entire tournament. We were up against Filipino juggernauts (I forgot their team name back then, had to be 123 or some kind of numerical sequence) and our match was played on the grand stage for all to see. I played my very best that game, driven by a strong sense of team and national pride. My finest play that game was I outmaneuvered a Queen of Pain with my Rogue Knight in the top lane forest – the ecstatic cheering and applause from the crowd as I executed my move made it all the more memorable. We overwhelmed our Filipino opponents in less than forty minutes, taking the victory for Singapore.

Our joy was not to last for long. After beating the prominent Filipino team in the quarter finals, we lost to a fellow Singaporean team in subsequent semi-finals, bringing our nine-month win streak to an end. For the first time in nearly a year, my team and I tasted defeat, and boy, did it taste nasty. We ended up settling for third place in the championships, weary and disappointed.

Moving On

My team’s loss at the Asian Championships that year was by no means marked an end to our success – we remained dominant in the DOTA scene in the follow year. We brought in some new team members (xMusica, zx, NutZ) and switched rosters here and there, still keeping up a good track record of tournament wins.

However, I began to find it difficult to keep up with the pace of the team. My academic workload increased as I embarked on my second year at Raffles Junior College, and my time outside of classes was increasingly being filled by extra-curricular activities. I was a member of the school Track & Field team (I threw the javelin), and I trained up to three to four times a week to better my distance. I took up dance externally, and practiced regularly for competitions and performances. It became harder and harder to juggle DOTA with all of these time-consuming commitments, and sooner of later, I knew that something had to go.

In July 2007, I made my choice. My mid-year exams had just concluded, and I knew that it was time to focus on the impending GCE ‘A’-Level examinations. DOTA had to go. The decision wasn’t an easy one to make, especially after seeing the team through so much. However, the pragmatist in me took control, and I decided to make the painful sacrifice. After my final tournament with Zenith in Malaysia that month, I officially pulled out of the team.

The Next Chapter

I never did return to the team after my examinations. Instead, I chose to explore my other interests, namely dance, as I served my National Service over the next two years. As fulfilling as it has been, I will always look back on my days in competitive gaming with a sense of nostalgia. Sometimes, I even find myself wanting to go back. A part of me will always be drawn to the thrill and adrenaline of an intense tournament match. Perhaps one day, I will answer that call – to once again be known as GPS.