Gamer Focus: Benedict

Gamer Focus: Benedict

5168 times Written by: RGN on 2010-01-12

 

Who is Benedict Lim Han Yong?

Perhaps the nick “HYHY” (you pronounce the letters individually, isn’t “hi-hi”) would be more familiar to many. A mainstay in the Singaporean DOTA competitive community, he had his humble origins in team Micronology, a team that rose from being relatively unknown to consistently getting to the final stages of competitions to finally ousting Zenith to represent Singapore for the Asian Cyber Games in 2007.

In the wake of Micronology’s destruction shortly after, Hyhy was swiftly picked up to join team Zenith, where he gained international renown, and won the ESWC 2008 world finals. Zenith, shortly after that, disbanded. Hyhy joined Kingsurf, ironically taking only a few months to replace nearly the entire of Kingsurf’s lineup with his ex-Zenith and ex-Micronology teammates.

Cue more East-West internet wars, a fast growing fan base, and being part of teams that always have a different name but eventually ended up with roughly the same players. HY, currently 20 and studying at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, is perhaps the most well-known and most commented of player in Singapore. He was last spotted playing for team Aeon.

So, of course, he is the prime candidate for my first interview. Lest the above writeup is not enough background information, HY has already been interviewed repeatedly, and I found that it wasn’t in my best interest to bore him with questions that he could answer by copy-pasting answers he had already given.

There are no introductions, no formalities required through Windows Live Messenger. Probing HY for an opening statement, he is quick to advertise his team’s needs.

Me: Do you have anything first that you would like to say which you think people should know?

HY:  I’ll let you in on a few. Aeon is looking for a last now. CARRIES ONLY.

HY: Got lots of people spamming us for a slot. WTF.

HY: We set quite a few rules on getting players actually.

HY: Like you know people whose problems with their studies could be a hindrance… we don’t take them.

Me: What other talents do you have?

HY: Talents I have?

HY: I’m a PERFECT BOYFRIEND.

HY: zzz… Now I realize I’ve got no other talents but gaming.

Me: What facial care products do you use?

HY: Face wash. I change that once in 2 months.

The budget in question unfortunately, he is rather reluctant to provide. I decide to throw one more random question before getting on with the meat of the interview. He is, after all, a DotA player.

Me: What would you do if you quit dota?

HY: Get my career going, earn as much money as I can, and marry my dream girl HY.

For added clarification, the HY interviewed is currently attached to a girl (sorry guys, he’s not gay) of the same initials.

After SMM 2009 at the end of last year, news was released that HY had retired from competitive DotA. However, having met up with him in the Singapore DotA Clan War Room in Garena, I was prompted to explore further.

Me (after mentioning the above news): What is your current status with Aeon and Competitive DotA?

HY: I never mentioned quitting Aeon, or DotA, or retirement. I simply had to go inactive for a while. I was actually working and studying at the same time, so I really had no time.

HY: But recently, I got a long break from school till I think around April, which means I have time for gaming again!

Me: How do you usually handle your team?

HY: I’m the Hitler in all the teams I’ve played in :D, Help me phrase that nicely.

Which I didn’t.

HY: I guess my teammates all respect me enough. There aren’t any power struggles.

Me: So who usually makes the roster changing decisions?

HY: Roster changes are decided in unison.

HY: Like “HEY WE CAN GET ICEICEICE LETS GET HIM”

HY: It has always been Tofu, Roy, and Me, looking for 2 carries.

The last statement might seem strange. HY has had his fair share of reliability carrying his team to victory. I explore further.

Me: So, why don’t you play carry?

HY: I don’t wanna carry. Farming and ricing isn’t that much for me. The only carry I’ll play is QOP or SF or POTM.

HY: Because when I’m not playing carry, no one plays my role better than I do.

Me: What role is that?

To answer this question, HY copies a couple of his fans’ post into the conversation, passing remarks about how they pwn and stuff. The general gist of it, to quote, is “HYHY plays best as ganker”.

Me: So, what’s in a good ganker.

HY: Confidence! Being cocky is good at times.

HY: Just a few criterion to be a good ganker actually.

HY: 1. Know opponent’s vision at night and in the day.

HY: 2. Intelligence.

HY: That’s all. You just got to use your brains. Don’t do what people expect you to do.

HY: Show face, then next second hide and TP.

I cite the example of HY’s Tiny in his victory over team Cybertime in the recent SMM tournament. A wary SF at top lane refused to go within HY’s striking range, so in a perfectly choreographed move, he TP’ed to bottom lane, used all his spells in front of the opponent’s Slardar, and immediately got recalled back to top lane by a KOTL to meet up with a surprised SF who thought it was finally safe to farm.

HY: Things like that are common in my team already.

HY: They are all smart players, so the rest of them can come up with pretty similar stuff.

HY: Tofu is very smart at warding and things like that, and saving spells.

HY: They excel as much as I do in their respective roles.

Deciding that a topic of interest might be the recent SMM tournament, I move on to the next topic. During SMM, the two carries that Aeon brought in were d4rKn3s5zr3b0rN from Axis previously, and Bouncy, HY’s teammate from Micronology and Zenith who had not played competitive DotA since the previous year’s SMM.

Me: I understand that Bouncy was rather reluctant to play and that you took a significant risk in taking him in since he had not played competitive DotA for a really long time. Didn’t you have other options?

HY: There weren’t any good Singaporean players who were available on such short notice.

Me: Malaysians?

HY: Tofu has a language barrier. So we rather not take Malaysians.

HY: And from past experiences teaming with KS people, we learn that it’s hard to find Malaysians who fit in with our style of gameplay and command.

Since he seems to have an abundant excess of DotA knowledge that he will possibly never share, I get him to elaborate further.

Me: Gameplay?

HY: DotA gameplay is something like Risk.

HY: You cover map areas, you ward them, and you mark your territories and guard them.

HY: By doing so, you have more vision, more farming space, and rune control.

HY: And if you can maintain the control, you win the game. That’s it.

Me: So would you rather play with everyone with wards on the map or no wards at all?

HY: WTF you idiot.

HY: Of course no wards.

HY: So you use more brains and less eyes.

HY: So smart people will win.

HY: CT is good because they have a super good warder.

HY: Provides them with imba vision so their ricers can get fat.

HY: So we’ve been coming up with strats that involve gem or mass sentry to fight them.

HY: But it’s hard. They ain’t dumb.

Perhaps it is time to wind down, with some more generic questions.

Me: Name 3 players in Singapore that are better than you.

The long lapse of silence makes me re-word my question.

Me: Name 3 players in Singapore who can do what you can’t.

HY: Crispy roy and Tofu. They fill up the things I lack and make the team perfect.

HY has been sporting the same red Razer Copperhead and Razer Tarantula keyboard for all his competitions, which explains the next question.

Me: Are you very particular about your gaming equipment setup?

HY: I can’t play without my own equipment. So I go everywhere with full equipment, regardless of how big or small the competition is.

HY: Every bit of mouse sensitivity matters man.

HY: And I play 50% skill level on normal screens and 100% on wide screens.

Me: Any thoughts about China’s domination of the scene?

HY: OH. Everyone is going that FTD is #1 team. SMM champions.

HY: Fact is, we’ll beat them any day on a consistent basis.

HY: FTD ISN’T #1

A claim that perhaps can’t be tested yet, because Aeon is still sorely lacking of a last player.

Me: How about the international community? Why did you stop playing international competitions?

HY: We stopped after winning F4F #2. Around the end of 2008.

HY: Didn’t really get much satisfaction from winning the league.

HY: Prizes are too little for the time spent on the efforts settling hosting issues and scheduling.

HY: The game itself isn’t a problem.

Me: How about the Singaporean competitive community?

HY: I think there are a lot of teams with potential.

HY: Teams know how to draft now. You can’t just go into a game, draft anyhow, and win.

HY: Or people are finally learning what’s keeping them from winning.

At this point, the interview has perhaps gone long enough. Further chatting with HY reveals more about his roster plans and perhaps more interesting questions for when I do an interview with Aeon some time in the future. Perhaps in the future, more of HY’s trade secrets can be probed into.