Meet Pham Xuan Lam 'BiRen' - HoN is more than a game, it's friendship

General Information:

Full name: Pham Xuan Lam
Nickname: BiRen/cwazyniggah/OneManShow`
Date of Birth: October 20th 1986
Occupation: Employee of the bank
Competition Honors:
DotA:
• The 2nd Prize of VEC 2007
• The 1st Prize of ADC II Vietnam 2008
HoN:
• Top 4 SEA MYM Tournament
• The 1st Prize of Boba eSports Tournament II
Other talents: Adapt quickly to any situation
Favorite quote: "How to lose badly!"
Favorite stuff: My laptop and Razer DeathAdder mouse
Describe yourself: Honest and frank

RGN: How did you come to competitive DotA?

BiRen: I have played DotA since 2003. At that time, I was studying abroad in Australia and competed in the clan How To Lose (hTL). I’ve won some championships. In 2006, I graduated from college, came back to Vietnam and set up a team named hTL.vn. After the disbanding of hTL.vn, I attended to some teams such as NetViet, proA, Vie and King Game.

 

RGN: In hTL.vn team, you was hTL.vn_zeus’s mentor in DotA (Zeus is current editor-in-chief of Garena.vn), wasn’t you?

BiRen: Not really. Back then, I was in Vietnam after a long time studying abroad, so I didn’t have many friends. I played in NetViet cybercafe and hosted a game named “Who want to play 1 vs 1?” to show my level and find new friends. Zeus and one of his friends went into that game, and I had to play against both of them. Of course, I lost. Then I instructed Zeus to play DotA in supporter role with my experience and my play style.

Everyone has their own first steps. At that time, I also had skills but my teamwork was not good at all. Zeus was young, but he had a very good tactical mind. But I didn’t play with him much. The most memorable memory with Zeus was when I disguised to play for his team in his high school tournament. The feeling to be back at school was great! When Zeus and my teammate prepared to take the examination for university access, I said that “if you guys pass, I will take you to the cinema”. Although we did not know the result yet, we had a great time at Megastar cinema in Hanoi!

 

Pham Xuan Lam (middle) with team hTL.vn

RGN: Why do you come to Heroes of Newerth?

BiRen: I played HoN when this game was not released as a MMO. Initially I was very impressed with the beautiful graphics and the fast pace of the game. Besides, there were new systems that DotA did not have as Reconnect system, stats system, etc. I decided not to go back to DotA.

In the first period of playing HoN, I joined inRage (iR) with a friend named hiepBENH, with some friends in Singapore like Avyalesca, and especially the girl that I loved, named Mischa. After that, I formed a team named True Killing Style (KyL) and gained some successes in Vietnam.

Members of KyL had very good skills. However, when a team has too many “stars”, they will lack of uniformity of opinion. Everyone has a personal reason to play his style. Although had much regret, I had to disband KyL team. In KyL, many people did not really trust me because they did not much understand me, that’s why they played their own way which was extremely hydrophobic in any eSports! But it is an opportunity for me to achieve success with other teams in the future.

 

RGN: What team are you in?

BiRen: I’m playing for ‘Why Should We Win’ team; the team has many of my friends. They’ve brought my fun and comfort back to me. The team members were trained by me from the time HoN released. I feel very comfortable now, though the members of my team do not have much improvement, probably because of their incompetent mentor. (Laugh)

 

BiRen: I love going to cafe with friends to discuss business ideas, tactics in games, and funny actions of the players I’ve ever met. I also like playing sports, reading psychological books and love to be surrounded by many girls!

 

RGN: I heard you are lucky in love. Are your flirting skills very good?

BiRen: Actually, any man would also like to have many fans, if not the other players, they must be the girls. When I lived in Australia, I had a habit of guiding my girlfriend understands games that I loved to expect them to understand and love who I am. I’m not special person. However, I want to share a secret which is very effective when you need to please a girl, that is: Honesty is the best policy. Honesty is the best way to win the hearts of women.

 

RGN: Does your job affect much to your time for HoN?

BiRen: I still have a lot of free time. This time, I’m spending more time to complete my MBA thesis and train HoN. I’m pretty good at distributing time and talking smart to make my girlfriend calm down.

 

RGN: You have had a trip to Singapore to attend to the HoN tournament in TGX 2011. Did you have any special memories of that trip?

BiRen: Singapore is one of the greatest countries in the world. When I was studying in Australia, I had to transit in Singapore airport to get back to Vietnam many times, but this was my first time visiting this place. But my first impression for Singapore was not really good, when my taxi driver told us that: “It will take you guys 10 minutes from airport to your place by bus, so why you didn’t use bus? You guys are wasting my time!”

In Singapore, I and hiepBENH met my old teammates in the team iR, who were Fidz (XTN) and some friends including Adrian (Hey`man), Bryan (DivinePanda)... We had a BBQ dinner until 3 o’clock in the morning and prompted the police for making noise.

Unfortunately at this trip as I have not met Mischa, the girl I once loved and was the only girl play games well that I know. Besides, I didn’t met Avy, a player who made me feel deeply impressive.

Pham Xuan Lam 'BiRen' (lower, first from the left) with team SB in TGX 11

RGN: When will you stop playing HoN?

BiRen: I can hardly say about it. Game is part of my life. Why do you have to give up the things made you happy and comfortable?

 

RGN: To end this interview, will you have a word for your friend?

BiRen: I want to thank RGN by conducting this interview. I want to thank sincerely to Fidz because he was enthusiastic to take us to visit Singapore. Thanks Adrian and his girlfriend, Jolie was waiting for us to go eating. Thank hiepBENH has always stood by me for many years. Thank DivinePanda for the great things we do in Singapore!