Tracking A brief history of the dominant SG DotA teams

Tracking. A brief history of the dominant SG DotA teams

Throughout Singaporean DotA history, there have been players going in and out, teams have changed names, and different teams have been dominant at different periods. The purpose of this is simply to summarize and track the players of the top few teams of each era of Singaporean DotA.

The information below is a rather dry list of names, and is meant to be represented clearer in charts and other nicer formats... but I do have to start somewhere. This article is meant to be a reference point for other future articles, and you really don't have to read through the entire thing. It is meant to be used as a reference for charts and graphs.

We shall start at the first version 6 competitions, because there was no clear dominant team in the version 5 era. Winners changed every single competition.

4th Quarter 2005 – 1st Quarter 2006: Early version 6 era

The first few version 6 competitions established a very clear set of dominant teams. Pretty much every single competition had the same winners.

1st – mVp
2nd – dN*

mVp members:

GPS – Stayed active until last quarter of 2006, but played for Zenith again for the first 3 quarters of 2007, before entering permanent retirement.

LuX – Played for Zenith until mid 2007, where he played for dN* once before enlisting. Continued to play for Zenith occasionally after that. Went missing from the end of 2007 to the middle of 2008 where he played for XtC until the end of the year. Played for XtC again from the middle to the end of 2009 before going missing again.

Ant – Played for Zenith until the start of 2008 when he enlisted. Played for XtC until the end of 2008. Played for XtC again from the middle until the end of 2009. Semi-retired in 2010.

ice – Played for Zenith until the middle of 2007 before playing occasionally for them. Short stint in Kingsurf during the start of 2008, then joined XtC until the end of 2008. Inactive for half a year, then joined Aeon for the 3rd quarter of 2009 before fading back into inactivity.

Tofu – Played for Zenith until they disbanded in the 3rd quarter of 2008. Joined XtC until the end of 2008. Joined Kingsurf/AeoN until present.

DN* members:

maki – Played for dN* until they faded away in the end of 2007. Went inactive after that.

ruby – Played for dN* until they faded away. Joined XtC for a while in early 2008 to the 3rd quarter of 2008. Has been seen playing for Little once in a while lately.

hengky – Played for dN*, joined a number of other teams after that. Still active in various teams.

KW – Played for dN* until somewhere in 2007 where he went inactive after that.

Slyvana – Played for dN* until around 2007, then played for various other pretty successful teams. Went into inactivity in 2008.

1st Quarter 2006 – 2nd Quarter 2006: DsD enters

DsD establishes themselves as a force to be reckoned with, sweeping competition after competition in a period where mVp doesn't join competitions. However, in their two confrontations in competition finals, DsD falls to mVp, putting the heirachy at:

1st – mVp
2nd – DsD
3rd – dN*

 

DsD Team

dN* and mVp have the exact same lineup. DsD was a short lived team that is still carried on in name, but lost most of its former glory by the end of 2006. Its notable members are:

Starfish – Leader and commander of the team. Played for DsD until eventually enlisting in the 3rd quarter of 2006, which most likely resulted in the team not being able to maintain their position in the top few standings.

Amnesia – Maintains the name of DsD and has joined many competitions under its name, even until now, although with many roster changes.

Dk-Mag3 – Joined Micronology after DsD's fall. Joined Zenith after Micronology disbanded at the end of 2007. Joined Kingsurf for a short while until he enlisted in the end of 2008 and went inactive for 1 year. Joined Aeon for a short stint at the end of 2009 until present.

3rd Quarter 2006: A burst of Mi2

Mi2 and WCG.xqR were both teams that while active in the scene, did not manage to achieve dominance in any period until the middle of 2006. DsD burst into the scene early in 2006 with gusto, but were even quicker to fade away come the middle of 2006.

1st – WCG.xqR
2nd – Mi2
3rd – Zenith

Zenith has exactly the same lineup as mVp, but with a change of name. Mi2 and Zenith's hold on the scene were very shaky at this point, but there is no doubt that WCG.xqR had a strong foothold in the scene at this point.

Mi2 is simply mentioned here for completion sake. They failed to make any impact on the scene after this short quarter year period, and none of their members made any impact after that.

WCG.xqR members:

Alanter – xqR went inactive towards the end of 2007. He resurfaced with XtC in the middle of 2008, then joined team Little in early 2009, then KS.SG in the middle of 2009, then XtC again after that in 2009 until present.

D4rkw1sh – Originally a substitute player, he became part of WCG.xqR's main roster around the 3rd quarter of 2006 and then joined the little known Attitude Gaming after xqR went inactive in the end of 2007. Managed to land himself a short stint with ICE PRO and its various spawns in the 3rd quarter of 2009 before enlisting and going inactive.

Ahzai – Went inactive somewhere in 2007. Occasionally makes his presence known but is inactive for the most part.

Mystic – Went inactive somewhere in 2007 and moved on to better things in life.

ZBZ – Went inactive towards the end of 2006 and has never been heard of since in the scene.

4th Quarter 2006 - 1st Quarter 2007: Micronology??

A team called Micronology makes itself known. Mi2 fades away. Zenith establishes dominance once again.

1st – Zenith
2nd – WCG.xqR
3rd – Micronology
4th – dN*

There are a few fleeting changes made in terms of roster for most of the teams except for dN*, which has the same roster.

Zenith. GPS goes inactive and in comes:

Musica – Enters Zenith for the 4th quarter of 2006 before flying off to Australia. Has much success in the Australian DotA scene. As far as the Singaporean scene is concerned though, he joins Zenith for a major competition in 4th quarter 2007, again in the 3rd quarter of 2008, and XtC in the 3rd quarter of 2009.

WCG.xqr:

Xaero – Joins xqR exclusively in the 1st quarter of 2007 and no one knows where he went after that.

mArtellx – Sticks around with xqR and vanishes when they vanish, but has a short stint in moderately successful team Knightmare.

Micronology:

QueeN – After Micronology disbands in the 4th quarter of 2007, lurks around before joining Zenith in the 2nd quarter of 2008. After Zenith disbands in 2008, joins Little in the first quarter of 2009. Still plays occasionally.

Renewious – Was with Micronology until the end of the 4th quarter of 2006. Still a part of the DotA scene, but not playing in the higher echelons.

DK-Mag3 – As mentioned in DsD earlier.

Hyhy – Caused Micronology to disband and then joined Zenith in the 4th quarter of 2007. Caused Zenith to disband in the 3rd quarter of 2008 and joined Kingsurf.

ZX – Moved to Zenith in the 2nd Quarter of 2007 before Micronology disbanded. Left Zenith at the very end of 2007 and retired from the scene.

Bouncy – Went inactive for a short while after Micronology disbanded. Joined Zenith in the 1st quarter of 2008. Followed to Kingsurf after zenith disbanded. Vowed never to play competitively again in the 2nd quarter of 2009, but played SMM 2009 at the end of the year for Aeon. Still plays frequently, but refuses to join competitions.

2nd quarter 2007 - 3rd quarter 2007: Micronology!

Micronology establishes dominance of the SG DotA scene.

1st – Micronology
2nd – Zenith
3rd – WCG.xqR
4th – Knightmare
5th - dN*

dN*, WCG.xqR and Knightmare are mentioned for completion's sake. Their players draw from a pool of dN*, xqR, and foosa! players, and they were definitely the other teams to be reckoned with in the SG DotA scene, but simply could not compare to the top 2 teams of that period. The 2nd and 3rd quarters of 2007 solely belonged to Micronology and Zenith. Then again, I might be a bit biased.

New changes to Zenith:

Zenith changes the lineup to prepare for the departure of ice and LuX. Musica leaves for Australia and GPS is brought back into the team. ZX from 1st quarter Micronology joins the team. A new member is also added.

Nutz – Originally from team ETNY, a constant but mediocre force in the scene. Enlists in the 4th quarter of 2007. Plays again for ETNY in the 3rd and 4th quarter of 2008. Joins XtC in 2009, except for a brief period in the 4th quarter. Retired at the end of 2009.

Micronology:

Micronology settles at a stable lineup of QueeN, HYHY, DK-Mag3, Bouncy, and:

TruEnEtprO – He won the local WCG in 2006 for playing Frozen Throne, and in 2007 for playing DotA with Micronology. Formed team Impreza in the 2nd quarter of 2008. Enlisted in the 4th quarter of 2008. Plays once in a while, but no longer at the higher echelons.

4th quarter 2007 - 1st quarter 2008: Say what?

Too many things happen in this period to fit into a summary.

Zenith, while undoubtedly still a strong team, still loses at many competitions, and faces many lineup issues. Teams come and go, and lineups change a lot.

1st – Zenith
2nd – Impreza
3rd – RoL
4th - xJuju

Impreza was not called Impreza at this period in time, but was still a strong team in the making. The only consistent players at this point are those from Zenith.

Zenith now consists of Tofuboi, HYHY, Dk-Mag3, Bouncy, and a rotating last player that never seems to be the same. RoL is definitely a strong team but will not be elaborated any further because they don't really seem to achieve anything even though they make staggered appearances in the SG DotA scene. 2 of their members do go on however to be a presence in SG DotA later in 2009.

This earlier incarnation of Impreza didn't really achieve anything at all so shall not be elaborated on until the next quarter. This is a really really messed up period.

Xjuju is a very short-lived team that, while very successful in their short lifespan, lasted far too short to have anything more notable than a 4th placing in the rankings, not that rankings really matter in this period since this period was so messed up. The lineup of the team however, is worth mentioning, as it brings to light when some players started being involved in the higher echelons of the SG DotA scene.

Xjuju consists of ice, ant (both previously from zenith) and:

ken – Was always a consistent part of many teams in the higher echelon of play, yet never manged to win anything. Still is involved in the DotA scene but never really had much impact.

Xy – His life only gets better from here. Joined ETNY (which he was originally part of anyway) in 3rd quarter of 2008, then XtC in the 4th quarter of 2008 and stayed in XtC until the 1st quarter of 2010 where he now plays for Aeon (now LGD).

WaN – Joined XtC in the 3rd quarter of 2008. Joined Little in the 1st half of 2009. Joined the many incarnations of ICE PRO and subsequently XtC in the 3rd quarter of 2009, and went back to Little and then to XtC again. Enlisted in the 2nd quarter of 2010 but still playing for XtC.

2nd Quarter 2008 - 3rd Quarter 2008: XtC enters

Team XtC is formed. Team impreza is formed.

1st – Zenith
2nd – XtC
3rd – Impreza
4th – ETNY

XtC consists of Ant, Ice, Alanter, LuX, and WaN, all players that have already been mentioned earlier. Zenith is still pretty much the same. It should be noted that Zenith is at the top by virtue of consensus of skill and by their winning of ESWC in 2008, as they still lost pretty much every other tournament in these 2 quarters. ETNY is a team that has impressive showing in this period, and Impreza was pretty dominant in the 2nd quarter of 2008, before XtC came and took over in the 3rd quarter of 2008.

Impreza is led by TruEnEtprO, who has been mentioned earlier, and:

nicnic – Vanished along with impreza in the end of 2008. Still plays in the scene, but no longer capable of playing at the higher echelons.

Pig – Joined ETNY in the 3rd quarter, then back to Impreza in the 4th quarter and vanished after 2008.

Seabear – Formed team Axis in 2009 after Impreza disbanded. Still actively playing.

Roy – Joined Aeon.SG in the 2nd quarter of 2009 and has stuck with them ever since.

Lemion – Joined Aeon.SG in the 2nd quarter of 2009 but was removed in the 3rd quarter and went inactive for half a year. Still plays in 2010, but not yet capable of putting his name back into the higher echelons of SG DotA.

 

ETNY consists of xy and NutZ who already have been mentioned, and more notably:

gGg – Joined XtC in the 4th quarter of 2008 and stayed in XtC until the end of 2009, when he decided to retire from DotA.

The most notable lineup of ETNY consisted of Tofuboi, Xy, NutZ, gGg, and pig, all of whom already have been mentioned. It is this lineup that is important because it has a big impact on the dominant team in the next quarter.

4th quarter 2008: No more Zenith

Zenith disbands.

1st – XtC
2nd – Kingsurf
3rd – Impreza

There is a migration of players around. At this point, the top few teams seem to consist of pretty much the same few players. The most successful incarnation of XtC at this point is its SMM 2009 lineup, which consists of Tofuboi, ice, xy, gGg, and Alanter. The rest of Zenith's players go to Kingsurf, which consists of Yamateh, Papaxiong (both Malaysians and thus not elaborated on here), as well as Bouncy, HYHY, and Dk-mag3 from Zenith.

Impreza sticks to pretty much the same lineup, but there is one player in their roster that is worth mentioning.

Pur|fy – Almost like a mercenary, seems to play for a different team every competition. Played a bit for Impreza, then a bit for XtC in 2009, then a bit for RoL and a lot of other teams too. Playing for Impreza in SMM is his first notable impact in the higher echelons of SG DotA.

1st quarter 2009 to 2nd quarter 2009: New entrants

At the start of 2009, the entire SG DotA scene suddenly changes.

1st – Kingsurf.SG
2nd – XtC
3rd – Axis
4th – Little

Kingsurf.SG makes its mark. Originally starting out as a mix of Singaporean and Malaysian players, it quickly breaks to consist of only Singaporean players. Alanter, HYHY, Tofuboi, Lemion, and Roy make up the team. While they are arguably the best team in Singapore for the first half of 2009, their foothold is very unstable, constantly losing to XtC and Axis as well as Little.

Kingsurf.SG Team

With XtC, Axis, and Little however, players who were not part of the higher echelons of SG DotA are suddenly catapulted to the top. For the first half of the year, the SG DotA scene sees nothing but these 4 names at the top, and many of these teams' players have not been mentioned earlier in this article.

The 2009 incarnation of XtC consists of Pur|fy (for some competitions), gGg, NutZ and xy, who have already been mentioned, as well as:

tohx4 – He leaves XtC in the end of the 3rd quarter of 2009 and still plays DotA, but is unable to make a name for himself now.

Zilch – Joins XtC for the first quarter of 2009 and is promptly booted.

Monster – Joins XtC for the 2nd quarter of 2009 and plays for them when they can't find any better replacements until the end of the 3rd quarter of 2009.

XtC Team

Little consists of WaN, QueeN, and Alan (before he joins Kingsurf), who have already been mentioned, as well as:

blahx3 – Stays with team Little and its incarnations up till now.

Lei – Sticks with blahx3, or blahx3 sticks with him. Either way, it seems that team Little follows him.

Axis here is a big player in the scene because most of their players are previously not well known. They are:

ThisIsArt- - Stays with Axis until the end of 2009, when Axis suddenly vanished. Enlisted in the 1st quarter of 2010, but still plays DotA.

BenWah – Stayed with Axis and still plays with them, but recently has been missing.

Chawy – Used to play for RoL. Stayed with Axis until the 4th quarter of 2009, and since then has been playing for International team Mcity. Still plays for the various incarnations of Axis in local competitions though.

Seabear – Mentioned before in impreza. Still plays, but left axis in the 4th quarter of 2009.

MyWishIsToDie – Was promptly kicked out of Axis after the 1st quarter of 2009. Has ventured into forming a few moderately successful teams but has yet to achieve anything notable as of yet.

D4rKn3s5r3b0rN – Along with Chawy, used to play for RoL. Is credited for having an infernally difficult nick to type. Still plays for Axis and its various incarnations to this day.

3rd quarter 2009 – Hey it's iceiceice!

1st – ICE PRO
2nd – XtC
3rd – Axis
4th – Kingsurf.SG

The rankings here don't really matter. Kingsurf.SG goes very inactive in the 3rd quarter before re-emerging as Aeon.SG. Axis maintains its lineup and remains as strong as ever. XtC manages to win WCG Singapore with Musica, but falters in many local competitions. Most notably, ice decides he wants to play DotA, and forms ICE PRO, consisting of ice, Ant, LuX, d4rkw1sh, and WaN, all of whom have been mentioned before. When ice leaves for Aeon.SG, the team replaces him with Alanter and continues to do well for the rest of the 3rd quarter of 2009 before the events in the 4th quarter.

The emergence of ICE PRO (and its incarnations WAN PRO, WILLY PRO, and ALAN PRO), while forming a team that only lasts for a quarter, shakes up the scene that would otherwise remain the same as in the previous half year. WaN being removed from Little means that Little no longer is able to match up with the rest of the higher echelon teams in Singapore. With a new force in the scene, Axis and XtC are forced to reconsider their positions, which have already been shaky enough.

4th quarter 2009 – XtC whee

1st – XtC
2nd – Aeon.SG
3rd – Little

The 4th quarter, as always, is one with many lineup changes. XtC absorbs ICE PRO and changes its lineup to one consisting of xy, gGg, Ant, WaN, LuX first, then replacing WaN and Ant with Alanter and NutZ for SMM 2009. Ice joins Aeon.SG for one competition, then leaves them suddenly, and their lineup for SMM is HYHY, Tofuboi, Roy, Bouncy from the old Zenith, and d4rkn3s5z from Axis.

With the departure of WaN, Little cleverly bolsters its roster with players from across the causeway. Blahx3 and Lei are still consistent in the team, but they are able to make themselves a force to be reckoned with once again by supplementing their lineup with strong players from overseas. For SMM 2009 though, WaN joins the lineup of team Little.

2010 – Now

Aeon.SG pretty much dominates the current Singaporean scene.

Year

2006

2007

2008

2009

Quarter

1

2

3

4

1

2

3

4

1

2

3

4

1

2

3

4

ice

mvp

mvp

znth

znth

znth

znth

KS

xJU

XtC

XtC

IPro

Tofu

mvp

mvp

znth

znth

znth

znth

znth

znth

znth

znth

etny

XtC

KS

KS

AN

AN

LuX

mvp

mvp

znth

znth

znth

znth

dN*

XtC

IPro

XtC

GPS

mvp

mvp

znth

znth

znth

znth

Ant

mvp

mvp

znth

znth

znth

znth

znth

znth

znth

xJu

XtC

XtC

IPro

XtC

hengky

dN*

dN*

dN*

dN*

dN*

dN*

dN*

prez

RoL

RoL

RoL

ruby

dN*

dN*

dN*

dN*

dN*

dN*

dN*

XtC

[L]

[L]

maki

dN*

dN*

dN*

dN*

dN*

dN*

dN*

slyvana

dN*

dN*

dN*

dN*

dN*

dN*

gmg

gmg

kw

dN*

dN*

dN*

dN*

dN*

dN*

dN*

dkmag3

DsD

DsD

DsD

[M]

[M]

[M]

znth

znth

znth

znth

KS

AN

amnesia

DsD

DsD

DsD

DsD

DsD

DsD

DsD

DsD

DsD

DsD

DsD

DsD

starfish

DsD

DsD

Alanter

wcg

wcg

wcg

wcg

wcg

wcg

wcg

XtC

XtC

XtC

[L]

KS

IP

XtC

d4rkw1s

wcg

wcg

wcg

wcg

wcg

AG

AG

AG

AG

AG

??

??

IP

ahzai

wcg

wcg

wcg

wcg

wcg

wcg

mystic

wcg

wcg

wcg

wcg

zbz

wcg

wcg

musica

ipod

znth

mct

mct

znth

mct

mct

mct

znth

mct

mct

XtC

mct

mct

xaero

??

??

??

??

wcg

martellx

??

??

wcg

wcg

wcg

knm

renewio

??

??

[M]

[M]

??

??

??

??

HYHY

[M]

[M]

[M]

[M]

[M]

znth

znth

znth

znth

KS

KS

KS

AN

AN

ZX

[M]

[M]

[M]

znth

znth

znth

bouncy

[M]

[M]

[M]

[M]

[M]

znth

znth

znth

KS

KS

AN

NutZ

etny

etny

etny

??

znth

znth

etny

etny

XtC

XtC

XtC

xy

etny

etny

etny

??

??

??

??

xJU

etny

XtC

XtC

XtC

XtC

XtC

WaN

ipod

ipod

ipod

ipod

ipod

ipod

ipod

ipod

xJU

XtC

XtC

[L]

[L]

IP

XtC

nicnic

foos

foos

foos

foos

prez

prez

pig

foos

foos

foos

etny

etny

prez

seabear

X3

X3

X3

X3

prez

prez

axis

axis

axis

truenet

etny

etny

etny

[M]

[M]

prez

prez

 

Year

2006

2007

2008

2009

Quarter

1

2

3

4

1

2

3

4

1

2

3

4

1

2

3

4

roy

??

??

??

??

prez

prez

??

KS

AN

AN

lem

X3

X3

X3

X3

prez

prez

??

KS

gGg

??

??

??

??

etny

XtC

XtC

XtC

XtC

XtC

Pur|fy

??

??

??

??

??

prez

XtC

XtC

RoL

RoL

tohx4

??

??

??

??

??

??

XtC

XtC

XtC

blahx3

??

??

??

??

??

??

[L]

[L]

[L]

[L]

lei

??

??

??

??

??

??

??

??

??

??

[L]

[L]

[L]

[L]

chawy

RoL

RoL

RoL

RoL

??

axis

axis

axis

mct

d4rkn3s

RoL

RoL

RoL

RoL

??

axis

axis

axis

AN

benwah

axis

axis

axis

axis

thisisart

axis

axis

axis

axis

seabear

X3

X3

X3

X3

prez

prez

axis

axis

axis

axis

Some teams are mentioned in this table without being mentioned in the rankings.

A ?? indicates that the player was present in the SG DotA scene, but did not make much of an impact or was jumping around from team to team.

A darker colour background indicates a higher position of the team at that quarter.

	first
	second
	third
	fourth
	Another notable team

Mvp = mVp. This much should be obvious.
Znth = Zenith.
KS = Kingsurf (be it Kingsurf or Kingsurf.SG).
xJU = xJUJU.
XtC = XtC. Obviously.
Ipro = ICE PRO and its various incarnations
etny = etny. Obviously.
AN = Aeon.sg
dN* = dN*. Obviously.
Prez = Impreza.
[L] = Team Little
RoL = Team RoL, a notable enough team in Singapore.
Gmg = Geminga, a team that had moderate success for a short period of time
DsD = Team DsD
[M] = Micronology
wcg = WCG.xqR
AG = Attitude gaming, a team that held quite a few good foreign players and was consistently part of the scene.
ipod = A team that was a force to be reckoned with but never had good enough brackets to win many competitions.
kmn = Knightmare, a strong team that was short lived.
Foos = Team Foosa, a team that didn't achieve much but from which many strong players were taken from.
X3 = Team X3, much like Foosa, another moderately strong team from which many strong players were bred.
Axis = Team Axis

MCT is labeled as a notable team, which underrates it, but this is due to it being a team based outside of Singapore. KS is also in the same situation when it was a team based in Malaysia.

[M] is white at one point in time because it wasn't even a notable team then, but it existed.

This is a chart to show the involvement level of players at the higher echelon of Singaporean DotA. The darker and fuller a player's bar is, the more active and the higher up he was in the Singaporean DotA scene.