While Neo's involvement with the team has been so short, we sadly announce that he is retiring from DotA. He was asked to focus on his studies and decided to retire. With Neo leaving, we are happy to announce the addition of Farand "Koala" Kowara.
Ritter "RitteR" Rusli Romi "melen" Gunawan Sugiarto "BaHaMuT" Cahyadi Ariyanto "Lakuci" Sony Farand "Koala" KowaraJeffry "Neo" Lu joined the team soon after they joined Fnatic to replace stamx who also retired. Since then he has participated with the team in ADC and helped them win first place at WGT Indonesia and WGT Singapore.
Koala was considered to be a strong player with hidden talent by melen, and he was the first person that he thought of to replace Neo. You can watch Koala play with his new team at the MGC event in China and in ADC online. Fnatic DotA is also playing in SKOTH 2, Prime Defending and Kode5.
Good luck to Koala and his new teammates! Thanks to Neo for being on the team and good luck to him with his studies and future.
DotaSG Interview: The mind of melen
We have finally managed to get our hands on a famous gamer in the Dota scene. Behold none other than Melen, from Fnatic. His invaluable input and words of wisdom are sure to enlighten at the end of reading this thread. Having been a core essential part of the team since the XcN days, Melen gives a backdrop of what he thinks of the current dota scene as well as how he thinks dota will fare in the future as a competitive E-sport.
Firstly, Congrats on your win at the WGT. How do you all feel?
We are very satisfied with our achievement in WGT Singapore 2008. We are also very happy because it is our first victory of an international LAN tournament with Fnatic.
What did you guys do with the time here at Singapore other den playing at WGT? Visit local attractions, etc?
We came to Singapore too early because we thought we will play on Friday, but on the last day of the tournament when the schedule was up, we found out we only play on Saturday. We arrived at Singapore on Thursday evening. Friday we went to the tournament place and looked around for a while. After that we went shopping to Bugis street and Bugis Junction.
Regarding your team's latest move from XcN to Fnatic, what was the catalyst/reasons that propelled your move?
Basically our move from XcN to Fnatic was because we wanted to get more support and more opportunity to achieve our goal. We dream to be the best DotA team in the world and we think joining Fnatic can make it come true.
Melen blog: Journey to WGT Singapore 2008
After participating in an online qualifier which was around 3 games, we can managed to get seeded in the WGT Singapore 2008 event. There were 2 important moments in the online qualifier. First we almost got disqualified in our 1st match because we late to send the replays. The last game vs bbt had even more problems, due to our connection problems. We thanks to everyone who help us during this tournaments, like Darkwish (aka Willy), all of bbt team’s players that are very patient to us, Andrei (head admin), David (aka Siung) whose help find hotel, and some of Singapore peoples.
Final
Fnatic vs Xtc
We won toss coin and choose 1st pick, Xtc choose Sentinel
Ban (Fnatic 1st) : spec/puck/brood/visage/meepo/OD/chen/BM
Fnatic
Omni
WL Lich
Luna Qop
Xtc
Necrolyte TB
SF Tide
Pugna
This game is so interesting to watch because Xtc play with a unique playstyle. Iceiceice’s TB was very good with his unpredictable backdooring. In the middle of the game we lost map control for some minutes, which allowed the opponent to farm a lot during that time. But after Bahamut’s Qop and Ritter’s omniknight got their guinsoo we tried to gather and push, destroying raxes. I think the MVP of this game is Bahamut with his very well played Qop. And the most favorite supporter of this game is PMS^Jiayi LOL….. her shout is so loud and cheerful
Fnatic introduces Koala, Neo retires (interview with koala and koala replay on fnatic)
DotaSG interview: The mind of melen
Melen blog: Journey to WGT Singapore 2008
