New DotA Pride admins interviewed

In an interview conducted in co-operation with Gosugamers and myMYM, the new administrators of DotA Pride Asia and DotA Pride Public talk about their new leagues and upcoming plans for the future.

Today spawned the official birth of DotA Pride Asia and DotA Pride Public. With two already chosen administrators, the future of both divisions looks bright.

Beginning with DotA Pride Asia, the idea of the league is immediately unique, mostly because there has never been an Asian inhouse league. Because most Asian players play DotA from LAN centers in their region, there has never been a demand for an Asian inhouse league. Now that there is one, however, the success of the league will be dependant on the players. DotA Pride Asia's head administrator is none other than myMYM's own Terence 'SoloZ' Ting.

Next is DotA Pride Public. Expanding from the elite tier players in DotA Pride, the mid-skilled players in DotA Pride 2, and now newer and lower-skilled players in DotA Pride Public, DotA Pride has now reached out to each region and skill level player. The administrator chosen by DotA Pride to manage this sanction of the league goes by the name of Caterink.

What kind of players (skill level) will be playing in DotA-Pride Asia?

SoloZ: For DotA Pride Asia, we will have two divisions, the first will be allocated to high-level, elite skill players from known teams around Asia e.g. EHOME, Kingsurf, etc, while the second will be for mid-level moderate skill competitive players in the scene.

Will the Asian players have to be invited to play in DotA-Pride Asia, or can they make a vouch request/have testgames?

SoloZ: We will invite players for the first division, while the second will be solely based on vouch requests. Both will be closely monitored and regulated of course.

The Asian DotA scene had no inhouse leagues before DotA-Pride Asia and were fine with playing public games and clanwars, what will make them want to play in DotA-Pride Asia?

SoloZ: There was actually an attempt awhile back by myself to make an Asia league known as the Champions Gaming League, but the attempt eventually folded due to several factors e.g. Asians not open to using IRC as a platform. This time round we have the support of DotA Pride over at the Europe side who have a good understanding and the resources required to make a inhouse league work. Additionally, basing Pride Asia on Garena with bots would be a huge improvement from the CGL of past. Another major factor would be the attractiveness of prizes offered for playing in the league.

Will every DotA player to be able to play in DotA-Pride public room or will they need a vouch/testgame first?

Caterink: For playing in DotA Pride Public league you have to make a vouch request on www.dota-pride.com DP Public section.

By playing in Dota-Pride 2 you can get a vouch for DotA-Pride if you belong to the top 5, will the top players from DotA-pride public league get vouched into DotA-Pride 2?

Caterink: Yes, the top 5 from dota pride public will be promoted to dp2.

Leagues located purely in garena have the reputation to go inactive after a while, what are you expecting to be the success formula for DotA-Pride public league?

Caterink: DotA Pride public will be the first league on garena with bots that has hostbots too, we are going to give premium for top 5 and gold member for most active player. We have Ventrilo server at players disposition. It's like a all in service for free!

What is your history in DotA and in the DotA community?

Caterink: I started to play DotA about 3 years ago. I met the Romanian admins and I became a Romanian moderator. In August 2009 I joined the DotA Pride community and met Abby. He recruited me as a dota pride admin and now, here I am.
SoloZ: I'm from Singapore and started working in a local community website since late 2008, and joined MYM shortly after. I have my own gaming project at GameWorksSG.com, where we are undergoing a major organizational revamp at the moment. I will also be largely leveraging on the resources/team I have at GWSG to manage DotA Pride Asia to maximum efficiency. Personally, I am a gamer of many years since I was 10+ years old, and have been active in the scene for a total of 6 years and counting. I am also a avid supporter of the WDC and it's wide initiatives to promote DotA as an E-sport in the world.

What motivated you to create the first inhouse league for Asian?

Abby: Well like we all saw in SMM & China LAN events Asia people have a lot to show and we want them to have the chance to show to the rest of the world that they are equal with everyone, and even better.