HyperST
2016-06-12 01:49:55
It was at the end of Season 1 and the beginning of Season 2. It was four years ago, in the city of Hanover, Germany, when an 18 year old Vasilii, donning EHOME’s team uniform, represented China for the first time on the international stage—the IEM 6 World Championship. The young Vasilii was given this unexpected opportunity after IG and WE declined their respective invitations.
There was an entry in EHOME’s team diary at that time which read, “The players didn’t have much international flight experience, especially TS (Vasilii’s IGN at that time). First time riding the airplane, the young Vasilii asked his teammates while walking to the security check, ‘can we talk on the airplane?’ Everybody was shocked to hear that question…”
At that time, having the opportunity to compete outside of China was something worthy of praise. This was a golden opportunity for Vasilii to gain experience. Despite the fact that EHOME was eliminated in the group stage with a 1:4 record, Vasilii greatly expanded his horizons by having the chance to play against the top teams at that time such as TSM and M5. Upon seeing the triumphant M5 raising the championship cup, Vasilii set a goal for himself: one day, I will also become a world champion.
Vasilii was known in the streaming community as a player with an “explosive temper”. At the end of Season 2, the incident between him and another famous streamer [where Vasilii bought an airplane ticket threatening to “pull up” on the streamer in real life over an in-game dispute] earned him another nickname—“intent to kill". At that time, EHOME failed to qualify for Season 2 Worlds, causing Vasilii to leave the team to join LMQ. But, he was unable to find his footing within his new team. The more he fails, the more he wants to prove himself. And the more he wants to prove himself, the easier his temper blows up. Vasilii was that kind of person even until now. “I wasn’t able to achieve great results competitively at that time, but that just made me want to prove myself even more. Therefore, I relentlessly grinded the Solo Queue ladder for the #1 spot. I wanted to climb the ladder so badly that I couldn’t tolerate mistakes from me or my teammates. So I said some things to my teammates that crossed the line,” Vasilii recalled.
“I think that I play very aggressively and I am not afraid of anybody. I feel that someone with my skill level shouldn’t be a substitute.” Vasilii said this numerous times during our interview. Indeed, he has a refuse-to-admit-defeat stubbornness. When I met Vasilii for the first time during 2013 All-Stars, he gave me the first impression of a straightforward but shy individual. During the All-Stars, many teams were on vacation, but LMQ was practicing against the LPL All-Stars team. “Did you feel that WeiXiao+XiaoXiao was a strong combo when you scrimmed against them?” “I didn’t think they were strong at all.” Vasilii refused to admit. After the interview, the general manager of Royal Club [LMQ’s sister team] frantically told me to cut the part Vasilii just said, worried that Vasilii might be flamed. Vasilii is very confident. He never thinks that he is not as good as other people, at least that’s what he says.
“At the end of Season 3, all the Royal Club players except Uzi retired after reaching second place at Worlds. The secondary Royal Club team, LMQ, was also on the verge of disbanding after selling its LPL spot to EDG. Vasilii and his LMQ teammates were about to lose their jobs. “One day, Diankuang [LMQ’s manager] suddenly came to talk to me about developing a team in U.S. At first I thought it was unbelievable, since the proposed salary in North America was three times higher than my pay in China. But leaving the country would allow me to expand my horizons, and most importantly, there was a much higher chance to qualify for Worlds through the NA region.” Diankuang was the general manager of L.ACE [Chinese League of Legends esports regulatory body]. When he was leading the LPL teams to NA for Season 3 Worlds, he stumbled across the possibility of raising the LMQ team in NA. It was this decision that helped Vasilii to climb out the valley of his professional career.
Starting from NACS qualifiers, five youngsters from China overcame all the difficulties in their path and qualified for LCS. Vasilii put on a show during the NA LCS Summer Split and won the cheers from the American fans. “Season 4 in America was the most glorious period in my entire career.” A smile broke across his face as Vasilii reminisced,
In the best-of-5 series for the final North American spot at Worlds, LMQ started the series 0:2 against Curse. “At that time, we kind of thought about giving up and just play randomly. But we didn’t expect to take a game (with great difficulty), and then another game. In the last game, Curse tilted and we won with a landslide victory. Just like that, after the IEM6 World Championship, Vasilii once again stepped onto the international stage.
Despite a strong start winning 2 games in a row, LMQ finished poorly losing the next 4 games. Unfortunately, the LMQ players were not able to make the flight from Singapore to Busan.
“That time during S4 fulfilled my dream of playing at Worlds. I felt that I paid the price for a chance to experience the rhythm on the Worlds stage. But, my dream isn’t just limited to playing at Worlds. I want to win it all.”
“I am a player from China, but right now my fans are mostly from North America, and many Chinese players don’t know who I am. I wanted the opportunity to return to China to prove myself there and make up for my regrets during the end of Season 2 and Season 3. Also, I feel that next year’s LPL and LSPL will be the most competitive season to date. But I want something more stimulating: give me either a complete failure or a complete success.” As I recall, this was what Vasilii said to me during our interview as he was preparing to return to China.
Indeed, Season 5 was the most exciting LPL season. The introduction of super-strong Korean imports and the injection of a huge amount of capital turned the LPL scene upside down. At that time, Vasilii’s family situation wasn’t great, which was seen from his Weibo posts.
“I think I must be the most tragic player in the esports scene. I held onto my dreams since Season 1 and never gave up, but my family burdens increased more and more. I needed to make more money to carry my family since almost everyone in my family has some kind of illness, and some of them are very ill. The medical bills have only increased my burden.
Most people would choose reality over dreams, but I am the kind of person who would not hesitate to choose dreams over reality. Just to win even once, I would rather not have a single dime and resort to begging food later. But, the situation now is that I must take responsibility for my family. Right now is very confusing. Will I be corrupted by money? Will I become someone who only cares about money?”
Between the options of “a huge amount of money” and “super-strong Korean imports”, Vasilii chose the latter and joined VG. He did not choose to sign a deal with a streaming platform.
“I could have stayed in North America and continue to enjoy the applause. I could have continued to use the NA Worlds spot to participate in Season 5 Worlds. But I could predict that my team would still be eliminated in the group stage at Worlds if I spent a year playing in NA. I felt that if I returned to China and form a team with Mata and Dandy who just won Worlds, then we would have a good chance of becoming champions.”
Running towards the goal of Season 5 world champion, Vasilii started his Season 5 LPL journey.
“When I was in North America, I was super strong. After returning to China and before LPL started, I could easily carry my team whether it was in SoloQ or scrims. Therefore, I became overconfident.”
In week 1 day 3 of the LPL 2015 Spring Split, VG faced EDG. Barely having any HP left on Sivir, Vasilii decided not to base and was sniped by a Q from Deft’s Ezreal despite having both Flash and Heal up. This was a moment Vasilii remembered very clearly. “I was too overconfident. I am not sure why I decided not to base no matter what. I felt that he couldn’t kill me and I didn’t want to use either Heal or Flash.”
Haunted by his overconfidence, Vasilii made increasingly more mistakes as the first half of the Season 5 Spring Split continued. It became something Mata could not tolerate. You see, Mata and Vasilii both have explosive tempers. Their botlane combo was like the clash of two planets which could explode at any time. Even though Vasilii’s performance somewhat recovered later on, the VG that revolved around Mata as its brains still did not obtain great results in the Spring Split. Vasilii was also drifting further and further away from the starting position. “Vasilii is a decent player, but the two of us both have explosive tempers. However, this isn’t a big issue. It’s just that I feel he made a bit too many mistakes.” Mata told us when speaking on the topic of Vasilii.
In a famous Chinese idiom story, there are two cities: Huainan (South city) and Huaibei (North city). The idiom states: “An orange harvested from the South city is a sweet orange, but an orange harvested from the North city is a bitter orange. Although the orange tree leaves look similar, the oranges themselves have different tastes. So why is it like this? Because the environment is different.” This idiom implies that as the environment change, so does the nature of the product. Or in this case, Vasilii.
“It’s not easy for me to communicate with other people because I am the kind of person that likes to hide my feelings. When I finally can’t contain my feelings anymore, there’s a good chance that I would blow up.” There were two incidents where Vasilii smashed the team base: once in America and once in VG. “I want to see a psychiatrist.” Vasilii has already recognized his problem.
“Mata is a very strong player, I admit. Our botlane centers around Mata; he handles everything. His attitude when someone makes a mistake is not something everyone can handle, at least not me. I feel that I am also a skilled player, so why does he gets to control everything?” Vasilii returned to China with his newfound aura and a great amount of self-confidence. Therefore, he simply couldn’t admit defeat. From his former LMQ Support, Mor, to VG’s Mata, Vasilii’s environment changed drastically.
“I also don’t want to communicate with the coach.” The change in his environment was the trigger that also changed his mentality. Due to several complicated reasons, Vasilii hasn’t played a single game in LPL for over a split. Indeed, esports is just as cruel as physical sports—results is the only thing that matters. Every team has their own ecosystem: either you adapt to it or become good enough to make it adapt to you. “You are your own worst enemy”, this phrase describes Vasilii perfectly.
But no one can deny that Vasilii could not leave the stage behind. It was in a tournament post-season 5 where Vasilii finally had an opportunity to play on stage. “I was so emotional that I had tears in my eyes.” And the reason he continues to work out is because working out helps him to stay in shape, which benefits his performance in game. “If I continue to work out, when I reach 25 years old, I would still have the reflexes of an average 20-year-old player.”
Even though this orange tree is located in the North city, it can still blossom if it works hard enough. If you find your own place in the world, then one day you will become successful.
“When I close my eyes, I can feel the cheers from the stadium.” An 18 year old boy in Hanover—it was a moment that Vasilii would never forget.
This is a translation of an interview with Vasilii for Chinese League of Legends site 15W that was translated by Steven Yu. The original interview can be found at 15W .