It's Winter at ESTC

Since the formation of Orange eSports, Winter and co. have took first runner's up titles at TGX and MSI respectively. Hoping for a gold this time at ESTC, Winter reveals how recent events with his team have affected him and his team's preparations for the tournament.

Can you tell us abit about the DotA workshops that you conducted with mushi prior to forming Orange? How did they go?
-"It went pretty good for us; for the workshop in Kuching there were around 100 people participating. It was one of the best turnups we had. Other places ranged from 20-60 people. We conducted lessons using projectors and slides, analyzing replays and having open discussions on anything related to the game."

Moving on to Orange - who usually makes the decisions during the game?
-"Mushi is the in-game commander, while Xtinct and I usually lead the small scrims and ganks."

What did you take home from your team's defeat to Mineski at TGX? Do you anticipate the Philippines to be your strongest competitor at ESTC and why?
-"Even before the tournament, we knew they were one of the teams to beat as they had improved and performed well recently. They will definitely be a strong competitor at ESTC after all the hard work they have put in."

Have your prepartions for MSI affected in any way your training for ESTC? If so, how?
-"We take on every tournament seriously and our aim is to win each and every event we participate in. So even if we are not participating in MSI we would still train as hard."

What's your favorite hero this version and why?
-"My favorite hero is Invoker because he is very difficult to play but when you master him, you can have so much fun with the hero."

My next question is about your Hold cup game against EHOME. Was the intention behind Mushi's Troll Warlord pick literally "to troll" or was it something you guys practiced seriously with? Will we see such strategies at ESTC?
-"It was a serious pick - we picked it to counter Anti-Mage in our TGX semi-final match against MUFC as well. Yes, we will come up with more in the future."

How are things going with your team and MYM.sg?
-"We haven't played against them in a long time. Nothing much to say about that."

With two of your players part of last year's champion roster, how confident are you of taking the title this year?
-"Having Xtinct and Mushi on our team is definitely a boost as they have a huge amount of experience with them; it certainly does increase our confidence having them onboard."

Do you envision yourself playing Dota 2 competitively next year?
-"Dota 2 looks promising but the game still needs some time to be ready, and yes I would definitely love to play it competitively next year."

That's a wrap. Any shoutouts?
-"A big thank you to Frank, C.E.O of Orange and all the other people at Orange who helped and guided us this far. Also, thank you to our manager Kenchi and our good friends from MSI Sanko, Liven.

Lastly, thank you to MrBlue for showing constant support for Orange."