Interview with xNova: “The loss at TI8 gave me a chanceto thrive and do better”

Jian Wei “xNova” Yap, PSG.LGD`s position 5 player is a very modest player in spite of the fact he was in one step away from winning the biggest tournament of Dota, TI8 and has won over 1 million dollars during his pro playing career.

He gained fame back in 2013 when he played as a substitute player in a number of southeastern teams. After that in January 2018, he became part of the Chinese team LGD Gaming.

LGD is one of the oldest and most successful Chinese organizations. It has many titles at international tournaments, including a victory at The International 2014. In 2018, the lineup for Dota 2 signed a partnership agreement with the Paris Saint-Germain football club, after which the team’s name was changed to PSG.LGD.

The team started the DPC 2017/2018 season without victories and until April did not seem to be a real contender for trophies. However, in January 2018, the team found the missing link. It was joined by support Jian Wei “xNova” Yap, who very quickly changed the game of the club and have changed the course of its history.

In 2018, PSG.LGD was on the verge of winning The International. By the fourth map of the grand final, the Chinese team had a huge advantage in gold and was already preparing to celebrate the championship, but OG magic prevented their plans. Now a team of Xu “fy” Linsen will try again to win Aegis already with the help of the home audience. Will LGD players be able to correct mistakes made on TI8?

Season 2018/2019 PSG.LGD held not so bright. Vici Gaming, which managed to win two majors, moved them from the leading positions in China. However, this did not prevent the “fy” team from getting a slot at The International 2019 ahead of time, and this was likely the only goal of their team.

Training program:

It seems that a special training schedule PSG.LGD just exists to level the effect of last year’s problems. Players train the whole week, having only 30 minutes per day to communicate with the outside world. Once, such a closed approach allowed the club to surprise everyone and instantly break into the top. Nevertheless, will it work at a much shorter distance of 10 matches at The International 2019?

Chinese director of short documentary films “BBKing” published on the personal page on Weibo the daily routine and rules of conduct for the PSG.LGD bootcamp for Dota 2. Team members are forbidden to use mobile devices and social networks, and the fine for late training is $145.

Complete bootcamp rules:

Training days: from Monday to Saturday. Sunday is a day off.

During the bootcamp, players must remove messengers and social networks from the phone and computer. Each player can use a mobile phone for 30 minutes per day (by the coach’s approval).

Cyber ​​sportsmen can pick up their mobile phones back on Sunday. Unauthorized use of a mobile phone or social networks incurs a fine of 3,000 yuan (~ $435).

On training days, the player must be at the computer before 1:00 pm local time. The penalty for being late is 1 thousand yuan (~ $ 145).

It is forbidden to smoke in the game room.

The meeting is held on Saturdays.

According to “xNova”, they didn’t have a good season because they couldn’t get used to the patches as quickly as other top teams. However, the last patch, 7.22 came out long before the tournament, and therefore they will be ready to TI9.

This year everything is different. Ti9 will take place in Shanghai, China, and LGD is much more prepared for the tournament morally and physically. They didn`t show much of their strategies to other teams so it will be a huge surprise for everyone what playstyle they will choose.

Whether it will be easier for them to play on the homeland player has answered:

“Playing on your home ground always feels good and comfortable, but I don’t think it is too much of an advantage. The best thing will be that we won’t need to adjust our body clocks. All the past TIs were in western countries and some of the players experienced jetlag”

I’m sure, with the help of experience in the past TI and tough training during this DPC season, the team will give the audience an amazing game. And chances to win Aegis is extremely high for “xNova” and PSG.LGD.