"ECO Kryptonite" eSports Pie www.ecosports.cn
TES finally held the team's first LPL Championship trophy, and with a final flip in BO5, they achieved redemption in the spring season.
Before the playoffs, ECO Gaming Pie exclusively interviewed Guo Hao, General Manager of TES Toubo eSports Club, and listened to him tell the backstory of TES.
Wen/ Shao Junhao
"Let's congratulate TES, the new king of LPL! They have defeated their opponents and themselves! Entering the 2020 League of Legends Global Finals as the top seed of the LPL!"
2020 has been a very special year for all of us, and in the eight months since the beginning of the year, we've seen too many sports tournaments shut down, sports clubs take pay cuts, and the sports industry take a hit.
Gaming, as a part of sports, has been affected to a greater or lesser extent, but the good news is that gaming has been the first to break through due to its unique method of competition. During the time of the epidemic, the online tournament model allowed gaming to sustain the demand for spectatorship and ignite the passionate hearts of fans.
In the 2020 LPL Spring Season, the TES team, supported by the "Champion AD", made it all the way to the playoff finals, and this Spring Season is also the first time that TES has made it to the playoff finals since joining the LPL, and even though the team lost to JDG, who is also in the midst of their own success, it was a perfect end to the Spring Season.
This is the first time that the TES has made it to the playoffs.
But for the TES players and staff, the runner-up finish was clearly not enough to satisfy their appetites, and in the League of Legends' inaugural 2020 Mid-Season Cup, which featured a confrontation between China and South Korea, TES beat their rivals FPX in the final, winning the Mid-Season Cup, and giving the LPL yet another victory over the LCK.
Now, TES is on the top podium of the LPL, and the S10 Global Finals are right behind them. Let's listen to the story told by the man behind Toubo Gaming Club, and find out the team's journey, full of honor and hardship.
"I'm a League of Legends player myself, and in 2015, my level of play was very high, and I was in the top 50 in the region, and then I would go and watch some matches on my own, and my reason for joining the gaming industry was very pure, and it was just because of the love of it, and I'm a very emotional person, and so I love the passion and the tears that the matches bring to me."
To be sure, we're not going to be able to do anything about it, but we're going to be able to do it.
Guo Hao, General Manager of Toubo Gaming Club, answered my question. At a time when the gaming industry was still in its infancy, Guo Hao, like most people in the industry, loved gaming and loved the game as their only reason for joining the gaming industry.
So from then on, Guo Hao had the idea to build his own team.
"Because I like gaming, plus I'm from Uzi's hometown, Yichang, so I started to look for some of the better kids, put them on a team and then go to the City Heroes tournament, which is where I find internet cafes, find sponsorships for restaurants and put the players in internet cafes to train, and then play the training matches.
Later, Guo Hao and these kids went to play in the provincial tournament, and although they got a better ranking, there is still a gap from the championship, so at that time, in order to give these young people a better future, Guo Hao chose to send the potential players to the professional team, so that they can master the future.
However, Guo Hao is far from satisfied with this, for a young man full of vigor and enthusiasm, he can lead the team to the biggest stage, to become the world's strongest team has always been his original intention and goal. I wanted to form a team that could enter the LSPL, and I talked to Mr. Egg by mistake, but I didn't know he was Mr. Egg."
"But it's a good thing that we've got a good team.
"But Mr. Egg knew who I was and that I had sent that kid to 2144D, so after talking for a long time, Mr. Egg invited me to come and help him with the team, and I was very hesitant to do that at first, but after thinking about it, because 2144D was in the middle of a relegation tournament at the time, I thought I'd come and give it a try and try my best to make it work."
"I'm not sure if I've ever been in a position where I've had a chance to make it work," he said.
In 2015, 2144D relegation success, 16 years, there were 2144 and 2144D two brothers team, but then due to a series of reasons, 2144 dropped out of the LSPL, the whole club only left Guo Hao led 2144D team, Guo Hao himself said, at that time, there is a want to quit the idea, because he is not a person who want to be a jerk, so If the team has not been able to enter the LPL, it is not a particularly good thing for everyone.
However, one person's arrival changed the team, and that was the current TES head coach, White Lunar , in 2017, when 2144 and 2144D merged and reorganized to become DAN Battle Team, DAN recruited a group of newcomers at the end of '16, and with Guo Hao and White Lunar leading the team. DAN successfully entered the LPL in 2017.
The fact that DAN entered the LPL was a surprise for Guo Hao in his career hard to forget because of the elimination of the elevation system of the tournament,
If DAN didn't make it to the LPL that year, it would have meant that DAN and Guo Hao would never have had the chance to enter China's top professional gaming league.
DAN didn't have much luck when they first entered the LPL, being in the same group as EDG, WE, IM, SS, and iG. However, thanks to the hard work of the players, DAN beat many of the old favorites in the first round of the tournament, and came in at the top of the group. The new team is also known as the "Ling Shi Road Killer" because EDG and other teams are based in Shanghai's Ling Shi Road.
But DAN's heroic start to the season didn't continue, and the struggles facing Guo Hao and the team have only just begun.
It wasn't long before DAN paid the price for his 'youth'.
Throughout the 2017 LPL Summer Season, the wins on the 'Spirit Rock Road' team became all the wins for the DAN team throughout the summer, and even at the time many media outlets claimed that it was because of the elimination of the elevation system that DAN was able to bottom out 'without a care in the world'. But for this season, Guo Hao has his own interpretation.
Guo Hao has mentioned many times in interviews that he is an emotional, sentimental person, for him, helping DAN enter the LPL those "meritorious veterans" made a huge contribution and pay, so he is not willing to enter the LPL after the team to attract reinforcements to increase the strength of the team, but to choose to let these people who once accompanied him to struggle together in the highest stage of the fight.
The first time I've ever seen the game, I've seen a lot of people who have been in the game for a long time.
On a tactical level, the new team's ability to play heroically at the beginning of the season coincided with the fact that their opponents were completely unaware of their own players' hero pools and tactical playstyle, and when the team became familiar with all of their opponents, the method of "winning by surprise" could no longer be used.
Guo Hao himself said of DAN's highs and lows: "Our players aren't very good at what they do, and we're very focused on teamwork, so we're going to be in a position to lose if we get caught up in our opponents' research.
However, Guo Hao and his teammates didn't feel too much pressure or negative emotions, for them, entering the LPL is already a realization of the first stage of the dream. "Since the dream of the first stage has been realized, the team is still very united despite being at the bottom of the table, and everyone is preparing for the game very seriously, and there is not much burden."
But what happened afterward put Guo Hao and the team under tremendous pressure.
At the end of 2017, the LPL officially entered the era of Unionization, the high cost is obviously not DAN this small capital team can pay , and at that time, Toubo has not yet entered the e-sports and acquired DAN, so at that point in time, Guo Hao felt unprecedented helplessness and confusion, in my questions, Guo Hao recounted the period of
"We were facing the end of the game, and our coach, Xiao Bai, had already left the team, so I was really desperate, and I even said that I was ready to leave the gaming industry with Mr. Egg, and the feeling was that the dream you've been working on for so many years is coming true, but it's been sustained for less than half a year."
"One time, I was watching the team train with Mr. Egg, and although the news that DAN was going to be out of the game was all over the place, none of the team members asked me about it, and I knew in my heart that they knew about it, but none of them mentioned it, and we were still training normally. "
After that, Guo Hao resisted the pressure and ran to many companies to lobby, but fortunately, Guo Hao's efforts successfully ushered in the entry of Toubo, a "big factory". In 2018, DAN officially changed its name to TOP and stayed in the LPL, but for Guo Hao, the addition of Toubo didn't reduce his pressure, and due to the bottom of the 2018 Spring Championships, Guo Hao's passion for gaming was close to a low point.
"The results at that time were actually quite a 'slap in the face' for me, because at that time, Toubo and I were blowing a lot of bull, what how to turn the team into a giants, what operation mode ah, At that time, the results, in fact, my intention was not pure bragging, these ideas did have a realization. "
"I had no self-confidence at the time, so I didn't know if what I was thinking was right or not, if my decision was right or not, and I was devastated every day, and I was doing things blindly, and I couldn't sleep for days and nights."
It's not like I had a lot of time on my hands.
But Guo Hao and TOP weren't knocked down by the difficulties. After calming down, Guo Hao's will became very strong, and he was determined to make his former dream come true, and the team, Toubo, ushered in a new life.
After experiencing a slump, The TOP team completed a comeback in just one summer without any significant changes in the lineup.
The 2018 LPL Summer Season, the TOP team that was still at the bottom in the Spring Season managed to make it to the playoffs, although it lost to the RNG team in the 6-in-4 game. The 2018 RNG was arguably the strongest team at the time, and because of this, the entire TOP team instead had a celebration party after the defeat.
"In fact, when we got the runner-up in the spring tournament, or the winner of the mid-season cup, or even the first place in the current regular season, I didn't have too much joy in my heart, because that's what we were aiming for, so after the end of the game, we still examined our own problems and looked for solutions, But in 2018, that time, it's a completely different story, and I can say that it was the most joyful moment for me. moment. "
"I know that the players and the whole team were at their best, so I don't have any regrets about losing." Indeed, as was the case in DAN's first season in the LPL, the dream was realized through the 100% effort of everyone, and indeed there were no regrets for everyone who fought in the process.
However, the loss of the 2019 Bubble Match was also seared into the hearts of the entire TOP team and Guo Hao, "That time was different from '18, '18 was that our ceiling was right there, so we admitted to losing, but that time in '19, it was that we didn't do the best we could do, so we lost in a very bad way. "
Failure isn't scary, what's scary is not finding the reason for the failure, so in 2020, the team renamed TES exploded with the addition of two players, Karsa and JackeyLove, and for this year's TES performance, I also asked Guo Hao's opinion.
"In the game when JackeyLove first joined TES, TES wasn't in very good shape, and JackeyLove said, "It's okay, let's just let go of the game, and if we lose, it'll be people spraying me, not you guys. So the arrival of the two of them brought a lot of positive energy to the team and gave others more confidence." You can imagine what level of performance the others will reach after having such reassuring teammates.
Veterans, especially those with a history of honor, can have a much more powerful effect on the psyche of a young player than just helping the team win on the field through in-game action.
Many young players are afraid of the netizens who will criticize them for their actions or their team's failures, so with the veterans helping them with the pressure, they will become more confident and naturally better at what they do.
Looking at the development of the Touhou gaming club, and comparing it horizontally, you can find extremely similar examples in the traditional sports world. Jeremy Lin, as a member of the current Beijing Shougang team and a former NBA player, has also had a basketball life full of twists and turns and hardships.
In the Lin Crazy documentary, Lin's basketball talent as a child far exceeded that of his peers, and in his high school years he helped his alma mater create a brilliant history, and after entering Harvard University and joining the NCAA, he also remained at a high level, leading the varsity team to victory after victory.
But after entering the NBA as expected, Jeremy Lin had a very unsatisfactory life, many times being traded, cut, put down to the development league and even playing the ball and other experiences are all the time destroyed his will for basketball, but he through hard work and opportunity, and eventually made him in New York Madison Square Garden swept the entire NBA a "wind", "Lin crazy" name also resounded The name "Linsanity" also spread all over the world.
There are countless inspirational stories in the sports world, one after another miracle, one after another legendary players in the world before the top, have endured the unbearable trials and tribulations of ordinary people, but also paid far more than ordinary people's hard work, there is a line in the movie Heads of D> God has become a god, because he has done what people can not do.
Now, they got what they wanted, and the Jedi flipped to take the Silver Dragon Cup. And this year's S10, I believe TES will also deliver a satisfactory answer.