BB Ji | wen
01
Dream Chaser
Compared to the game itself, interviews, player live broadcasts, team vlogs... Documentaries are not a very popular content genre in the esports world. However, in the Dota 2 circle in China, a documentary called "Dream Chaser" occupies a "unique position" in history.
"Dream Chaser" tells the story of the Ti6 Wings team's journey to winning the championship - a few young men who were unknown before the start of the tournament, after a month of baptism, played the best game to win the honor of world championship. Every year in the future, once the Chinese Dota 2 team hits the key "life and death game", there will be players who will check in to "Dream Chaser" to "relive old dreams" and "summon spirits" to Wings.
After Ti10 LGD lost to Team Spirit in an upset, the number of viewers of "Dream Chaser" jumped to 3,000 at the same time on station B
The popularity of the "Conjuring" stalk is naturally related to the embarrassing ending of Wings at the end, but the content of "Dream Chaser" itself is also enough to move people. The synopsis of the documentary reads that this is "the story of a group of young people with an average age of less than 20 years old, the story of a young man chasing dreams who defeated tradition, and a story of creating miracles".
One of the great charms of e-sports is that similar stories of grassroots counterattacks, pursuit of dreams, and pure blood will always be staged.
In September of this year, two teams from China, Dreamfire (DF) and MDY-WHITE (MDY.W), at the ALGS Championship of APEX Legends (equivalent to Ti and S), surprised the world with no one or even many people knowing about their participation.
Among them, DF ate chicken twice on the first day of the competition, which completely detonated the emotions of the audience, and in the final stage, they were once the favorites to win the championship. In the end, DF and MDY.W finished 7th and 18th respectively.
This "best record in history" is not complete at first glance, but for the Chinese team with no competition area, no sponsorship, no coach, and no club, it can be called a cool story.
In the days after the start of the ALGS competition, APEX-related entries rushed to the hot search on social platforms many times, and the originally small domestic APEX circle received unprecedented attention. Netizens never knew that they were moved, and they joined the ranks of cheering, forming a huge voice. Looking back a month later, such a scene still makes many APEX players enthusiastic.
It just so happened that in the past two days, a documentary about DF and MDY fighting ALGS came out, bringing our memories back to Birmingham, England in September. The name of the documentary is "CN APEX Dream Chaser".
02
Generate electricity with love
The theme of "CN APEX Dream Chaser" is "growth", and it does not show the difficult details of the game, but focuses more on the six players of the Chinese team. In my opinion, the documentary tried to answer a question in many people's minds as soon as it came up:
Why does an e-sports project without a national server and no competition area have a domestic professional team to impact the world championship?
The starting point for DF and MDY.W to get into APEX and embark on a career path is actually quite simple: a love of gaming.
In 2019, APEX Legends came out and they played the game through different channels. Some people like APEX's mechanics that combine low frustration and cool kills, some people are attracted by the diversity of the map, and some people bluntly say that APEX values teamwork and individual operations, and the combat rhythm is unique. In short, APEX Legends became an important part of their lives, and the young teenagers had the idea of fighting together.
But "generating electricity with love" is never easy, and the reality of the dilemma varies. DF's Peter (Pite) was a sophomore in high school, making money on the assembly line and buying a computer, determined to "do a career", but on the one hand, his family did not understand, and on the other hand, after several years of hard work, he was just a small anchor and a "jobless vagrant".
Peter
Another DF team member, Roieee, from Taiwan, got married early, working as a painter during the day to support his family, and only at night did he have more time to live broadcast, train, and look for opportunities to play professionally.
Hundred brothers
MDY. W's core team, "Flying Sniper", has been "retired from the network for many years" before playing the APEX career, and with the mentality of trying, he resigned from his stable job; Lao Hang, who is in the same team, has 140,000 fans at station B, and is a passer-by master who has a certain reputation in the post bar forum, he admitted that if he hadn't been pulled to play professionally, he would have found a job at that time and lived a dull life.
Flying Sniper
Players are born at the grassroots and are unknown is not the biggest problem, and the lack of a domestic competition system makes it impossible for professional teams to find the soil for survival and development.
Although in the eyes of fans, DF is the old "giant" of China's APEX, but according to the standards of the current esports industry, DF can't even be considered a club.
In fact, they have no employers, no bosses, no salaries, no stable sponsors, no training bases. To maintain the operation of the team, you can only rely on the prize money of the tournament and the income of the players' live broadcasts. MDY. W's sole sponsor is an in-circle community. From this point of view, the ridicule that they are an "Internet café team" and a "anchor team" is not a joke.
MDY. W's contestant "Five Watches Mingyue" was a well-known genius boy in the OW era. He joked that he might have made more money if he had been watching live streaming as his main business, but "there are some things that you can't learn to live stream at home... I've grown every year when I've been playing professionally."
Five more bright moons
Pursuing dreams and proving yourself on a bigger stage is almost the only belief of Chinese APEX professional players. "It's only when I'm playing offline and when the crowd is cheering for me that I feel like I'm really alive." DF's captain 3Mz (sandwich) said in an interview. The introduction of Station B of "Flying Sniper" reads "A player born for the game".
3Mz
However, the back side of the pure dream is the cruel reality - it is difficult for Chinese teams to compete for places in offline competitions, and as "wild card regions", DF and MDY.W have to withstand high delays to participate in the selection of other regions, and it is not until this year that they have the opportunity to compete abroad.
The ALGS Championship in September was the first time that DF and MDY.W participated in an offline competition with a full lineup. Lao Hang recalled that as soon as he sat down to play, his hands were shaking all the time, and he couldn't control the shaking, he noticed that his teammates' hands were also shaking, and when he watched the replay, he found that DF's players were also shaking, "Everyone was very nervous and didn't know what to do."
03
The plan has changed, and I am ready to win the championship
Coming to the ALGS Championship means playing against the best teams in the world. But the starting line is not necessarily the same.
The first is the training environment. In the UK, experienced clubs will sign up with local internet cafes in advance, while some major international clubs can provide training bases for APEX branches.
But by the time the Chinese team DF looked for a training venue, the popular good Internet cafes were already full, leaving only the local Internet cafes with poor conditions, with a noisy environment and passers-by on the side during training. "It's nice to have a place to come." DF's team leader could only smile wryly.
For a battle royale game like APEX, data analytics is very useful. "If you only rely on three players, you won't do well." The flying sniper also knows this truth. But the Chinese team obviously can't afford full-time coaches and analysts.
The contestants can only keep training hard day and night, while consciously summarizing feedback, and some of the work of watching data analysis depends on the help of fans and friends in the community. DF and MDY.W's teams are coached by players who discuss routes and tactical choices between innings, and write down precautions during the game on a piece of paper in advance.
And it is these two teams with a little earthy flavor and childishness that have shocked the world a little bit in the arena of ALGS.
DF showed terrifying dominance in the group stage on the first day, eating chicken twice in the second and fifth games to secure a place in the final early, but they actually had a better result in the upper bracket, finishing third; MDY.W also made up for the early elimination of the last London tournament and steadily reached the final stage. This achievement is enough for the domestic APEX community to celebrate the New Year in advance, and "every step is a win".
In the final stage, in the second game, DF once again perfectly implemented the tactical ideas, successfully ate chicken, and became the match point team, at this time, the entry # of # has changed, ready to win the championship # rushed to the first hot search on Weibo, and the Chinese audience at the scene was immersed in the sea of cheers and shouted hoarse - is there really a miracle this time?
It's hard to explain in a few words why DF and MDY.W have exceeded expectations at ALGS. Maybe this is the "chemical reaction".
Pitt said in an interview that when the team was first established, each player had more ideas and opinions of his own, and after playing for a long time, he became familiar with each other before he had a tacit understanding, "I know what he thinks, when he will do what he will do, and what he will say." It's nice to be able to run together." MDY. W's old hang also said that the team usually quarrels, and there are times when they want to leave the team, but in the end they still persist.
Or perhaps, in the case of overcoming tension and showing the level of training, in terms of individual strength, the Chinese team has always been not weak.
3Mz believes that there are a lot of great players in China, and what everyone lacks is not the technical strength in the game, but the correct training environment, "they don't know how to play this game".
Yuki, a Chinese player from a foreign Alliance team, believes that the most important thing for Chinese players is to "let others see it", "There are a lot of great people, if you don't broadcast live, don't send things, don't play training matches, no one knows about you, it's useless." ”
In the end, CN APEX did not usher in a miracle of one step, and both teams ended the ALGS journey in an acceptable and slightly regrettable way.
On the night after the game, the players relaxed on the sidelines, taking photos with the audience and reviewing the interesting details of the game. In the end, everyone came to the small stand on the lawn and took a family photo, shouting the slogan:
"Seventh this year, first next year!"
04
wish
The ending of "CN APEX Dream Chaser" is full of hope. It not only freezes the precious moment that can be recorded in the history of Chinese esports, but also puts a soft light on the future of CN APEX - at least in the short term, it should not be used to "conjure".
A lot has changed this year at ALGS. Let passers-by and viewers know that there are still hot-blooded and pure teams in China who are constantly fighting, so that domestic APEX players who are working hard and want to embark on a career realize that the grass platform team in the wild card area can also hit the highest honor, so that the world can see the potential and energy of CN APEX.
At the beginning of October, the official announcement of the fourth year of ALGS announced that the Chinese region will be included in the scope of direct invitation, and two Chinese teams will be invited in the first stage of the competition, and according to the performance, the invitation quota of the Chinese region may be expanded to 2-4 in the second stage of the competition, and the Chinese team with the most points will directly enter the championship.
This means that the opportunities for China's APEX professional teams to play in tournaments will become more stable, and more invitations will also lead to the formation and growth of new teams. This e-sports soil finally has new nutrients.
The emergence of APEX Esports will also bring more new players. On November 1st, the new season update of APEX Legends was launched, adding a new hero "Wirepipe" to the game, and a new mechanic "Promotion Trial" was added to the qualifying match. Continuous, high-quality content updates help expand the player base, from playing games to watching games, and pass on a good player community atmosphere.
Impressive spectator atmosphere
At the end of the documentary, everyone thinks that CN APEX will get better and better. Wugen Mingyue was a little unconvinced, thinking that the team's performance would be better if she played again; Baidi's goal is only to win the ALGS championship, and as long as he "plays better this time than last time", he can get closer to his dream step by step. What's more, we know that they're not just talking empty words.
Perhaps, this is the "most promising episode".
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