We Play Seriously

And that was just what our representative team, DBD, did on Saturday, 26^th June 2010.

Made up of a team of five, these former St Patrick’s Secondary School friends got together in 2007, when they were fifteen, playing soccer and LAN gaming such as Counter-strike (CS) and Defense of the Ancients (DotA).

In the initial stage, they were in it for the sake of fun. It wasn’t until Prabu Thanabalan, the leader of the team, joined in. Currently an MDIS student, Prabu, 18, said, “After playing together for quite some time, we decided why not try out competitive?”

They’ve been playing competitively since. Prior to the World Cyber Games (WCG) 2010 SAFRA Champions League, DBD had also previously participated in two tournaments held at SAFRA Game Haven, where they were knocked out in the first round for both competitions.

“That was how we got to know about WCG 2010. We frequent Game Haven’s website,” said Shawn Allenspach, 18, a Temasek Polytechnic’s Hospitality and Tourism Management student.

He added, “It was after our first tournament here that we started coming here regularly for our gaming sessions since the facilities here are good, and it’s fairly affordable. Before this, we played only around the east.”

The team found out about WCG 2010 on Game Haven’s website in April, and started training intensely for the competition, especially during their school holidays. Closer to the date of the competition, they trained even more by dedicating their time training from home, playing with each other online on weekdays, and heading down to Game Haven for practice over the weekends.

Being such regular customers, it was only natural they made friends with the staff at Game Haven, the cashiers in particular. Mario Tay Oon Tsi, currently taking Higher Nitec in Accounting at ITE Simei, said, “We also made friends with the other regulars here. They’re actually competing today, too.”

When asked how they felt about being selected to represent in2it.sg, they all agreed they were thrilled and honoured. “We felt very fortunate to be chosen among the other 10 teams who applied. It was a great honour for us,” added Andy Cheng Keng Loong, an Info Communications student from Temasek Polytechnic.

Because they were such avid gamers, we, at in2it.sg, couldn’t help but ask if their gaming sessions had affected their studies. Shawn replied, “No, that has not been a problem. We believe gaming will not affect our studies if we manage our time well.”

So we just had to ask how their parents were taking it. They looked at each other and laughed. Obviously they had great chemistry. “Nothing much” was what Andy and Mario replied.

Wesley Hung Ding Jun, who was deeply fascinated with a white keyboard of their friends – and fellow competitors – nonchalantly replied, “My parents are okay with it. My brother is into gaming too. Sometimes we play together.”

Wesley is currently in ITE Simei, studying Higher Nitec in Accounting as well.

While fellow team mates didn’t face much problems with parents, Shawn was the exception. “My parents are against it. Sometimes when they see me playing online with my friends late at night, they will tell me to switch off my computer.”

We understand where their parents are coming from, but we’re glad that they’re coping well with school despite their gaming sessions.

Unfortunately, our team lost in the Top 16 round against the eventual champions of the tournament for DotA, The Last Time, whom I was told has been around for about four years or more, and they were one of the known top teams.

“They were more experienced and had more game control,” said Prabu, the leader.

He added that they trained for the wrong version. They’d initially trained for the new version, only to find out during the competition that they were competing for the version before. According to them, in DotA, one version upgrade makes a lot of difference.

“We could have fought, but The Last Time had more control,” commented Prabu.

“We’re definitely disappointed, but at least it wasn’t as bad as our previous two competitions. It was a good game,” he added.

Shawn, who was equally disappointed, calmly told us they’d be more than happy to represent us again should there be more opportunities in the future.

No matter what, we here at in2it.sg will always regard Team DBD as our Kings of Gaming. You are winners in our eyes!

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