[Event] Pokemon Card Giveaway - Results!

I decided that since there were too many posts tied at one vote, and it would be impossible for me to choose which ones to giveaway, I would cut down the number of individual card giveaways to those with more than 1 vote.
Even Eliza "MsJovial" Ong won one!
Could all the winners please contact me via facebook message on my fanpage with your address? If you'd prefer to collect it (only applicable for Singaporeans) please let me know too! I'll try to organise one day for a meet up so that everyone can get it at the same time.

 Winners of the individual cards :

Winners of the 7 full sets :
1. Sia Choon Hong

2. Howard See

3. Halim Hadi

4.Vincent Valentine

5. Muhammad Jay

6. Tan Zhen Sheng

7. Frederick Benjamin Ann

THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR YOUR INTERESTING REPLIES AND SUPPORT!!!

My next giveaway will be of signed posters of Kunkka's and Artgerm's DotA2 work.
Signed by the Artist, not by me!!
Here's a picture of them all, I've grown attached to some of them... so I haven't decided which and how many I will giveaway.

the whole collection. Kunkka's work on top, cm, lina, drow, wr below done by Artgerm

Artgerm's autograph on the CM

Artgerm's autograph on the lina

Kunkka's autograph on the DotA loadscreen artwork

Kunkka and I at License2Play

[Event] Pokemon Card Giveaway

POKEMON CARD GIVEAWAY!!

These are what I refer to Pokemon Cards, I hope no one thought I meant anything else!

I have 6 different cards, and 9 of each.

Each card that I send out will be autographed with a personalized message. 

THE PRIZES

1st-7th prize : 1 set of 6 pokemon cards each (meaning one full set!)

8th - 19th : 1 pokemon card each

HOW TO WIN???

You can win these by leaving a comment on my status here, and getting people to like your comment.

The comments with the highest number of votes will win!

Currently leading the pack with 150 likes is Sia Choon Hong, one of the most loyal supporters of PMS Asterisk* =D

WHEN WILL IT CLOSE?

I have decided to extend this til saturday 15 Dec 2012 2359 +8GMT.

The International... So Far.

I'm finally recovering from the 20+ hour flight, 2 days later.

day 0 can be read here :http://teamzenith.wordpress.com/2012/08/24/the-international-2012-day-0/
and day 1 here :http://teamzenith.wordpress.com/2012/08/25/the-international-2012-day-1/#comment-135

as an unofficial add on to these 2 posts though, i've got a bunch of photos to share.

day 0, Living in Transit :

xy, being very tired at Dubai while waiting for our connecting flight to Seattle.

ice and i, on the way to the valve office

xy me and aloy trotting along

while waiting for the traffic light

the guys entering the Valve building

Group stages revealed!!

hy, spoilt for choice. valve is well prepared for a zombie apocalypse.

the simlarly well stocked ladies. never seen a larger bottle of listerine in my life.

photo wall of photos from valve's filming, and The International 2

i found scythe!

the training room, with orange and EG.

a short video to show how the bootcamp room is like. i believe its where portal 2 was.

A Reply to a comment : tips on casting?

i received a comment on my previous blog post, which i'd like to reply as a standalone entry, because, i think its something i can elaborate on.


Hermit said...
Ah, more insight into the illustrious FurryFish. Just to ask, are there any videos of you casting matches? And secondly, what sort of advice would you give to someone who wants to get into commentating but is still schooling.

Any response, even one telling me to sod off, would be much appreciated.

Cheers!

11:29 PM

 My Reply :
hmm... yeah i have a few videos of LAN casting, which are too long for youtube. i do have a recent one which i did as a stream. it was sprung upon me very suddenly, 5 years after i stopped shoutcasting. you can view it here, in 3 parts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSyxHfI74BU&list=UUl99WlVGRkCXmAznyTm2JDw&index=9&feature=plcp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U3Nf8axyxk&list=UUl99WlVGRkCXmAznyTm2JDw&index=7&feature=plcp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJMVlhpRU7A&list=UUl99WlVGRkCXmAznyTm2JDw&index=8&feature=plcp
according to some people on stream either myself or one of my 2 co-casters let out a burp at the end. and i apologise for that.




i categorise casting into 2 kinda - online and LAN
Online casting is less forgiving because people can hear and watch everything very clearly, without being disturbed by cheering crowds, and because VODs can be re-watched.
more analysis is also expected, as are insights into the game, gameplay, gamers etc
lan/live casting, imo, is infinitely more fun because i thrive on audience feedback, and its more about the excitement as opposed to the analysis.

if you want to start casting, i suggest you familiarise yourself with online casting first:

set up a stream over at twitch.tv or own3d.tv hook up a mic, get a replay and start on a replay.
of course you'll need to feel your way around software like xsplit, photoshop etc as well.
you will discover that you're more partial towards either analysis, or play by play casting.
optimally, casters cast in pairs, with each person taking one of the roles. i myself prefer to do play by plays.

additional tips if you're casting dota :
- work on your map awareness, make sure you don't miss kills and engages
- keep checking items in stash/chick
- in huge engages, its normal to not be able to talk about everything that's happening at once. you can instead focus on one important hero and track its movements until its dead or out of engagement, then move on to another hero.

you know you havent written in a long time when people ask you about it on msn.

paperheader pms me on msn : you havent blogged in a super long time.

i've been feeling kinda dry recently... creatively speaking. and i think it's time for me to get my grammar and writing skills oiled and back in action. as always, i type, with minimal punctuation, just words so you get what i mean.

And because i've been so uninspired, i've asked the people on my facebook to give suggestions on topics to write about. i guess i'll address them one by one for a start.


tips for people who want to follow my career path.
i graduated from uni, and spent the good part of a year doing contract work, applying for jobs and being involved in shoutcasting and gaming - both as a player and as a caster.
after doing contract work at a few companies, i realised that an office job would be the death of me. spending my days from 8-5 cooped up at my desk is definitely not a way i'd spend my time for a couple/few thousand a month.
then one day, in 2007 while casting at an event, i saw a Razer booth, and there was a sign outside saying they were hiring.
i applied.
i got the job.
admittedly, i wasn't exactly sure of what i wanted to do. i went in wanting to do marketing, then was plopped into ap sales doing an admin role, then i wanted to go into sales, lacked experience, went back to marketing, and eventually progressed from asia-pacific marketing to global marketing before finally quitting in may 2012.

for me, i loved Razer and their products, the brand. it didnt matter as much to me what my role in the company was as long as i knew i could make a difference in some way.
so my first tip would be, make sure you know what your priorities are.
a job in the gaming industry usually overlaps with your passion, hence, while it might be enough for you to be a part of it, its not enough for your career progression if you don't know your strengths and preferences, and long term (and indeed along the way) people will question you, and you will question yourself, about your decisions to work in the gaming industry.

my next tip is, don't burn bridges.
and don't do anything stupid, because the industry is small, indeed its made smaller by the internet, which breaks down boundaries between people, and word spreads. like wildfire.

stories and poetry
i'm sorry, but this isnt gonna happen! not because i'm unwilling, but because i havent written an essay since i was 16, and i don't think i should start right now.

life as a gamer in SG context
in singapore, many things and people and communities are marginalised. gaming is just one of them. while there are passionate people, society at large is a practical (and traditional) entity. as long as it doesnt make business sense, gaming won't grow to be anything.
however singapore is one of the most connected countries, in the world. gaming, facebook surfing statistics, wifi availability, all of these are very clear indicators.
government bodies do not recognise gaming, i think they've filed it away as a "problem" and keep an eye on it, but in general, they have no idea what to do about it.
the press often talks about the worst of gaming, and attributes the worst of youth problems to it.
11 out of 10 parents will tell you that gaming is the worst thing that happened to their kid. (yes, that's not a typo)

life when i'm not gaming
i sleep, i eat... i go out. i chill, watch serials... i go to the beach for tanning sessions i go out on photography walk abouts.

i enjoy travelling, when i can.

i guess i'm pretty normal? i like catching prawns and rubbing my cats belly... which brings me to the next point...

cats
http://youtu.be/CU6MXKAsugw
nuff said.
but well, i'll add in some recent photos of a very beloved cat, called mimi.

i also like taking photos of random cats. in fact, i have a facebook page with a few friends, and we share the photos which we take there. (ok mostly i do)

my bad side
i'm antisocial. really. i don't enjoy making small talk with people and meeting new faces, most of the time.
i'm impatient, and very snappy. this means that i make a very bad teacher.
and i have few friends. those i DO consider friends, are people who are very close to me.

men
wud? i have nothing to say about this.

vonvon's awesomeness.
definitely not saying anything about this. *cough*absolutely not *cough* awesome*cough*.


***
and so it ends. my first post in a mega long time.
hopefully the next one won't be too long after this one......

le text abuser

first off, i'd just like to state that me getting text abused in game has actually become a rare occurance.
but i've experienced it enough times to know how to deal with it and how to or not to respond to it.
and most of the time, i just ignore it. in the end it makes the text abuser look stupid, raging to himself with no one taking the bait. people DO seem to forget i'm 28 and way beyond feeling pissed/taking offence at random stupid remarks some anonymous person makes.

anyhow, my point today is... what are the motivating factors which make someone abuse another person in game? totally unprovoked?
i have a few guesses, but i guess if you can add anything on, i'm interested to hear you out.

- jealousy. this is actually a strange point, because i'm not too sure why another guy will be jealous of a female.
- anonymity. because the internet lets you do everything under an aka, you're never really going to be found out.
- trolling. possibly, but sometimes the line between trolling and very personal attacks which are out to hurt is crossed. the line isn't that thin, there's quite a difference, and it is very obvious when someone is purposely out to make you feel upset with personal attacks.
- attention. i guess they want attention?
- bored. a lame reason, but i won't write it off.
- offended. maybe my existance offends him? or maybe i snapped at him when he was noobing in some pub game when i was having a bad day. lol.

internet bullying is a real thing, perhaps more rampant overseas than here. it makes for a good sociological debate/discussion.

***
on another note, my headache which has been plagueing me for 6 hours has finally subsided. FINALLY.
but i can't sleep cos i slept 18 hours out of the last 24.

Why MYM.DotA Left : Hyhy Breaks The Silence

Both Hyhy and MYM have announced the termination of Scythe's contract, and it seems to have sparked off some news posts and discussion about MYM's (failed) foray(s) into Asia.
Although Hyhy has rejected other interviews, I managed to squeeze him for a few precious replies, and I hope this sheds some light on the situation, or at least, the team's point of view on the whole matter.

MYM and Scythe
Scythe caught MYM's eye after their 3rd place finish at the International 2011, and the team were promised salaries as part of their contract.
Because the members were conscripted following that, the team's roster was unstable, and no one saw them taking part in any competitions in their original line up.


GG.net spoke about the initial line up falling apart. Could you give us some insight into why this happened?
Hy: There have been no instances of our initial lineup falling apart. When MYM approached my team (Scythe.sg) back in September 2011, I did inform them thatt 3 of the core members would be inactive for 2-3 months because of national service. (In Singapore, males above the age of 16 are conscripted for 2 years.) We also made it known to MYM that if they wished to sign us, the members who are unable to participate in competitions because they have to serve national service would be substituted.
Our former sponsor was also expressing interests in continuing sponsorship, so we weren't exactly desperate for the partnership with MYM to go through. However, MYM's offer was attractive enough and of course it was great to play under such an established name, so we joined




Falli mentions that MYM was told to remove the tag, the team just kept playing with it. Any reasons why?

Hy: Falli has been in direct contact with me the past few months, I think if he did ask us to remove the tag, I would have known, and would not have hesitated to remove the tag immediately. There wouldn't have been any need for Falli to even insist on it. Besides, MYM has its own website, social media sites and media contacts to inform the public should they have had the intention to announce they wanted to end the cooperation with the team, so there is really no logical reason why the team would insist on playing with their tag, if they were told not to.

Is your split with MYM an amiable one? What is the relationship with the organisation now?
Hy: I confronted Falli after I saw his post on gosugamers, where he stated in a MYM vs EVO gosubet thread, that this MYM team is NOT MYM. It was only then that he told me MYM cannot continue sponsoring the team, especially when there were many other teams out there asking for less. 
Of course I was aware that the team wasn't exactly performing, the reason was largely due to the fact that my boys had to go for national service.
All said, even though we now have a strong and ready lineup, I did not want to compromise what our team is worth by re-negotiating a partnership with MYM because of a few things:
1. MYM has not issued a single month of salary since I signed with them even though they promised that salaries would be paid out in a timely fashion. Falli himself gave me his word on this.

2. I have heard that my team was not the only entity to whom MYM owed salaries to.

3. I did not like the way MYM "ended" things with the team. I felt they could be more open and direct about it.
Do note that I'm not directing accusations at MYM, and that if any offence is taken, it is not my intention. I am only sharing what I know of the matter, and how I experienced it.


Team Zenith
In what some call a slap on MYM's face, Hyhy teams up with iceiceice, xy, Chuan (from iG fame) and xfreedom, and take the first place in joinDOTA's Masters IV cup right after they announced their departure from MYM.
The new team takes on the name of Singapore's most successful DotA team, Team Zenith, which at one point in time went undefeated for 6 months straight.
The starting 5 of Team Zenith consisted of ToFuboi-, GPS, Ant-, iceiceice and LuX. The line up eventually changed, and among the subsequent players who joined and left was hyhy.
Here's an old team page http://www.teamzenith.net/?page_id=2 

Team Zenith wins ESWC 2009 http://www.gosugamers.net/dota/news/8851-zenith-crowned-eswc-dota-champions

Team Zenith is currently actively seeking sponsors who believe in them and who will follow them through to world domination.
Please email team.zenith@ymail.com if you have any enquiries.

The current Team Zenith DotA2 line up consists of :
"hyhy" Han Yong Benedict Lim
"iceiceice" Daryl Koh
"xfreedom" Nicholas Lim
"xy" Toh Wai Hong
"ChuaN" Wong Hock Chuan

Micro blogging - early morning thoughts

If the only thing keeping me hanging on is knowing that if I give up everything will fall apart, Should I still be hanging on?

I Love LANs

[thoughts of a half-asleep half high fish]

i've had my fair share of traavelling and experiences, but there's just something about a LAN event, experience which just cannot be replaced. and it can be experienced in so many different ways.
allow me to elaborate.

attending a lan event as a competitive team
this is a good mix of fun and not fun. its definitely an attention fest, but there are always lots of obligations to fulfil, and disagreements with the team, about when to sleep, when to wake, how to play, how to sit, what to wear, where to eat... the list goes on, but in general when you have 5 different opinions, and only one decision, its gonna be difficult.

attending a lan event as a sponsor
this is actually probably the most interesting of all, to me at least. i get the authority to do lots of things, and the access to all the different off limit areas of the competition area, as well as all the rights to talk to whichever player i want to.
its a very abusable position, especially when i attend as a sponsor and as a competitive gamer. if anyone offends me, i can always take that into consideration when i review their sponsorship! not that i'm being biased, but its all about the experience of the gamer, and how they relate to the sponsor. so if the experience isnt good, who better to evaluate than the gamer her/himself/ =p
in all serious-ness though, there are standards to adhere to, and most of the time, if anything goes wrong, its your fault for not spotting it early, and you have to fix it. so that's the stress, and not so fun bit.

attending a lan event as a normal visitor
one of the more boring things to do... you don't really have an agenda, and probably will get bored very fast. a visit to a lan event is probably just one of those things to d oone a saturday, as opposed to actually being the main feature of your weekend.

attending a lan event as a gf
this can be kinda fun, but it will suck if your bf isnt some gosu player who can get you access everywhere, so that means you're stuck outside the competition areas, maybe holding all his personal effects, like keyboard bag, wallet, watch, and straining your eyes and neck trying to figure out what his pixels are doing on the screen, together with tother people's pixels.
going as a gosu player's gf, however, is a different story, and this is the fun kind cos you get to pull lots of strings, act manager and basically experience the lan event as a successful competitior,  albeit vicariously.

my recent few events have been fantastic experiences, mostly of the sponsor/competitor genre though.
share your experience with me?