How Are SEA, Chinese and Western Teams Different, Iceiceice Explains

Evil Geniuses' offlaner, Daryl Koh "iceiceice" Pei Xiang, has been a top player in competitive Dota 2 for a decade now. During this time period, he has enjoyed great success in Southeast Asia (SEA), as well as in other regions such as China and North America. Having extensive experience working in all three regions, Evil Geniuses shared a video where the Singaporean veteran highlighted the differences between the teams of China, SEA, and the West. According to iceiceice, the Chinese teams are the most devout, grinding through the entire season, the Western teams are more relaxed and only grind at crucial times while the SEA teams fall somewhere in between.

Iceiceice mentions the differences in preparations of Chinese, SEA, and Western teams

Iceiceice noted that one of the differences he noticed among the Chinese, SEA, and Western teams was how all of them viewed the game and prepared for it. As he mentioned, Chinese teams usually work over the course of the season and treat their bootcamps like second homes, while SEA teams, depending on their country, are either somewhat relaxed or similarly committed.

“For Chinese teams, it’s a lot about grinding and you kinda stay together in the bootcamp for the whole year and you really live and sleep together and you grind it out. Whereas a Southeast Asian team is actually a bit similar to a Western team but some Southeast Asian teams really stay together. It really depends on which country you are from.”

The western teams appear to have a totally different approach than their eastern counterparts, iceiceice suggested. He mentioned that his current team, Evil Geniuses, usually toils only when an event is nearby.

“A Western team, or EG at least, is actually more chill, I would say. You go two weeks before the event and then you go for bootcamp and then you train for the event for a week or two and then you just play the event. People are more relaxed in general.”

With Evil Geniuses, his first Western team, iceiceice will also be looking to claim his first TI title when TI10 begins on 7th Oct 2021. With two runners-up finishes in the 2021 Majors, the team is one of the favorites heading into the event. Evil Geniuses has been placed in Group A of TI10 and will play its first game of the group stage against Team Aster at 3:00 PM SGT on 7th Oct.