Cover-Credits:
Team SMG raised its game in the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) Southeast Asia (SEA) 2021-22 Tour 1: Division and finished with a 5-2 win-loss record. The team was guaranteed to at least compete in the tiebreakers for one of the three Major slots allocated to the region if the first Major wasn't canceled. As part of the winner's interview after Team SMG defeated OB.Neon, Yeik "MidOne" Nai Zheng provided his thoughts on his team’s DPC result and the absence of a Major. MidOne noted that this result was a "small win," but he had set his sights on the bigger picture - the Major - in order to prove himself. After learning that there was no Major, he felt quite sad.
MidOne talks about Team SMG’s result in the DPC SEA and the cancelation of the Major
Team SMG’s performance in the DPC SEA 2021-22 was quite impressive considering the team had not been in the best of touches in the third party tournaments that it participated in in the preceding months. After winning five series out of seven and only losing twice, Team SMG had a very high chance of moving on to the Major, but unfortunately, there wasn't one this season.
While it may seem as if Team SMG had a very successful season from the outside, from MidOne's perspective, it's still a smaller triumph. In the interview, he stated that his goal was to raise the Aegis at The International (TI), but one of the first roads to get there, the Major, got canceled and it broke him.
“I wouldn’t say I call it (Team SMG’s result in the DPC) a success but definitely, it’s a small win to me. I would only call it a success when I get the Aegis. You know, everybody’s aiming for the Aegis. This is a small win. Not going to LAN breaks me. I don’t get to prove myself there. I think everybody wants to compete against every team, you know, around the world instead of only your own region. I was looking forward to the next Major, this Major, let’s say but it’s not happening so sad.”
Since MidOne left OG to make way for Anathan “ana” Pham in early 2021, MidOne has been hungry to prove himself in top-tier Dota 2. He had said that ana might be better, but he had his own style and was determined to prove himself again.
MidOne, a Dota 2 veteran, had the most success in his career while with Team Secret, where he won three Majors - DreamLeague Season 8, The Chongqing Major, and the MDL Disneyland Paris Major.
Valve had apologized to the teams and announced its plans to hold a replacement LAN tournament after it received a lot of backlash from the community on the cancelation of the Major. As to whether these plans will actually materialize, and if anything will be geared towards the teams that qualified for the Major, remains to be seen.
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