Just when I thought world domination drew nigh, shit happened. The lifetime partner of the captain, (arguably) best support player, weirdest ward placer, non-glory-chaser melen decided to retire from professional gaming. Sad news, not just to our country.
Take a look at this testimonial, written out of sheer respect.
The sign of things to come begins 3 years ago when you added my msn (it would normally be the other way around) and started asking the contacts of all good teams from me. I did not know why I helped a total stranger from a foreign country then but I did because the fact that you reached me (3 years ago) to get these information shows how serious you take all this and really strives to be the best in what you do. You opened my eyes that the Dota playing field is global now and beating the world requires training partners around the world, not just your own LAN scene.
From then on, news started to spread about this new Xcn team that seems unbeatable from the contacts I gave out that fateful day to no surprise from me. To be able to command a team of players (arguably) better than yourself skillwise and inspire respect (sometimes fear) among the best of teams in memory (Ct-ROA , Kingsurf , Zenith , Flow) in and off the game is no easy feat. The SMM 2006 winning team leader WN-SK.M4gi once told me that each 5 in a team must have his own purpose and your purpose is undeniably crucial and perhaps more important than Yamateh in Kingsurf.
The team you form remains (at least for me) a model team for all teams. A team that can walk into any tournament and has a high chance of winning it no matter which teams are present. That aura of invincibility remains since our first meeting IRL at ACG 2007 is still felt at the SMM tourney where everyone ranks you all as favourites after Day 1 of the competition.
With that kind of aura, its amazing that there are basically no bad blood from the community in general to you guys, only massive amount of respect and a sense of sad inevitability of not being able to catch up with such a superior team in every way.
Perhaps the greatest compliment comes from your greatest rival, Kingsurf. Although you both never directly spoke, Papaxiong can almost be certain that both teams has started researching each other since their first meeting 2 years ago and knew each other so thorough to a level that no other team can claim. The euphora of beating each other could be equivalent of winning the whole tournament itself. I always think that the focus on your team in each tournament creates another hurdle for themselves in winning the tournament itself. News of your retirement is greeted with a simple “sigh” from him as if he lost a good friend in battle. I know he will miss the draft battles he waged with you since 2 years ago , would you?
Your retirement for Dota is definitely a huge loss to the Dota community , not only for Indonesia and Asia, the world as well. Though I would selfishly tried to stop you from doing it, but to do that is asking too much from a man who has given so much to the game we all loved. With your obvious talents, I am sure you will succeed anywhere in life.
Good luck in your future endeavors my friend, melen.
Yes good luck to you melen. Thanks for making our country known in professional gaming. I may sound to pessimistic here but this will probably be the last entry about the best Indonesian gaming team. I really doubt they can find his replacement (not so soon). Years of hard works and understanding….
Now its time to farm money, not farm creeps anymore