The next day, the whole world's media was reporting the news of Team
Newbee winning the The International 2014 at Seattle, and nearly all of them were focusing on the 30 million RMB (~5 million USD) prize money.Then, if there's so many people already reporting about the money, let's talk about the people shall we?
Zhang Ning, born in Hunan in 14 December, 1989, known as xiao8 on the Dota 2. This name was originated when he was playing another online game with the name "xiaoxiao" (literally means small small). When he was registering on the VS client to play DotA, he found out xiao1 - 7 were all taken, so he went with the name xiao8.
Zhang Ning's father was a construction contractor, his mother was a house wife, and a brother who is 5 years older than him.
In theory, this should be a story of a kid coming from a wealthy family, because his family's was quite well off when he was small, His mum's job was to collect rent from her properties every month. But, using Zhang Ning's own words, his parents inherited a very traditional Chinese virtue - stingy, oh no, I mean -- being strict! Therefore, this story's pace is going to evolve into something between a landlord and worker.
When he was in primary school, Zhang Ning's grades were pretty impressive, getting first in the school all around, loved by everyone, every teacher were praising him, parents were proud; therefore, they promised him:
"If you can also get 1st in school for your middle school entrance exam, we'll buy you a new computer."
This offer was very attractive to xiao8, you have to understand before when he was going to internet cafes, not only it was expensive, but he would also get into trouble from his father.
In the end, he did achieve 1st in school, but the computer thing was forgotten completely. Getting hit at since he was small, xiao8 didn't dare to confront his parents and ask for a reason. Disheartened, he got into middle school, and also the road of betrayal.
xiao8 became very naughty when he entered middle school. Do you still remember the teacher would always place the student, who is toughest to control, next to his desk? Well don't tease or laugh at him, that kid might become a world champion in the future.
xiao8 didn't enjoy a good relationship with his parents, his father was very powerful and would always be scolding or hitting him. His mother talked as if she's barking, but has a very soft heart. This caused xiao8 to live under huge pressures, when he's pressured at such a young age, his sense of betrayal will just get stronger during puberty.
xiao8 went on as a bad kid just like that, skipping school to play games, looking for trouble everywhere he goes, gets asked to see parents every week. When he was 2nd grade in high school (equivalent of Year 11?) in 2006, he dropped school and opened a studio with a few of his friends, specialising in power training for a popular MMORPG at the time. Taking away all expenses, he could earn more than 10 000 RMB a month (~$1.6k USD)! That's quite a bit of money. But for a 16 year old kid, this actually caused him to be very lost, because there wasn't much desire at that age, and he also didn't know how to spend it, then why did he have to earn so much money in the first place?
Therefore, when his father asked him if he wanted to continue studying or not, he felt going outside and gain more knowledge wasn't a bad idea, he chose to study computer software in Guangdong.
Being far away from home actually made his studies better. He really enjoyed software programming, but he felt lonely because of language (dialect) problems and he wasn't familiar with the place, he didn't have a single friend nearby. He could only go to internet cafes and have voice chats with his friends back home in Hunan. During this time, his friends in Hunan was starting to play a trending game called "Romance of Three Kingdoms" (I will just refer it as 3K from here on).
Speaking of this game, this game is really the origin of DotA pros. Alot of famous competitive pro players were teammates and friends with each other in 3K. Here, xiao8 met a player who would have huge influence on him in the later stages of his life - ZSMJ.
2009, when xiao8 was still playing 3K, seeing ZSMJ who transitioned into DotA long ago and winning the SMM world championship at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with LGD, he began transitioning into DotA. There was half a year's time he was playing both DotA and 3K simultaneously.
With his pretty impressive results in 3K, it didn't take long for him to be noticed in DotA scene. ZSMJ handed him the first opportunity, saying to him there's a chance of going to LGD, since "2009" was retiring and the team needed a player to replace him.
Having the aura of a world title, this was definitely attractive to xiao8. Therefore, he began constantly practicing DotA in a room on VS for a whole month.
It was at this time xiao8 set himself a goal: Play full-time professionally, win world championship.
But unfortunately, the original member of LGD, "BeNz", suddenly came back to the team, there wasn't a place for xiao8 anymore, so this opportunity only ended here.
But, his luck didn't stop here. Another DotA player, "xB" (rOtK), found xiao8 and invited him along with LongDD and others to form a powerful team in Chengdu called CH. xB even bought him airplane tickets and xiao8 was already ready to fly from Hunan to Chengdu.
It was at this time, his friend from Changsha (the capital of Hunan), Yao, asked him to stay, because Changsha was forming a new team, sponsored by a local wealthy boss, the team were all his local friends, most importantly it was very close to his home, this made xiao8 chose to stay, forming what's known later as "Team Dream".
At that time, Dream consisted of: Yao, DD, Li, 11, xiao8.
1500RMB a month, with not including food and housing, this still made xiao8 very happy, one is because he can finally reunite with his old friends, the other is also because he just turned pro, everything felt so fresh and new to him.
But that year, things didn't went quite the way they wanted, the deepest impression would be 2 weeks after the team was formed, they were already brought to Thailand for a tournament. In the end, they were already knocked out by an unknown team in the First Round, everyone was crying that night at the hotel and didn't have the mood to go around and sightsee.
Domestic tournaments were mainly 2nd or 3rd, this is because they were under a legendary team, this team was called EHOME. The 2010 EHOME consisted of "gods" such as BurNing and KingJ, you can say they kill anyone they meet. Although xiao8 didn't get 1st, but they were still young and a new team, morale in the team was high and everyone were encouraging each other.
Everyone seemed to be heading to the right direction, a world title wasn't far ahead if sufficient time was given to xiao8 and his teammates.
But, history is cruel. During the Chinese New Year of 2011, Dream suddenly got a notice to play a tournament in Beijing. Because it is during CNY, it was pretty difficult to get train tickets, the five of them went on stop by stop to Beijing. Before they head off, their manager said something very baffling, he said if they don't win top 3, the team won't issue their salary this month.
With them being tired and baffled, Dream took 3rd place, but the still didn't receive their salary in the end of that month. In fact, after they came back from CNY, they couldn't contact their manager, this team was disbanded under such mystery. But, within the eSports community at the time, this was quite normal. Alot of teams weren't run like a company, team and players were not bind by contracts, they can disappear just like that.
But money would always be wanted by someone. Not long after, a player also from Hunan called Zhou and another player SanSheng formed Team CCM, along with a boss willing to invest on the team from Beijing. He agreed to offer 5000RMB a month, which includes living expenses. Aimed at going pro and world title, xiao8 agreed and lied to his parents about working in Beijing, and head on to his new journey away from home.
At this time, CCM consisted of: 430, DDC, Zhou, SanSheng, xiao8
But sadly, the dream could only on for 3 months. 3 months later, they lost contact with the boss. Although they won a few titles, and also a Malaysian tournament called IPDC, but the hosts ran away with the prize money, CCM entered a difficult time, everyone were not in the mood to practice, they played by themselves everyday, xiao8's dissatisfy to the team grew deeper and deeper.
By August 2011, on the night of WCG China region grand finals, Wanda Enterprise director Wang Sicong told everyone on CCM they have officially bought the team, and going to change the name to IG. He returned the previous salaries that weren't given and promised to double their current salary, along with a contract. This meant xiao8's salary went up to 10,000 RMB, once he signs the contract he'll receive a huge sum of money.
But xiao8 still decides to leave, it's not that he had a problem with the money, but he felt that when this team was in a crisis, the way his team responded was very disappointing, a quote from his friend DDC caused him even more certain to leave:
"Why do we even need this much money? As long as we're happy playing together that's enough for me."
Therefore, xiao8 and DDC accepted his old friend ZSMJ's invite, went to a team made up of 4 Hunan fellows along with a guy from Macau, known as LGD. The team consisted of: xiao8, DD, DDC, Yao, ZSMJ.
At this time, the manager of LGD was the famous female in the DotA circle: Ruru. The salary she offered xiao8 was 4000RMB including food and housing, training was situated at an apartment in Tianjin. Although the salary was much less than the one offered by IG, xiao8 was still very happy, on one hand he can reunite with his old friends again, on the other hand he found out there's actually a maid specially clean and cook for them, this is his first time feeling how blessed it is to play professionally.
However, after a while, LGD wasn't performing well, they were knocked out at quarter finals at WDC. On that night, ZSMJ found xiao8 with tears in his eyes, saying his heart wasn't there in LGD anymore and plans to rest for a period of time.
After WDC, the player who influenced xiao8 during his professional career retired, but the team needs to go on. LGD was able to acquire Sylar through club transfer, the team's performance was starting to improve.
Then things after was looking as smooth as it can get, LGD had a rule, all prize money goes to the players, the club does not take any. If they can enter the finals in any tournaments, they'll increase their salary. A year later, everyone's salary was increased to more than 10,000RMB. The DotA scene in China was growing bigger and bigger, and xiao8 was becoming more famous.
2014, xiao8 originally plans to retire, but he was convinced by his friend and joined Team
Newbee, along with Banana, SanSheng, Hao and Mu, they went off again to fight for their dream of winning a world championship.The dream tour of The International 4
Zhang Ning said, during 2012 when he was in LGD fight for the TI2 at Seattle, everything went too well for them. They went on a 17-0 run and got into the Winner's Bracket final, and believed the title was just in front of them. But that game went all wrong mysteriously, the whole team made all kinds of silly mistakes and failure in communication, causing them to lose to themselves. When they lost, they lost their will as well, causing them to end up with a 3rd place, which was very disappointing and regretful.
In The International 4, it was the complete opposite. Team
Newbee kept losing in the group stage, in the end they needed a tiebreaker to secure top 8, it was like having his life saved from the edge of the cliff. Therefore they became extra careful with the games after, but the pressure was immense they couldn't eat well and when they sleep, he spent hours figuring out ways to play better. However, this pressure was what cause them to unleash their true potential and made them perform well.The thrilling Grand Finals
Before the grand finals, there was 2 days of rest. But during these 2 days, Team
Newbee didn't eat and sleep much, they were mostly watching other teams' games, learning about their opponents and scared they'll miss out any element. This caused them to nearly not touch the mouse and keyboard for 2 days straight. In the end, they lost their first game to VG, because they were too rusty and pressured. Luckily, after losing the 1st game, everyone felt the problem wasn't with their skill, but form - they would definitely be able to win if they could get their form back. In the end, they took down VG by 3:1 and won the world title.Dating and playing DotA both requires carefulness
xiao8 now can be said to have received a pay raise and promotion - winning the world title, marrying a pretty wife, entering the climax of his life. But, the only difference is he married his wife first.
2011, when xiao8 was having his darkest times before the "sunrise", after he met his wife Zhao Jie in Shanghai, Zhao Jie was already a well-known female star, but xiao8 was just a gaming nerd who can say to have an unstable lifestyle. Zhao Jie, at first, didn't even play games, she was only helping her friend to get autographs at WCG and could not understand a thing about DotA.
Getting rejected at first, long distance relationship, not agreed by her Shanghai parents, this was what a normal person see as 3 huge mountains to get past.
But, being introverted and not speaking much, xiao8 was able to tell from first sight this cheerful, talkative girl would be his dream girl. Being a Scorpious, nothing happens if he don't want anything to happen, but if a target is locked, then he can be very persistent.
The mountains were conquered one by one, his parents-in-law were also starting to stay up late and watch his games. On April 2014, the two of them are married. Warning! These all happened before he won the 30 million RMB prize money! Therefore, Zhang Ning "xiao8"'s case tells us, going for girl still requires hard work, other things are just excuses.
It's just like chasing your dreams.....
Captain of The International 4 Champion, Team
Newbee - Zhang Ning "xiao8"Sources: qq.com
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