What can we do to relax when we are supposed to stay at home? Game together of course!
With the restrictions on gathering offline, the only option we had for any activities was online. There were a lot of considerations and planning done to make sure if the events bonded the players meaningfully and of course very fun.
After much consideration and support from our partners #SGPlaysTogether (an initiative by SGEA) and The Gym, we decided to launch #SGPlaysTogether TeleMatch DOTA 2, an online community competition for casual DOTA 2 players. We managed to gather 10 teams and we even heard that one of the teams was formed via our DOTA 2 SOOS group! It was the first time that they played with each other and decided to make things work together.
To be honest, the major concern we had was whether there were casters for TeleMatch. We tried looking for aspiring casters and there were none! We were so close to streaming just the game camera when some of the participants offered to cast the games even though it might be their first time.
We only had three main rules for casting:
Be positive and encouraging. (If the caster has an opinion about the play, explain the situation and share how it could be improved)
Be yourself
and have lots of fun
And that was how we started with our #biasedcasters series! Surprisingly, many players tuned in to our Twitch channel, encouraging the teams and casters. We ended up receiving lots of requests from players if they could try casting!
Watch the VODs out below and see how the games and casting turned out! Check the scores of the teams here.
Group Stages: Group 1 on 30 May 2020
Group Stages: Group 2 on 31 May 2020
Semi-Finals and Finals: 6-7 Jun 2020
During the breaks of the semi-finals and finals, we invited professional casters to share more about what they do and give encouragement to aspiring players and casters. We also included interviews with both teams after the games are played.
Semi-Finals:
Finals:
Last but not least, to end with words of encouragement for the viewers! It doesn’t matter if they are aspiring casters or esports athletes, they always need encouragement and support. We had a short segment when all the viewers’ encouragement to the people in esports were read during the stream.
Facilitators Xing Yong, Ian, Poh Jin, Damian, De Wei and Chuen Yew who volunteered their time to prepare and marshal the games.
Casters Wilson “Sharmomi” Koo, Ernest “Kiseijuu” Chan, Chenkai “Fixers” Leow, Matthew “W@D3V3R” Lopez and Benedict “Memoria” Lee for stepping out of their comfort zones to help out in the casting.
Simple yet Powerful Lessons to Improve Your Gameplay
DOTA 2 is a complex game, and the constant changes just makes the game even harder. That is why we have designed this Back to Basics course to strengthen your core understanding of the game so that you can develop skills that transcends through the patches.
In each 45min-session done in lecture style, we will explain each topic and there are simple exercises that you can do on your own to start your journey to be a stronger player!
Below are the topics that each of the 8 sessions will cover:
What is DOTA - 7 April 2020, Tues 7pm-7.45pm Singapore time
Why resources matter and the real reason why last hit matters
How to master last-hitting like a pro?
Lane Management - 14 April 2020, Tues 7pm-7.45pm Singapore time
How does winning the game by “losing” the lane work?
How to own your opponents in lane?
Hero (Part 1) - 21 April 2020, Tues 7pm-7.45pm Singapore time
What heroes should I play to win games?
How to start winning games with your favourite hero?
Hero (Part 2) - 28 April 2020, Tues 7pm-7.45pm Singapore time
How do I win in a losing matchup?
Learn the art of making a comeback in losing games!
Power Spike - 5 May 2020, Tues 7pm-7.45pm Singapore time
Why does timing of items matter and what does all the numbers in the stats mean?
How does snowballing works and how to be ahead in the game?
Drafting - 12 May 2020, Tues 7pm-7.45pm Singapore time
How can drafting make the game easier for you
Why does my enemy always have a better draft? Discover the secrets to the foundation of drafting in this session.
Roles - 19 May 2020, Tues 7pm-7.45pm Singapore time
What should I be doing based on my roles and team strategy
Farm? Gank? Plant wards!? Don’t get confused and find out what you need to do to win games in DOTA 2.
Analysing games - 26 May 2020, Tues 7pm-7.45pm Singapore time
How does the MMR System affect my games and how to use the scoreboard
Trying to get out of the MMR trench? Wondering why you’re losing games despite a great KDA? Come join us in this last session to learn how to beat the MMR system and transform your red day to green days!
Fees: Each session at S$10.
All 8 sessions at S$70.
DOTA 2 Back To Basics Additional Tutorials Available at S$50/Session
Not sure why you’re unable to apply the concepts learnt during lectures? Show your replays* during tutorial and we will review mistakes and provide tips** on how you can perform better. Learning can be lonely, so join with the other students and get the chance to learn from each other’s strengths and weaknesses! It is capped at 4 students per session, making sure that you get the most out of each tutorial.
*Replays are based on the exercises mentioned at the end of the respective lectures. The exercises will also be emailed to you after the respective lectures, so do check your junk mail in case it gets there. **Review and tips will be scoped based on that week’s topic
To enhance your learning experience, you can sign up for tutorials! Tutorial sessions are available on Thursdays (2 days after the lecture) 7pm-8pm. At every 1-hour session, each participant will be provided 15 minutes to go through their replay. During the 15 minutes, the coach will review your replay and:
Identify key mistakes
Provide explanation on how it can cost your game
Suggest practical exercises to overcome your weaknesses
It is recommended that the participant attend the lecture before joining the tutorial.
Things to Note for Tutorial:
This tutorial is NOT an open Q&A session!
Attendance will be taken during each session. Only 1 attendee for each email address registered.
No refund and transfer are allowed once payment is made.
The 15 minutes provided to each participant includes setup. Please be ready with your replay or your time will be allocated to the other participants.
Please be prepared with your replays during the tutorial. You are required to share your screen with the replay (video or via in-game client).
If you turn up unprepared with your replay, your 15 minutes will be allocated to the other participants. E.g. 1 participant didn’t provide a replay. The remaining participants get 5 minutes extra to go through their replays.
ABOUT THE COACH: Ruth “Potatofluff” Lim
Ruth is on staff with SOOS OIO as an Esports Coach and co-developed TeleTrip, an offline gaming community event. She conducts DOTA 2 foundational classes and workshops for Esports Academy under SCOGA and also teaches the module “Team Management” in Informatics Diploma for Esports and Game Design.
Ruth Lim coached a competitive DOTA 2 team TenTwenty in 2017 that won CPL Championship DOTA 2 Edition 2017, came in 1st in Dew Challenge 2017 and represented Singapore in Asia Pacific Predator League in 2018. Ruth managed Team Impunity FIFA Online 3 who got 3rd in EA Champions Cup (EACC) Winter Cup 2016 representing Singapore. In 2017, she coached Team Impunity FIFA Online 3.
Ruth graduated from Temasek Polytechnic with Diploma in Games & Entertainment Technology and SIT-University of Glasgow in Bachelors of Science with Honours in Computing Science. She also holds a CoachSG coaching certificate.
Well recognized in the DOTA 2 community, Ruth attended numerous international gaming tournaments, got to know and learnt from many of the top players worldwide. Ruth hopes to share her knowledge and experience to gamers in Singapore and beyond.
There was a lot of excitement and anticipation heading towards the world’s first Mobile Legends World Championship (aka M1) held in Axiata Arena, Kuala Lumpur from 15 to 17 November. Despite having a number of gamers attend the MPL – MY/SG S4 Playoffs held in October, we managed to have 4 gamers join us for this TeleTrip!
We took the afternoon ride up to Sri Petaling a day before the tournament and managed to have a tour at Pantheon, an esports arena, and experience the VR machines.
Highlights of TeleTrip
It was amazing that within a 4D3N trip, we could accomplish so much! We managed to:
Catch the opening/closing ceremonies
Collect the exclusive ML merchandise with our gold tickets
Watch hype matches (e.g. 10 Seconds Gaming+ vs Todak, which was a nailbiting series)
Go for a mini food hunt, such as trying out Chrysanthemum & Cham Soft Serve @ Soft Launch, self-cooking skewers @ 360 BBQ and Mala Steamboat @ Chill Chill Steamboat (and won a plate of meat patty)
Order bubble tea from a petrol kiosk
Sing our hearts out at a Karaoke place MusicWorld
Played board games till late
It was a great way to relax and bond through our love for the game. As the matches were cast in Malay, we were thankful to have Nishamm with us to translate.
Even though it was the first time meeting each other, the jokes and conversations made everybody feel as if we had been longtime friends. The experienced gamers also took the time to breakdown the drafts made by the professional teams to the less experienced gamers. It was really sweet for them to also explain patiently what was going on to make sure we were keeping up.
Other than memories, the gamers also brought home backpacks (courtesy of Aftershock) to bag home all the merchandise.
M2 2020?
Towards the end of the tournament, it was announced that the next world championship will be held in Jakarta, Indonesia. This got the gamers excited and hoping for a TeleTrip Indonesia to watch the ML World Championship there while making more friends who love the game.
It was encouraging to see how much the gamers enjoyed TeleTrip and looking forward to bringing more gamers overseas to experience their local version of gaming, events, and culture.
Our second TeleTrip Campus for the DOTA 2 players happened at TeleTrip Campus SUTD – DOTA 2 on 29 June 2019. So glad to see familiar faces. This time, we had 15 participants!
Serious Business
This time, we changed the format of TeleMatch to round-robin, which provided the players an opportunity to play against every team! When there is a tie-breaker, the winning team will be determined by the total number of kills earned during TeleMatch. With the number of kills taken into consideration, the teams must now think about how to secure kills and reduce casualties in every match, increasing the challenge of TeleMatch!
During TeleTalk, the players were introduced to roles, teamwork, and effective communication so that the teams are aligned. With that being set, the teams then proceeded to strategise their draft based on their strengths and weaknesses. It was interesting to find out what were the teams’ priorities and considerations during their discussion, such as kill potential and how to create combos out of their hero pools.
Keeping Our Players “Farmed”
As games and discussions can get really intense, we provided snacks and drinks for the players to perk themselves during the games (shoutout to Kangaroo for the tasty nuts).
To help relieve the burden of thinking about meal options while planning for the next game during lunch break, we went out to get tasty chicken rice for the players!
When it was lunchtime, both Team 1 and Team 2 were still in their games with no sign of ending. Team 3 ended early and had the option to have their meals first. Instead, they decided to watch the ongoing match and waited until both teams ended their games to have their meals together. It was really nice to see how the players were willing to wait for each other.
Below are some key events that happened to each team.
Team 3: Youngest Player with the Most Experience
Even though bots games sounded like a no-brainer to most players, two of the teams were shocked to find out that Team 3 achieved 312 kills in 30 minutes. As a comparison, the other two teams only managed to reach their highest of 152 kills and 134 kills in 30 minutes.
So what’s the secret? It turned out that during the bots warm-up game, Team 3 found out that their youngest player, 15 years old, understood how the AI-controlled heroes react to their actions and which strategy would be best to get as many kills. So how did he actually know this? It was revealed during the pizza party that he would play a game with bots during his free time in school due to unstable internet connection. He would then constantly try to find out how to improve his strategy to kill them and end the game faster by observing the bots.
Team 1: Win as a Team, Learn as a Team
Even though Team 1 managed to win games convincingly and lose games which were close, they always took the time to reflect on what could be improved after each game. They noticed that for the games they lost, they communicated less which might have greatly affected their chances of winning. It was amazing to witness how quickly they learnt that communication was a key to winning and every teammate had a part to play in this.
Team 2: Learning through Difficult Situations
During TeleMatch, it was obvious that Team 2 was struggling to play as a team. The primary reason was that none of the players had experience in leading a team. Instead of shying away from the problem, they stepped up to take on the team roles that were lacking, such as the captain and shot-caller. Despite playing out of their comfort zones, they were able to take a lot of good team fights that required coordination.
Even though they did not manage to win a game against the other teams, their determination as a team and growth as players during TeleTrip was astounding.
Good job to all three teams!
Prize Presentation and Pizza Party
We had five TeleTrip Campus winner tags for the winning team. There were prizes for the “Most Improvement Team” and “Best Teamwork” as well. The winning team received a Tecware Keyboard each. “Best Teamwork” received Aftershock mouse each and “Most Improvement Team” received Aftershock backpacks.
…not to forget the “Best Support”, George!
Also, a shoutout to our facilitators JJ and Wah Yi for helping out at TeleTrip!
During the Pizza Party, we got to surprise Wilson, whose birthday was just a few days after TeleTrip!
Like always, we had a chit-chat session with the players over pizza. It was memorable as our facilitator JJ, who is a competitive DOTA 2 player, shared his experience which includes the struggles and how the team overcame their circumstances. It definitely served as an encouragement and a reminder that everyone, not excluding stronger players, faces similar roadblocks. The most important thing is how we overcome them.
Had lots of fun with you guys, hope to see you at the next TeleTrip Campus – DOTA!
Thank Yous!
Thank you SUTD for providing the venue for TeleTrip Campus! Appreciate the support from all our partners AftershockPC, Kangaroo Nuts and SCOGA in making this TeleTrip Campus possible. Shoutout to JJ and Wah Yi for all the help. Last but not least, to the gamers who came and made TeleTrip such a fun and memorable day for all of us ^-^
It was our second TeleTrip for the Mobile Legends players and so glad to see familiar faces again at TeleTrip Campus SUTD – Mobile Legends on 15 June 2019. We are thankful to be part of MLBB Esports for Everyone Project once again, which allowed us to award in-game diamonds to the players. All the players’ efforts are greatly appreciated for joining us and sharing about TeleTrip to your friends and gaming groups!
Fired Up
It was amazing to see how energetic the players were in the morning! While some players came in an hour early and some came straight after work, their energy to chat with each other, to focus during TeleTalk and to discuss the game was constantly high. This time, we had a room full of (mythical) stars and even players with age ranging from 13 to 38 years old!
As usual, we started with self-introduction to warm up with each other and to understand our opponents. Without any delays, everyone shared their in-game name and favourite heroes. The players made sure that the facilitators and organisers introduced ourselves too!
Based on the previous feedback from TeleTripers to have a chance to play against every team, we decided to change TeleMatch format to a round-robin best-of-two where the winner is determined by the most number of wins. To spice things up, in a case where there’s a tie-breaker, the team with the most kills wins TeleMatch. This encouraged the players to not only think about winning but also to play more carefully and strategically.
It was a privilege to watch the players overcome their circumstances as a team throughout the day. Below are some key events that happened to each team.
Focus: 1. Communication – how it greatly impacted their games positively
2. Teamwork – one for all, all for one – staying together through the bad weather (or cold aircon and unstable data connection)
3. Objective-gaming – to play on own team’s strengths & objectives and not react to the opponents’ strengths and movement.
Keeping Team Morale High: Team 1
In their first game of TeleMatch, Team 1 lost badly to Team 2. Some of the players were affected by the loss. At this moment, some of the older players took the initiative to encourage the team and focus on their game plan. This little action went a long way as Team 1 managed a comeback and took game 2 off Team 2 convincingly. Throughout the day, the older players kept the team morale up while the younger players kept the energy level up through the wins and losses.
Learning to Accept Each Other: Team 2
Team 2 was made up of players with very diverse personalities. Some players loved chatting and hyping the game up while some players preferred the peace to focus on the game. Although they had their own preferences on how the games should be played, they decided to complement each other’s weaknesses with their strengths and even ended up scoring the most kills, winning the Most Teamwork Prize!
Playing According to the Team’s Strength: Team 3
Team 3 was a team with good communications and teamwork demonstrated even in the warm up round, almost as if they were playing together for a long time. They won their games until they met Team 4, who was a strong contender. In their first game against Team 4, the game was really close and a slight mistake was all it took for Team 4 to win. The second game went badly for Team 3, which left them to think if they got figured out.
Turned out that Team 3 was distracted by Team 4’s drafting and tried to counter them instead of focusing on their own strategy and strengths. After discussing with the team and reflecting on the game, Team 3 managed to continuously refine their team plays throughout TeleMatch.
Effective Communication: Team 4
During the warm up game, it was quite obvious that Team 4 lacked communication due to the silence. Although they won the warm up game and their first game at TeleMatch, most of them were playing silo.
In order to improve communications in the team, players who were playing in the same lane sat beside each other. This gave the opportunity for them to nudge each other physically for responses. They learnt to call out their targets during a team fight so that they knew who they were planning to take down first and coordinated their fights better.
Team 4’s communication improved significantly throughout the games and ended up winning all their games.
(An interesting note about Team 4: Their team was so close that they decided to move out of the room during gameplay when some of the players were feeling cold and came back into the room during the break as a team)
Trying Their Best No Matter What: Team 5
Team 5 had an interesting situation: they lacked a mid player and had a limited hero pool. Despite this, they tried their best in every game. It would be easy to give up and blame their circumstances. Instead, they did not complain and focused on the small goals of 15 kills that we set together. Once when I passed their team, they looked at me and said “we reached 15 kills!” cheerfully. With such sportsmanship and determination, it was no wonder that Team 5 ended up achieving the Most Spirited Team award!
Objective Gaming: Team 6
Team 6 had a player down due to flu and had to be replaced with one of our facilitators after their warm up game. Despite the player swaps, they were determined to focus on the next game. They discussed intensely with Freddy our facilitator, after their games, focusing on in-game objectives. Even though the first few games were rough, the team managed to improve and proved that they were the team to beat, resulting in the Most Improved Team award.
Even though they won all their games, the team remained humble and still continued to reflect on what could have been improved after every game. Truly deserving of their winner title!
Really impressed with every team’s progress during TeleTrip. Great job guys!
Prize Presentation and Pizza Party
We had five TeleTrip Campus winner tags for the winning team. We had additional prizes for the “Most Improvement Team”, “Best Teamwork”, “Most Spirited Team”, “MVP” and “Best Support” as well. The winning team received an Aftershock mouse each. “Best Teamwork” received Aftershock backpacks and “Most Improvement Team” received Aftershock mousepads.
Additional prizes:
TeleMatch winners received 1000 diamonds per player
“Most Improvement Team” and “Best Teamwork” received 500 diamonds per player
“Most Spirited Team” received 200 diamonds per player
“MVP” and “Best Support” received 300 diamonds each
All participants did not go home empty-handed. Those who were not awarded prizes received 100 diamonds each.
Also, special mention to Nafeeq who really wanted his friends to experience TeleTrip and was even willing to cover their costs, only to realise that they could not make it last minute. We are unable to refund him as part of our policy. To appreciate his heart towards TeleTrip and as a form of encouragement, we decided to award him a token of appreciation with the diamonds that his three friends were supposed to receive, a total of 300 diamonds. Double-win for him as he ended TeleTrip as a victor with additional diamonds!
With six June babies in the midst of us, we decided to celebrate the birthdays of Bryan, Ye Man, Caleb, Brian Gabriel, Calvin and Jayce! As this was a surprise, they did not know why they were called out until the cake appeared and we sang the birthday song. Happy blessed birthday!
After stuffing themselves with pizzas, it was time to bond during the pizza party. What better way to bond other than playing the game we love together? We ended up forming random in-game parties to play the different modes, including the facilitators and me! It was really heartwarming to see everybody having lots of joy and laughter while playing the game, despite our different ranks, experience, and age.
I am so glad to see how excited and bonded the players were after TeleTrip and to the point of asking when the next TeleTrip is! We all stayed in touch via a WhatsApp group and till this day, we’re still gaming and chatting with each other.
Thank Yous!
Thank you SUTD for providing the venue for TeleTrip Campus! Appreciate the support from all our partners, MLBB Esports for Everyone Project, AftershockPC, Kangaroo Nuts and SCOGA in making this TeleTrip Campus possible. Shoutout to Freddy and Wah Yi for all the help. Last but not least, to the gamers who came and made TeleTrip such a fun and memorable day for all of us ^-^
Ruth “Potatofluff” Lim is on staff with SOOS OIO as an Esports Coach and co-developed TeleTrip, an offline gaming community event. She conducts DOTA 2 foundational classes and workshops for Esports Academy under SCOGA and also teaches the module “Team Management” in Informatics Diploma for Esports and Game Design.
Ruth Lim coached a competitive DOTA 2 team TenTwenty in 2017 that won CPL Championship DOTA 2 Edition 2017, came in 1st in Dew Challenge 2017 and represented Singapore in Asia Pacific Predator League in 2018. Ruth managed Team Impunity FIFA Online 3 who got 3rd in EA Champions Cup (EACC) Winter Cup 2016 representing Singapore. In 2017, she coached Team Impunity FIFA Online 3.
Ruth graduated from Temasek Polytechnic with Diploma in Games & Entertainment Technology and SIT-University of Glasgow in Bachelors of Science with Honours in Computing Science. She also holds a CoachSG coaching certificate.
Well recognized in the DOTA 2 community, Ruth attended numerous international gaming tournaments, got to know and learnt from many of the top players worldwide. Ruth hopes to share her knowledge and experience to gamers in Singapore and beyond.
TeleTrip
If you are wondering how a coach can help you in your gaming, you can have a little taste of it, less the hard discipline and intense work, in TeleTrip where it is casual gaming with a little bit of competition. Ruth is present to give some advise in how to play better as a team.
1-on-1 DOTA Coaching
Ruth does 1-on-1 DOTA coaching. Email ask@soos-oio.com for more information and rates.
There were many first times in TeleTrip Campus Informatics – MobileLegends on 23 March 2019. It was our first time working with Informatics students to organise TeleTrip and to have Mobile Legends as the title game for TeleTrip. We are thankful to be part of the MLBB Esports For Everyone Project which allowed us to award in-game diamonds. We greatly appreciate the players who joined us so enthusiastically and share TeleTrip to their friends!
Warming Up
Confirmed TeleTrip participants were added into a WhatsApp chat group a few days before TeleTrip to get to know each other. We love the energy of this group as we were pleasantly surprised to have almost 200+ messages within a span of thirty minutes! They were sharing their in-game profiles and even inviting each other for games. It was amazing to see how they interacted despite not knowing each other prior to this.
Like the previous TeleTrips, most of the players arrived early and had the chance to chat before TeleTalk started. It took some time for the players to introduce themselves as they were quite shy at the start, but proud that they were able to do it nonetheless.
After TeleTalk, the 30 players moved to their allocated teams and discussed their game plans before playing their warm-up matches. Most of the warm-up matches resulted in a one-sided win, which meant that the teams had a lot to discuss on what and how improve over lunch.
During TeleMatch, the teams were matched against teams that they had not played against during the warm-up games. The pressure increased and situations arose that tested a team’s teamwork and determination. It was definitely challenging but all the teams overcame them with lots of fun and joy!
Here are some lessons that were learnt from the teams’ experiences.
Overcoming Tough Situations with Positivity: Team 4
What do you do after your team suffers from a bad loss? Fight harder, of course! Despite Team 4’s collective effort to come up with an effective game plan earlier, they suffered a crushing lost during the warm-up game against Team 3.
It definitely affected the team’s morale slightly, but they focused on feedback and ways to improve their coordination to prepare for their first series against Team 2. When asked if they could win Team 2, they jokingly answered “yes” unanimously. With that, the team’s spirit lifted and they played with ease. They managed to win two games against Team 1 to proceed.
It was time for a rematch against Team 3. Again, the same question was asked, if they think they could win against Team 3. This time, they answered, “we will try our best”. There was definitely a shift in their mindset and how they communicated.
Although they ended losing two games to Team 3 again, this time the games were really close compared to the warm-up game. This loss motivated them to work harder after experiencing improvements and progress as a team.
Small Things That Matters: Team 5
Team 5 had players who were strong, but their lack of communication held the team back from performing. They tried changing up their roles but had no effect on their results.
We realised the experienced players were much older than the other players, which made it more convenient for the experienced players to communicate among themselves while the younger players shyly kept to themselves.
In order to create stronger bonds and accountability in the team, the team decided to change their in-game roles such that an experienced player would be paired with a younger player in a lane. Although the younger player did not play tank, he was willing to trust the team and go ahead with the plan. They also swapped positions such that the players in the same lane were sitting together to facilitate communication.
With this new arrangement, the team’s communication improved tremendously. The young teammate admitted that he had a low win rate in ranked games as a tank, which made him avoid playing tank ever since. He was surprised that his team won multiple games as he played tank. He was greatly motivated to try more roles now.
Team 5’s efforts paid off as they started winning their remaining games convincingly, which even earned them the prize of the “Best Improvement Team”.
Understanding is Key: Team 1
Team 1 started well with a great team morale, communication and even lots of laughter especially after winning their warm-up game. Everything looked great until their first series against Team 6, one of the stronger teams.
As Team 1 was playing their second game against Team 6, it was obvious that the team morale has dipped as they were not communicating and coordinating. They ended up losing both games.
Things got heated as they argued on how the game should be played and how some of them were not performing according to their roles. In order to resolve their differences, every teammate was encouraged to share their concerns instead of suppressing them.
Taking into consideration all team mate’s concerns, the solution was to manage their expectations of each other. Everybody was trying to win, but each’s approach was different due to different perspectives and experiences.
The team decided to regroup and work together for the remaining games. The change in their attitude towards each other was so great that they ended up winning the “Most Spirited Team”.
How every team overcame their problems was definitely inspiring. We could feel their hunger towards learning and improving. Great job teams!
Prize Presentation and Pizza Party
We had five TeleTrip Campus winner tags for the winning team. We had additional prizes for the “Most Improvement Team”, “Best Teamwork”, “Most Spirited Team”, “MVP” and “Best Support” as well. The winning team received an Aftershock mouse each. “Best Teamwork” received Aftershock mousepads and “Most Improvement Team” received Aftershock backpacks.
Additional prizes:
TeleMatch winners received 1000 diamonds per player
“Most Improvement Team” and “Best Teamwork” received 500 diamonds per player
“Most Spirited Team” received 200 diamonds per player
“MVP” and “Best Support” received 300 diamonds each
All participants do not go home empty-hand. Those who were not awarded prizes received 100 diamonds each.
This TeleTrip, we managed to have a “Fastest Pizza Eater” contest and most of the hungry boys quickly joined in!
It was a time full of laughter as they tried to finish the slice of pizza quickly. In order to prove that they have finished the pizza completely, they had to raise their hands and stick out their tongues while making sure nothing come out of their mouths.
Irfan ended up as the “Fastest Pizza Eater”, earning him 50 diamonds and bragging rights in our FPE Hall of Fame.
Even though TeleTrip has ended for over a week, the WhatsApp group chat is still going strong. Till we meet and play again in person… meantime, online works too!
Testimonials
Dosen “χ.тαкєσ” Low Before: I wasn’t sure if my roaming, farming and ganking was right when I was playing marksman and assassins. I was always sticking to the lane given and didn’t help my teammates. After: I learned a lot of new things about the teletrip class. I noticed that my farming was totally wrong but as Amos and ruth explained to me the proper way to farm and roam at the same time, I slowly improved my gameplay. Another thing I learn was to communicate with my team more as I am a very anti social person XDD BUT as time pass I started to communicate with my team and we manage to get the best teamwork award which was surprisingly exciting since we all started from idk who you are or you are a stranger I don’t wanna talk to you but ya we eventually talked to each other and I would like to thanks the team for helping me get the mvp player award as it was unexpected 😂 without teamwork there is no winning!
Axl “° вαиαиα °” Teo During TeleTrip, I learnt that even though if one player on the team is extremely good , it is useless without teamwork and whereas a team with teamwork and communication can bring the team furthur as compared to a team without teamwork and communication. To me its important to trust my teammates as well.
Thank Yous!
Thank you Informatics Academy for providing the venue for TeleTrip Campus and the Event Management students for all the help. Appreciate the support from all our partners, MLBB Esports For Everyone Project, AftershockPC, PEZZO, Kangaroo Nuts, SCOGA, Esports Academy and NYC in making this TeleTrip Campus possible. Last but not least, to the gamers who came and made TeleTrip such a fun and memorable day for all of us. =)
We ran our first TeleTrip Campus at National University of Singapore’s Yusof Ishak House on 9 March 2019. Despite registration time being set earlier at 9.30am so that the players could set up their laptops for the games, they amazed us again by turning up earlier!
Taking Initiatives Together
Soon it was time for TeleTalk, our signature workshop which aligns the players through teamwork so that they are ready for play. Usually as an icebreaker, the players are encouraged to introduce themselves. It was surprisingly wonderful that the players took the initiative to walk to the front of the room before addressing themselves.
The players broke into their teams after TeleTalk, and Team 6 was incomplete, because their teammate was on the way from Johor Bahru! Instead of panicking or rushing him, they took the time to strategise while thinking about how to share all these information with him when he reaches. He managed to join them just in time for the warm-up match and lunch.
Win or Learn
The teams returned from lunch and found out their opponents for TeleMatch through a live draw. By a (strange) coincidence, they matched against the same opponents from the warm-up match again. This happened previously during TeleTrip Express, which amused the returning players.
The first match was slightly more tense as the winner of that game will proceed. After the match, the teams who lost were recommended to continue playing to work on their teamwork. For the teams that lost, most thought that they lost through draft or skill, but actually it was mainly due to lack of communication, which led to the lack of coordination.
For example, a player disabled the opponent before his teammates could reach and deal damage, resulting in the opponent fleeing without receiving any harm.
The teams diligently worked on their issues, to the extent that after every game, the two teams will discuss what each other could have done better through the replays.
The Importance of Communication: Team 5
Every team had a unique issue that they overcame during TeleTrip. In the case of communication and awareness, Team 5 struggled initially. It was to the point that it took the coach to realise that mid player was having a hotkey issue to suggest a pause. This incident caused the team to reflect and talk things out after the game. As a result, they committed to changing their roles, communicating and importantly to ask and not assume in the game.
It paid off in their third game against Team 1, when they were playing from behind with almost 20k gold difference, which meant that the opponent had a significantly higher killing potential. Despite the bleak situation, Team 5 pressed on and the moment came when they managed to catch the opponent’s mid player before pushing into the base and ending the game.
Embracing Changes: Team 6
Team 6 had a rough start as well, and nothing seemed to be going right with four consecutive losses. It was even more challenging considering that most of them had limited roles. Instead of giving up, the team continued to swap their roles so that everyone could have a chance to learn and experience each role. Surprisingly, their support player who believed that he could not play other roles, played mid very well, better than support.
With that attitude to learn and explore, they eventually ended up taking a game off Team 4, one of the stronger teams in TeleTrip.
Play on the Strengths, Complement the Weaknesses: Team 2
On the contrary, Team 2 had a strong start at TeleTrip. It definitely helped to have an experienced competitive teammate to lead and direct the team. However, it was still important to play according to the team’s strengths and they learnt this in the finals.
During the best-of-three finals against Team 3, Team 2 managed to win the first game after an hour but lost the second in half an hour. There was a deciding game next, but Team 2 seemed to remain focused on their defeat. They had a draft that looked good and should counter the opponents, yet lost so badly.
It turned out that during the second game, Team 2 indeed have a good draft, but they forgot that there were teammates who were not familiar with the heroes’ capabilities. There was a gap between the experienced and inexperienced teammates as the latter was already struggling to perform their roles at a high-stress game, let alone processing information about unfamiliar heroes.
After realising this issue, Team 2 restrategized and found a draft that is good for the team, with heroes that the team was familiar with. This time, the inexperienced teammates felt comfortable and the experienced teammates could focus on leading the movement instead of teaching about the heroes. After another nail-biting one-hour game, Team 2 managed to emerge as the winners of TeleMatch.
It was amazing to see how every team overcome their problems and not forgetting to help the other teams as well with feedback. The winning teams also voluntarily shook their opponent’s hands at the end, displaying sportsmanship. Awesome job teams!
Prize Presentation and Pizza Party
We had five TeleTrip Campus winner tags for the winning team and one “Best Support” tag. We had an additional prize for the “Best Survivor” as well. Every winner received a Sliver mousepad by Aftershock. Besides the winner tags and mousepads, the winning team brought home mouse and backpacks from Aftershock.
After a long day, it was finally time to say goodbye to the players. When everybody was about to leave after getting their goody bags (shoutout to Kangaroo Nuts), suddenly one of the players approached us to ask for a group photo. Thankfully, most of the players were still around and managed to get a group photo!
Again, there were many players who stayed back to talk more about the games but this time, they continued to stay as there was no closing time for the students’ lounge. Till we meet and play again in person… meantime, online works too!
Cassey “ReckLesS” Low Despite being a relatively new player to DotA (since 2017), TeleTrip taught me many new things and also helped me discover new points that I can work on such as effective communication to be a better player. I also befriended many players through this platform that I can now play with online. Above it all, it was refreshing to experience such an exciting atmosphere that I thought I could only feel through watching The International 😀
Zhong Hua “Sibeibudget” Low The teletrip was an amazing and fun platform for me to foster friendship and play with people regardless of what skill level they are in. Through this workshop, I learned to grow to become a better player be it individually or as a group because we learn to support, motivate and forgive each other even if we had bad games. Furthermore, I also want to thank Ruth for being a good host in organising and planning this event and really enjoyed myself. I hope there’s more these event, so we can keep the dota spirit alive.
Thank Yous!
Thank you National University of Singapore E-gaming Society for providing the venue for TeleTrip Campus. Appreciate the support from all our partners, AftershockPC, PEZZO, Kangaroo Nuts, SCOGA, Esports Academy and NYC in making this TeleTrip Campus possible. Last but not least, to the gamers who came and made TeleTrip such a fun and memorable day for all of us. =)
Ruth is on staff with SOOS OIO as an Esports Coach and co-developed TeleTrip, an offline gaming community event. She conducts DOTA 2 foundational classes and workshops for Esports Academy under SCOGA and also teaches the module “Team Management” in Informatics Diploma for Esports and Game Design.
