SK Gaming recently had a word with one of our MYM.DotA squad members, Merlini. Most of you know him, so it’s time for you to learn some more about him.

Name: Ben Wu
Age: 19
Origin: Taiwan, now living in USA
Sentinel or Scourge: Scourge
Favorite hero: Zeus
Favorite item: Boots of Travel
Least appealing hero: Shadow Fiend

You may have heard of Merlini back when he was a WarCraft III ladder player, you may have heard of him when he switched to DotA and joining team JMC (formerly known as Apex), or you may have heard of him when he joined the MeetYourMakers DotA team. His latest performance is winning the DotA DreamHack Summer 2007 tournament, where he and his team defeated SK Gaming in the Grand Finals.

Here are some parts of the interview:

What makes DotA so fun? It's unique, for one. Having over 80 different heroes (although only ~20 are used for league play) provides for a lot more interesting game than say WC3 ladder which only consists of 4 races, 5 if you count Moon :D. The amount of teamwork involved in the game is incredible, individual skill can only take you so far - cooperation and helping your teammates out is so important in league play and there are constant tweaks to heroes and such to curb imbalancedness, e.g. Bristleback nerf, Queen of Pain nerf, bottle nerf. The map is constantly being developed and new items are being implemented - the state of DotA hardly ever remains static.

What changes do you think DotA needs to grow even more as an e-sport, for example; shorter games with less farming (which makes watching DotA boring for non-DotA spectators)? Well, first off, I feel that the map changes (no regen on towers, ward costs, aegis changes, etc.) have noticeably shortened games. The gameplay has also evolved to less farming and more ganking, and even if there are 'late game' heroes (Faceless Void, Spectre) in play, you're still guaranteed a lot of action. The top-tier teams (note: VP) gank considerably more than is customarily seen, and any strat that is based on farmage will usually be torn to pieces mid-game due to excessive deaths. And teams tend to copy/use strats of any recent tournament winners, so I feel the game has already shifted away from farming and more towards ganking and will continue to do so in the near future. I'm not sure whether it is possible for DotA to grow as an E-sport (although I would certainly like it to). Prize pots are too small, new leagues fail all the time...it would take something monumental to give DotA the push it needs to become a huge e-sport like CS or WC3 Ladder.

Read the whole interview by following the link below.

Related links:

SK Gaming - MYM|Merlini interview