Sunday last week, Qlimax-Crew's DOTA division attended The Barracks DOTA Summer Competition along with co-owner Samuel "zpR" Lee. During this event, Qlimax-Crew was favoured highly by every participating team to be crowned champions, due to their solid 5 man line-up who are very well known among the DOTA community. With the heart and determination these players fought valiantly with, Samuel talks about Qlimax-Crew's success during the day.

Getting up at 5am in the morning wasn't the most pleasant experience in my life, but knowing it was for a good cause was an excuse to not feel dissatisfied. Besides, Qlimax-Crew's division deserves to attend all events and I'm glad I was able to help them attend The Barracks DOTA Summer Competition in Canberra. Personally, I have never been to Canberra, having only lived in Sydney ever since my immigration from New Zealand, but I knew it was going to be loads of fun.

We got together at a local internet cafe the following hour and little did I realise, four of them were already there relaxing inside one of the private rooms in front of their computers. All of them looked immensely tired, just as I was with few hours of sleep. Our last player, Paul, arrived just after six o'clock, yawning constantly like the others. But with no time to spare, we started making our way down to Canberra as we were already running late.

Thankfully, we got there on time and the guys managed to sleep well during the journey; they were all rejuvenated and ready to go. The venue was very crowded and I noticed DOTA there was heavily popular, probably the most popular PC game in Canberra. Everyone there seemed to have recognised us, greeting us even though we had never seen them before. Everyone seemed rather friendly as well and the food in Canberra was delicious, although costly, was well worth the price.

We started off reasonably well, winning the first game easily against The Barracks's owner's team, acTB and team Redemption. What I found surprising about our team compared to others was not solely the fact these players were unrivalled with, but their co-operation, communication and their ability to think as one were some key factors which other teams were flawed in. However, team eMP did oppose a certain degree of threat to us in the beginning; having been the only team to be able to destroy our towers and get close to our main structures. I must admit, I initially thought we would be defeated but my thoughts were wrong. Turning the tables immediately, Qlimax-Crew responded in a counter manoeuvre which eMP were unable to withstand. Once again, Qlimax-Crew won convincingly and proceeded into grand finals undefeated.

At roughly around 9pm, grand finals commenced and again, our opponents which we had to face were team eMP. This time however, Qlimax-Crew showed why they were here, and prove why exactly they were renowned to be among the best in Australasia. 19 minutes into the game, it was evident Qlimax-Crew won the game. From experience, 19 minutes into a game is usually considered near the starting minutes of a game - I was speechless. eMP were demoralised in chaos. With frequent loss of their heroes and structures, it was inevitable team eMP could not fight back to give Qlimax-Crew a run for their money.

As always, the DOTA division was satisfied with their 1st placing and glad they were able to attend this event in Canberra and to have the opportunity to put faces to names who they only encountered online. I am certainly grateful these players did so amazingly well and acted in such professional manner. I am also grateful for the participants of Canberra and especially the person behind the organising of the event, Fred "Chinky" Nguyen. In the near future, Qlimax-Crew hope to fly to Melbourne to attend a bigger competition for bigger prize money which will consist of teams of high recognition. So watch out Melbourne, here we come!