XcN knocks out the gods

XcN is continuing their journey into the international competitive scene. They've already faced MYM, and now it's time to face the gods--- TeG in the ESL Major Series tournament.

XcN showed a powerful performance against MYM, almost defeating them with their early game dominance. Unfortunately for them, their efforts were not enough to overcome the lategame bristleback. Otherwise, they have won 2 other matches in their group for the EMS tournament.

TeG has improved a lot in the scene over the past few months. Not only did they win first place at the Miage LAN tournament, but they've had good standing in MYM Prime Defending and were the last invite into PDL.

It is always interesting to see some of Asia's finest compete against some of the world's best!

Brief game review:

Both teams jungled heroes leaving their solo lanes weak. The necrolyte for XcN could not take the Sven/Leshrac lane and the Bird's potm fell hard to the sand king/lina lane. Meanwhile, Queen of Pain farmed amazingly against the zeus, getting an early guinsoo at 28 minutes.

The POTM died a lot early gaming, sand/king lina countered her pefectly forcing her to go bracers and a strong delay in getting any damage items. With the early kills, Lina was able to get a dagger and keep the map warded more.

Lakuci farmed amazingly with TB, getting an early sange and yasha and later a Butterfly. The strong TB/Necrolye combo gave centaur a rough game and it was hard for the farmed sven to counter it at all.

The sven was able to get his BKB fast, as well as a MOM thanks to early kills. There was one instance where the sven and leshrac were chasing down the necrolyte on top lane, QoP teleported in to help but she missed her sonic wave. This allowed the sven to get a double kill on the QoP and Necrolyte putting him at 4-0.

Although TeG's centaur and sven farmed really well, it was not enough to counter an overfarmed queen of pain and terrorblade. The score was pretty even throughout the game, but once TB got his butterfly and XcN had an advantage in kills, they pushed down mid rax causing TeG to call it "gg."

Source : myMYM

Prime Defending League : Participating teams announced

Prime Defending, also known by its alias PriDe, is without a doubt the world’s biggest and most famous DotA tournament. Now Prime Defending gets a new big brother, we proudly present what will be the world’s most prestige full DotA league: Prime Defending League (PDL)

Prime Defending League (PDL) will consist of the 12 best teams in the world, of which 6 have been directly invited for the first season of PDL. The remaining 6 teams has been found via Prime Defending #10, which served as the qualifier for PDL.

The original invited teams included Virtus.Pro, but due to multiple violations of the rules, the team has been excluded from PDL. Instead the tournament organizers have decided to include the Indonesian team XcN in the invitees.

The invited teams:

* MYM
* KS
* SK
* XcN
* WG
* TeG

The Qualified teams:

* SGC (3rd place)
* Met (4th place)
* x6 (5-6th place)
* Mouz (5-6th place)
* Q (7-8th place)

The place indicates what place the team finished at in Prime Defending 10. The last team in Prime Defending League will have to be determined from a tie breaker, as Avid, srs and swift were knocked out at the same place.

Source myMYM

ESL Major Series (EMS): MYM vs XcN

This is the first time XcN has signed up for an international DotA tournament; the ESL Major Series DotA tournament. They have been placed in the same group as MYM and TeG and are set to play MYM right now!

It has always been XcN's dream to face off against one of the top tier teams like MYM, and now they have the chance! Unfortunately, both teams found it difficult to find a suitable host. MYM|Fear ended up hosting which was good for XcN, but it seems MYM|Maelk and others were spiking badly.

With four stunners on their side, XcN took the advantage early through midgame, constantly killing the weaker heroes like Leshrac, causing him to get severly outleveled. On the other hand, Bristleback was leisurely free farming for a long time, getting a fast hood and radiance.

Although their stuns and spells were enough to sweep out most of MYM's heroes, the Bristleback ended up getting a triple kill at one point because he was just too tough to take out. Sand King couldn't do much with his ultimate anymore once most of the Scourge heroes got their blink daggers.

Bristleback became unkillable with 30+ armor but he could barely enter the Scourge base sometimes because XcN was doing a good job nuking the creep waves and in fights. Although the Bristleback could tank a lot he was constantly getting disabled. Most of the Scourge heroes had blink daggers as well, allowing them to blink away from the Bristleback, heal and then come back.

The game was looking good for XcN from the start, but unfortunately their efforts just weren't enough to stop the overpowered Bristleback. Fear was able to sit and tank through all their damage and hit down buildings, slowly but surely they got all their raxes down!

Source: myMYM

Indonesia's Finest: XcN

XcN, known as Executioner, is one of the most prestigious gaming organizations in Indonesia. They only accept the best for any game division they create. Aside from DotA, they hold a CS division (5th total in Asia). XcN has made it their goal to collect the best players in Indonesia for gaming.

XcN Trilogy has earned the title of the best Indonesian DotA team as well as one of the best teams in Asia as a whole. Flawless victories at locan LAN tournaments is their forte, but now they are ready to enter the international competitive world.

They won ADC '07 with ease and will now try to do the same in an international tournament, ESL Major Series season 2.

Everyone has heard the name, XcN, but for the most part this team has remained unknown to the world. It is time to direct the spotlight on Indonesia, and learn a little about this magnificent team!


Spectators crowd around XcN as they compete at ESTC 2008! From left to right; Lakuci, BaHaMuT, RitteR, melen, St@m-X

The history

Unlike most teams, XcN was not formed by a bunch of friends who decided to compete together. The process was actually a bit more complicating.

XcN was a merger of two different DotA teams in Indonesia; eVolve and BiG SnR. In 2006 XcN started a DotA Division. With the desire to start their competitive careers, BiG SnR and eVolve merged to be apart of XcN!

"XcN was a famous counter-strike team in Indonesia, they are the best. From 2003 2006 they dominated the Indonesian cs scene and then they formed a DotA division. XcN asked BIG.SNR to join them, BIG.SNR agreed to join and start to conquer the Indonesian dota scene just like the CS team. Lakuci joined from the evo team and we had a reshuffle of players but it was for the good of the team. Now our newest player is Bahamut, one player that every team in Indonesia has wanted! He made a good choice I think."

Sacrificing some friendships and choosing the best of the best, that's true e-sport spirit right there. The XcN DotA team has made it clear that they have one goal; domination.

Where does their strategy come from?

"There are many good teams in Indonesia like : Nightmare, Sanctuary, Emporium. Other Asian teams play scrims very often at their home, we collect 5 people and stay at a cyber cafe."

One thing that XcN firmly believes in, is equality in the team. According to Indonesia Melen, there is never one person on the team that stands out or holds more authority. Each member is taken into consideration during hero picks and other things.

"We develop our strategies from other local teams in Indonesia. We watch them and learn. All of us decide hero picks, nobody is superior."

Weekly commutes

Unlike American players who can leisurely play at home, Indonesia does not have the best internet. Most players are forced to take their practice elsewhere, like local LAN shops. This is a team that competes and practices with each other face-to-face every week!

"We do not play at home or LAN shops, but a sponsored facility. We need to bring our pc's to the facility everytime we practice or play. For our schedule we prefer to join online tournaments that have just one match per week. Right now we joined two online tournaments; EMS and SKOTH. We play together maybe 4 days a week because we need time to study and hangout."

Aside from their routine practices, it is guaranteed you can find XcN competing and even winning every local LAN tournament in Indonesia. Suffice it to say, they see each other a lot, perhaps the reason they are mostly known for their team-skill rather than individual.

Achievements so far

"We have won many local tournaments of course. Other than that, champion of ADC Season 1, champion of GXL Singapore 2007 and runner up of ESTC 2008 Thailand."

Widely known for their first place success in the Asia DotA Championship 2007, they have also sparked some popularity after taking second in ESTC 2008. They were also a top competitor in the Asian World Cyber Games tournament last year and have become KingSurf's top rival.

"We just lost to KingSurf in Thailand. They are much stronger now with their newest member, Singapore iceiceice. They played a lot better in the tournament and got more lucky than us but we will beat them next time!"

Entering the international scene

XcN has earned their popularity for their dominance in the Asian scene, but the community has been waiting for their debut in international competitions. The biggest question is, where are they in MYM Prime Defending?

"MYM Prime Defending is very hard on our play schedule. It is sometimes three or more matches a week which is very hard to follow for us since we can't play from home."

For now they have been invited to the ESL Major Series tournament where they were placed in the same group as Internationa- MYM and Romania TeG. This will be the first time XcN will face any international top tier teams.

"We signed for ESL tournament, so far so good! Two games and two victories so we are happy. Biggest problem is lag. A good host is very hard to find, I think it will be a good game against MYM if lag is not bad."

The future

"For now I think ESWC will be our number one focus, we will compete in the Indonesia qualifier and hopefully make it to Grand Finals. Getting visa for USA is very hard though. We have no plans for Dreamhack or ASUS"


XcN in action at ESTC 2008 with many spectators watching

Currently the team has a lot to prepare for; EMS season 2, ADC season 2, WCG Asia and ESWC! Everyone is waiting for XcN to play against top tier teams, and the time is coming! XcN will face off MYM in EMS soon as they are in the same group stage. Shall they qualify for Indonesia and successfully acquire their Visa's, showdowns will only get better, this time face-to-face.

So there you have it, Indonesia's finest inside and out.

This artikel was made by Miss-Rinoa which taken from myMYM