iceiceice StarLadder 12 interview: “Westerners are lazy”

DotaBlast had a fun chat with ViCi Gaming’s superstar player Daryl Koh “iceiceice” Pei Xiang, after the StarLadder 12 LAN finals.

We talked about his return to the South-East Asian scene, his special bond with Mushi, and the differences between Eastern and Western players:

I don’t think the Chinese scene is that strong right now. We aren’t really that focused on practicing seriously yet. The Western scene has some issues, as well. It’s weird that they’re playing so defensively, they tend to drag to late game for some reason, and they’re not thinking out of the box when it comes to drafting. (…) Westerners are lazy.

iceiceice is getting married this year, and is planning to have children right away: “I’ll have kids next year. I don’t think I’m prepared for that, but no one is ever prepared to be a dad.” The player admits that if his wife were to ask him to stop playing, he would respect her wish: “I think there comes a point in life when I actually have to stop playing games.”

Daryl admits he was trying harder last year, while in DK, adding that now he feels like taking a step back:

I am kind of tired of playing. It’s taking its toll on me.

Avid Reddit reader, iceiceice agreed to take a couple of questions from the community. Living up to his “master troll” reputation, he refers to ViCi Potential as “the guys who live in our basement”, hums the Game of Thrones “Lannister song”, then shares some funny, yet disturbing “tmi moments”.

Watch the iceiceice StarLadder 12 interview, in full:

Production: Xander.Pictures