TyLoo sign AttackeR

Quanqing "⁠qz⁠" Wu, a player barred from playing in official Valve backed tournaments due to a VAC banned account which caused TYLOO to be disqualified from IEM Taipei, has been replaced by YuanZhang "⁠Attacker⁠" Sheng—a 19 year old up and coming Chinese talent.

TYLOO's new lineup will hit the ground running starting this weekend playing in the Asian qualifier for a spot at the Dreamhack Masters in Malmö. Other tournaments they will be in attendance include the Chinese Super League and WCA, among others.

Taking advantage of the changes happening in the team, we seized the opportunity to talk to TYLOO's YuLun "⁠Summer⁠" Cai about the player swap and how it is giving the team a new direction:

First of all, tell us about the lineup change—why did you choose Attacker as the replacement for qz? Will that affect the roles within the team in any way? 

AttackeR is the best choice because Mo and I already had a relationship with him, since we played together back in 2014 when he was in TyLoo. We already know what kind of change to expect when he joins the team. Since qz was our primary AWPer and caller, the roles will indeed change. I will take over the calling while different players will pick up the AWP depending on the map being played.

Where do you and your team stand on the issue of qz’s old account being VAC banned? Do you think disqualifying you from IEM Taipei was a fair decision by ESL and Valve? How was the mood in the team when you heard the news about the disqualification?

ESL can’t be blamed, they had no other option. About Valve’s decision, they have their own reasons. We would have liked to have the opportunity to negotiate with Valve and solve the problem. 

When our team manager, Kindy, talked to the organizers and they told us we were disqualified we were shocked because we were fully prepared to play in Taipei. 

In addition to missing IEM Taipei, you were also unable to make it to the SL i-League StarSeries XIV Finals in Belarus as you lost a very close best of five final against CyberZen. That prevented you from facing the world's best teams, has it affected your motivation in any way (for better or worse)?

It was really unacceptable to lose the StarSeries i-League China final, but I did not lose my motivation. Defeat only encourages me to find our problems and try to improve upon them.

Due to the reasons exposed in the previous question the international audience has not had a chance to see you [fancy1] play against the world's best, but you are regarded as one of the top prospects in Asia. Rumor has it there were offers from other big Chinese organizations to build a team around you, but you decided to stay in TyLoo—can you tell us anything more about your reasons for staying?

Playing for TyLoo has been my dream ever since I first started playing FPS games. It is a stable eSports club and I really enjoy the living and practicing conditions I have here. I also like my teammates and our manager—we have a great time. If I go to another club, I am not sure I could do my best. The most important thing is that we all have the same dream, and I hope I can fulfill it with my teammates!

How serious of a project will this new TyLoo team be, are you all salaried players? How much will you practice, will you have a coach? If so, what will he do exactly? What are your team's goals for 2016?

I am a full time player and I will practice at least 10 hours per day. As far as a coach goes, we invited ex-Wings’s in-game leader QiFang "⁠Karsa⁠" Su to coach us. He will supervise our training, study tactics, help improve our communication, and assist me with the team’s leadership.

You will be playing the Chinese Super League, WCA, Dreamhack Masters Malmö qualifiers, potentially a new upcoming Valve Minor, and perhaps other tournaments that arise. What is the main focus for the next few months? And who do you think will be your main rivals in China after the holiday break?

We will focus on improving our chemistry. The most important thing is to improve our communication, since it has been bad before.

There are many new teams in China and we don’t know their true strength. AllGamers could possibly be the best one out of these new teams, but our main rivals will still be CyberZen, of course. 

In the first three and a half years since CS:GO launched the teams from the Chinese scene haven’t been able to achieve anything notable, yet it seems 2016 will bring a rise in professionalism. Why do you think this is happening? is it due to an increased amount of sponsors, more viewers, more players? What has changed in the last year?

I think this is due to Valve promoting the game more. They are starting to give Asia more importance, and some other domestic games had created a bottleneck. I always thought CS:GO was the best and most mature option, as well as the most obvious one.

TyLoo's new lineup:

YuLun "⁠Summer⁠" Cai
Ke "⁠captainMo⁠" Liu
Hui "⁠DD⁠" Wu
HaoWen "⁠somebody⁠" Xu
YuanZhang "⁠Attacker⁠" Sheng

QiFang "⁠Karsa⁠" Su (coach)