Sweet Sunday

I wanted to put up this post yesterday itself, but due to time constraints and being occupied by work, I had to wait until now to write about what happened on Sunday the 20th of August, 2006.

That morning, my parents decided to go to Yuk Choy Primary School for breakfast as there was a Hainanese Cuisine Fair there, organised by the Perak Hainan Association. We had a nice time there, trying all sorts of Hainanese dishes that I have not seen before either.

This fair was unlike any other fairs. It was a great occasion which was officiated by the Deputy Minister of Higher Education, Dato' Ong Tee Keat. Yes, he had come himself to the school to officiate the ceremony and even delivered his speech. His speech made my parents very interested.

His speech highlighted about the current racial issues that the country is facing. He reminded us the need for racial integration and talked on how to resolve problems that may involve racism. He even highlighted certain sensitive issues which I am not compelled to write here.

That Sunday wasn't any ordinary Sunday for me. It wasn't any other weekend either. After watching The Hunchback of Notre Dame, I felt compelled to stay at home and be quiet for a while. However, I just couldn't bear to sit still with the mood to go out with friends, especially with those who could hardly come back for any reunion. Therefore, at around 11.45 a.m. I decided to phone Kei Fai and asked him out for lunch, if he wanted. I also asked if Jun-Xiang was with him, and he said yes. However, they already had lunch at the Stadium and they wanted to go to Inferno for a game of DotA. Here is the phone conversation I had with Kei Fai:

Kei Fai: Hey, Guo Zheng! Let's go to Inferno. It's just behind Jusco. Jun-Xiang and Yoke Teng are coming too!

Yours truly: (after a thought) Hmmm... OK, I'll meet you people at Inferno then. Give me fifteen minutes, yeah? What are we going to do there?

Kei Fai: Let's play DotA.

My dearest readers, please take note that I have only started to play DotA very recently; in fact, for not even a month. However, I am very familiar with the game because my ex-roommate is addicted to DotA and I frequently watched him play through LAN with other friends. However, I never started playing that game during my first semester. So, why did I start to indulge in DotA, you might ask? Well, first of all, I can no longer chat with my friends through Windows Live Messenger while in UTP because IT & Media Services Department blocked the gateway that connects to Windows Live Messenger Chat server. It is awfully boring just studying and revising your work, therefore a bit of computer games is necessary, which accounts for my starting DotA. However, I just haven't got addicted to it, not even now. But let's continue with the phone dialogue.

Guo Zheng: OK! DotA it is then. But I am not a professional in it, OK? I'm just a newbie!

Jun-Xiang: (in great surprise) Guo Zheng plays DotA?

Kei Fai: (talked over the telephone) Hey! Don't bully Guo Zheng, OK? He plays DotA, too!

Guo Zheng: (laughed) Jun-Xiang couldn't believe it, huh?

Kei Fai: Yeah, see you then!

Well, as agreed, I made my way to Inferno and waited for the three of them to arrive. After about five minutes of waiting, Kei Fai arrived, followed by Jun-Xiang and Yoke Teng a few minutes later. We wanted to ask for a game of DotA when the person-in-charge of the counter said that they have uninstalled DotA from all their computers due to licensing problems. However, IMAX, he said, which is located just next door, still has DotA. Therefore, we switched to IMAX.

Jun-Xiang was "concerned" about me being a newbie in DotA. According to him and Kei Fai, the former could play quite well and he can be considered a "moderately good" player. To me, that sounded like he has been playing for a few months already. I explained to him that I am good on using range and intelligence heroes; melee heroes would spell disaster for me.

We got our computers and opened the Warcraft III program. We got into DotA and selected All Random mode. I was happy to have Syllabear (Lone Druid) as it is a range hero. Arming myself with some tips my friends who play DotA gave me, I started "buying" items in that game which I thought would benefit me.

The "war" started. Kei Fai and I played for The Sentinel while Jun-Xiang and Yoke Teng played for The Scourge. It wasn't very long before I realised I wasn't such a useless newbie after all in DotA. It turned out to be that Yoke Teng and Kei Fai aren't as good as me... yet.

As for Jun-Xiang, I couldn't believe that I thought he was much better than I am. In fact, we were about of the same level, if I am not better than he. He would frequently be one or two levels behind me, but he had showed quite a good skill of playing DotA.

In the end, "Yours truly" managed to make 14 kills but had "died" three times.

What Jun-Xiang and Yoke Teng didn't know was about my strength in attacking their towers. While playing against the computer, my main aim was to bring down as many towers as I could; this has given me quite a great amount of practise needed to fight against human players. This made them surrendered straightaway after Kei Fai and I cleared almost all of their towers.

Then, they decided to have a second game. This time, I was requested to play for The Scourge while Jun-Xiang played for The Sentinel. They thought that The Sentinel has better heroes than The Scourge, which supposedly accounts for my victory. Sad to say, I proved them wrong when we decided to play All Pick mode (because the All Random mode didn't work somehow). I chose Venomancer.

Once again, I kept attacking their towers and brought them down one by one, pressuring Jun-Xiang and Kei Fai to send their heroes to keep me from attacking their towers continuously. Many times they tried to kill my character together, however, I always escaped right in the nick of time. It wasn't long before I out-level them (in the end, my character was a Level 22 hero; the next character of the highest level was Jun-Xiang's character - Level 19). It made my attacking their towers much easier and soon I penetrated their base.

They had also managed to clear all the three towers on the left lane which also lead to my base. However, by the time they brought down my third tower, I had already started to destroy other buildings in their base. They immediately came back to their base and protected it (it was when my character was killed; its life was low, too). Still, when I returned, I continued to attack them until they gave up again.

In the second game, "Yours truly" made 10 kills but "died" three times. I must confess that I have never played for The Scourge, and therefore, rather unused to the characters. This was the comment I got:

Kei Fai: You broke our towers so easily! You could up your level so fast, and you claim that you are a newbie who doesn't know how to play?

Jun-Xiang: Yeah - lah!

For your information, I just found out that I'm not such a newbie in DotA after all among my friends. In fact (no bragging intended), I'm better than quite a number of them. However, I must confess that I can be considered as the lousiest DotA player among all my DotA-playing friends here in UTP.

At 3.00 p.m. Jun-Xiang took a bus back to KL. Kei Fai returned to Malacca during midnight (he missed his earlier bus which was scheduled to leave at 2.30 p.m.).

It had been a wonderful day for me to be able to get together with long-lost friends. I just hope that they can come back more often for any reunion, big or small.

Friends, as I have always said, always keep in touch!