I Really Just Like Playing Games

July 2003. With Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne newly released in internet cafes, Lu Shi, an esports veteran from the twenty-first century known as “Clockhand,” opens his eyes. He brings with him a decade of future game knowledge, version history, and tactical systems, returning to an era when DOTA in China is just beginning to take shape. While other people's youth is filled with college entrance exams and cassette tapes, his is made of battle.net, local area networks, and the glow burning from one old monitor after another. He has no miraculous golden finger. He has only one thing: an almost pathological sense of match timing. Which lane to be in at what minute, which gank will make the other team collapse. Others call it luck; he knows exactly how it all adds up. He sets himself one rule: in this life, he'll play only DOTA, and team up only with the best brothers. So he starts out as a pubstar in an internet cafe, using his roaming position-four play to dominate the platform, then gathers one legend after another under his wing: the mountain-steady captain 820, the bold and spirited Dragon God LongDD, the born coach DC, the loyal and passionate YYF, and, later, Zhou, who takes over as the star carry in the number-one position. From a single map in 2003 to the peak of Seattle in 2012; from an internet cafe pubstar to a legendary five-man squad taking on the world. He'll personally make up for every step Chinese DOTA missed. I really do just love playing games. This time, I'll feed a legend to Chinese esports.