Ponlo Shares His Perspective on Playing Position Five in SEA Dota 2

Remus “ponlo” Goh Zhi Xian, a Singaporean pro who has played for multiple Southeast Asian (SEA) teams throughout his Dota 2 career, found his first breakthrough when he joined the North American (NA) team of Quincy Crew during the TI10 roster shuffle. The move from SEA to NA was a significant one, and ponlo discussed what drew him from his longtime home region in the Position Six podcast with Daniel Offen. It turned out ponlo really wanted to play position five, and while he did get a few offers in SEA, he had realized that there isn’t much appreciation for position five players in the region. Comparatively, he said other regions have a better understanding of the position five role, which he identifies with more readily.

Also Read: Quinn Explains Why Quincy Crew Recruited ponlo From SEA

Ponlo explains why he left SEA and joined Quincy Crew

Ponlo mentioned that the offers he received post TI10 did not come from the best teams in SEA. Additionally, his desired position five role was not highly valued, which caused him to consider other regions. He believes it is necessary to have strong mechanical skills in order to make a name for yourself as a position five player in SEA, but he does not agree with this notion.

“I had a couple of offers from SEA but they were not really good. I did not wanna play on a team that could not win in SEA because I feel in SEA, people don’t…generally speaking, people don’t appreciate the pos 5 players. You need to stand out and have a super high MMR. You need to kill people in the lane, you need to do some mechanical stuff that makes people think you are good as a five even though I feel that’s really not what a good five is.”

While pointing out that other regions place more value on the soft support, ponlo also stated that he didn’t see much room for improvement among subpar SEA teams.

“I think, in a macro sense, the other regions have more appreciation and understand the five role better so I did not want to be on a bad team in SEA because basically, I felt I would waste a lot of time there if I just kept losing. I would not be able to improve that much either.”

Ponlo explains the difference between Chinese and Western teams

Ponlo revealed that he also received offers from Chinese teams, including Royal Never Give Up. However, he ultimately chose Quincy Crew because he felt it would be the best place for him to grow. Furthermore, in Chinese teams, there is a hierarchical structure and coaches play an important role in the formulation of strategies and ideas, whereas in Western teams, a great deal of power rests with the players, which he prefers.

“There is a huge difference between the Chinese teams’ mindset and the Western teams’ mindset, I think of how Dota is played, of how each role…You just have a lot of freedom in the Western teams. You can push for ideas in the draft and stuff, a lot more than in the Chinese teams. In the Chinese teams, they have a sort of hierarchy and the coach has the most of the say when it comes to ban/pick.”

Ponlo believes that he wants to be more than just a player inside the game. He wants to become more responsible, curate ideas with his team, and learn more in his role as a player, all of which are more likely in Western teams as compared to Chinese teams.

Ponlo and Quincy Crew have done extremely well in the NA region so far, as they topped Division 1 with six wins and just one loss. Next up, the team will be battling for the lion’s share of the $100,000 USD prize pool and 380 DPC points at the NA Regional Finals.

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