The eMg DotA squad traveled to Newark, NJ this weekend to participate in the DotA tournament held at Web2zone. "Erfz already lives in NYC and had a car to drive us around. The rest of us flew in from Florida, Michigan, California, and Wisconsin." There they dominated all competition and took first place for a prize of $500. The team also enjoyed touring around New York City and meeting up with fellow teammate, Pu "Whisper" Liu in New Jersey.

David "King" Liu, Matt "Kaiser" Knizacky, Ryan "Muffins" Shackelford and Dean "York" Malmberg arrived in New Jersey on Friday. There they met up with Whisper, who could not participate in the tournament because he had to fly back to college on the tournament day. The team met up with Kevin "Erfz" Ip on Saturday morning and traveled together to New York City for the tournament.

The tournament started on Saturday morning and lasted for the rest of the day. The format varied with AP/XL draft and the map was 6.48b. "Unfortunately, there were only 4 teams in the tournament, and only 1 team was decent. Although I wouldn't say the final game was "close", it wasn't a complete stomp either." eMg had no trouble defeating only four teams to win the tournament.

After their successful win at Web2zone it is safe to say that eMg is currently America's most stable and experienced competitive DotA team. They have been together since the very first CAL DotA season and have a wide range of experience. Last year the team defeated Check-Six in the finals at Winter CPL in Texas making this their second DotA LAN tournament win.

Recently eMg defeated notable team Say Plz in the group stage for the Prime Defending 7 Tournament. The DotA community expected sP to dominate the group and eMg proved them wrong. "Honestly i think the most important thing that game wasn't really strategy, but patience." The game between eMg and sP lacked kills, it all came down to warding and patience as King explained. The team is impressed with the performance of some underdog teams like Mizen and BTB and are anticipating the playoffs for the tournament. "I think any team can give us trouble in the playoffs, just the same as they could give any other team trouble." eMg will now advance into the playoffs stage and hope to reach the finals!

The eMg DotA squad plans to expand their success with DotA, even providing North America's first large-scale DotA LAN tournament. "When there are details they will be announced, but as far as it is right now all i can say that its in progress. As for area/time, we are probably leaning towards the post-Christmas Chicago area." As previously mentioned, the DotA squad is working with eMg management to host a large DotA LAN tournament this year in Chicago.

Interview with King and Muffins on the next page!