MDI Team Spotlight China: Stygia & Just so so

By VitaminP — Jun 22 2021 18:30 UTC

With Patch 9.1 around the corner and the next Shadowlands MDI yet to be announced, we decided to reflect upon the first MDI of Shadowlands with members of the top two teams of China: Just so so and Stygia. Today, Fly (阿飞), Moon (月色), Semage (雨帆), and PDF share their experiences and chat about their hopes for future MDI’s to come.

Big thanks to Neo for his hard work as our Chinese translator and liaison!

点击此链接跳转到这篇采访的中文版本。

Player introductions
M+ history and experience
MDI highlights and team growth
Time management
Playing Under Pressure
Winning maps and team morale
What classes should be “meta”?
MDI format and rule changes
Wisdom and hindsights
Closing Thoughts

“In real life, we are students and engineers. As long as you have passion for the game, you can practice and compete in tournaments like us too.” —PDF

Q: What is your first (real) name, main class (or favorite class), and how long have you been playing WoW? What else do you like to do outside the game?

Fly (阿飞) - Just so so: My name is Fly (A Fei), my main is Rogue. I've been playing World of Warcraft on and off for 11 years. I also enjoy playing Dota2.

Moon (月色) - Just so so: Hello everyone, I’m Moon (Yue Se). I’ve mainly been playing tank classes for this expansion, but I was DPS before. For me, swapping to tank has been a pretty big challenge. I've been playing World of Warcraft since 2009, so I’m kind of an “old” player, but I didn’t really dig deeper into the game until BFA. I like to watch movies and play Hearthstone.

Semage (雨帆) - Just so so: My name is Yu Fan, my main character is Mage, and I’ve been playing WoW for 9 years now. Other than WoW, I love watching anime.

PDF - Stygia: Hi, my name is PDF. I chose this name because there is a lucky player in my raid named “GIF (.gif file)”. I wanted to borrow his luck, so I renamed my character “PDF (.pdf file)”, and it really worked (lol)! My main characters are Restoration Shaman and Holy Paladin. I’ve been playing World of Warcraft for 5 years since Legion. Other than World of Warcraft, I don't have much entertainment because I'm really busy with my job in real life. Sometimes, I just play the piano and stuff at night.

Q: How long have each of you been doing Mythic+? Have you ever competed in the MDI or other WoW tournaments before? If so, which ones?

Fly (阿飞) - Just so so: I started pushing Mythic+ back in BFA and I’ve participated in an MDI Qualification stage before.

Moon (月色) - Just so so: I had participated in one MDI tournament before, but the result was kind of crummy. At that time, I was a beginner and had a relatively “green” understanding of World of Warcraft.

Semage (雨帆) - Just so so: This is my first time participating in the MDI tournament. I have been pushing Mythic+ since BFA 8.0.

PDF - Stygia: I’ve been pushing keys since Mythic+ was initially released back in Legion. I actively pushed keys in BFA, and I also participated in a small competition that was organized by NGA.com. That competition was once a week, and I won first place once.

“We just wanted to participate and have fun. However, in the course of all the continuous practice, we found that we were able to push more. Step by step, we got to where we are now.” —PDF

Q: What were some of the greatest highlights for you in the MDI? What were the aspects you liked and disliked, and how did you and your team grow through the process?

Moon (月色) - Just so so: The entire MDI tournament is a little long, which makes us exhausted. Our team was basically reorganized in 9.0, and it was also the first time for other players in our team to participate in the MDI. I am very happy with the progress that our team has made since the beginning, since we were very new to the tournament.

Semage (雨帆) - Just so so: The MDI tournament schedule is too long and the match time is not very friendly for Chinese players.

PDF - Stygia: We have already mentioned our growth in our team intro video before the MDI. In the beginning, we only played our favorite classes and we only knew some general routes for Mythic+. We also had a lot of shortcomings handling the weekly affixes. But from the second round of the MDI tournament until the end of the Global Finals, we started to learn the foreign teams’ Mythic+ routes, and we also learned how to play different classes to choose the best classes combination for different dungeons. This was a huge step forward for us. In fact, our initial goal was not the Global Finals. We just wanted to participate and have fun. However, in the course of all the continuous practice, we found that we were able to push more. Step by step, we got to where we are now.

Q: How difficult was it to manage your time effectively throughout the MDI tournament season? Did you have to make a lot of sacrifices in your lives in order to compete?

Fly (阿飞) - Just so so: The tournament is just too long! I gave up almost everything in real life.

Moon (月色) - Just so so: During the whole MDI tournament, I basically gave up my entire personal life. Training for more than ten hours per day was really boring and difficult because, except for eating and sleeping, I just sat in front of the computer. Over time, my attitude changed and I sometimes became very agitated.

Semage (雨帆) - Just so so: For me, other than practicing and participating in the tournament, I just ate and slept, which is actually acceptable for me as a streamer. However, there are fewer viewers during training because training is boring after all.

PDF - Stygia: In the MDI tournament, the arrangement of our own time was not the most difficult thing. The most difficult was the time arrangement between five teammates. On our team, there are three college students, and two office workers. Sometimes, someone would need to work late or have night classes, or during the day, we all needed to go to work and school. The time we practiced was not particularly easy to manage after all. However, in order to achieve my goal, I had to give up a lot of work to practice. I even asked for my annual leave this year in order to have enough time for practice. But for the team, all these efforts were worth it. The final result did not let us down.

Q: In both of your first matches in the Global Finals, you each faced off against two of the most successful and experienced MDI teams in the world. Did you feel a lot of pressure going into these maps? If so, how did you feel you played under pressure?

Fly (阿飞) - Just so so: I would say the pressure is normal. I don't think there's a big difference.

Moon (月色) - Just so so: It was a lot of pressure to play against Perplexed in the first match. You have to concentrate at all times when you’re up against a well-known, experienced team. It's always easier to make mistakes when you play under pressure and try to focus. We still encouraged each other during the tournament! It wasn’t as stressful as I thought it would be.

Semage (雨帆) - Just so so: I was under great pressure and excitement at the same time. I hoped I could have a chance to defeat the other team. Playing in a big tournament is also an opportunity for self improvement.

PDF - Stygia: In fact, in the game against Team Echo, we had no pressure at all because we had a clear understanding of our own strength. We knew that there was a certain gap between us and Echo, so we chose to not show all of our strength in the game against Echo. We put all our energy into the game against the team Does Gargoyle Stream (DGS), because our amateur team had only a ⅓ or ¼ of the practice time of the other teams. We had a clear goal, so rather than spending a lot of time in the games with low winning chances, it can be said that our ideas finally paid off.

“I think most of the MDI tournament is the fight with ourselves, so we were not affected by winning or losing. We think it is enough of an achievement to play as well in the tournament as we did in practice.” —Semage (雨帆)

Q: Both of your teams secured some wins in the Global Finals. Did winning maps affect your team’s morale?

Fly (阿飞) - Just so so: No affect on us at all.

Moon (月色) - Just so so: We were very happy to see Team Stygia get some wins. We are also old friends in the game. We were happy to see them have some good performances. Winning and losing did not affect our morale, but we always worked harder for the next game.

Semage (雨帆) - Just so so: In fact, I think most of the MDI tournament is the fight with ourselves, so we were not affected by winning or losing. We think it is enough of an achievement to play as well in the tournament as we did in practice.

PDF - Stygia: After we won against Team DGS, we felt more relaxed because we finished our goal in advance. As for the game against Golden Guardians, we just felt that trying our best was enough. While we were especially blessed and lucky in the match against DGS, we had already shown the strength of our amateur team.

Q: If you could make one class be the meta in the next MDI, what would it be and why?

Semage (雨帆) - Just so so: I would pick Mage because I currently only play Mage xD.

PDF - Stygia: I would pick Shaman; it’s my LOVE. However, I don’t want any class to be the meta in the next MDI. I would like to see all classes get a chance to be in MDI, instead of the same combo of Shadow Priest + Mage + Holy Paladin for almost every team.

Q: What do you hope to see in the next season of the MDI? Are you hoping for any format changes or new rules?

Semage (雨帆) - Just so so: I hope the tournament schedule will be shorter in the future. I would also like for the game version to be locked during the tournament so that the updates on the live servers will not lead to major changes to classes and dungeon mechanisms.

PDF - Stygia: MDI is all about racing. It is doomed that it will have a “best class combination”, but this makes the tournament less enjoyable to watch. The commentary is always the same: “Both sides produced the same lineup, mirror start, ah, this team made some mistakes”. That's not what we want to see. What we want to see is diversity of classes and routes. In fact, we had thought of a no-healer team for +18, which is completely doable, but it is a pity that the rules do not allow a team without healer. At the same time, we also hope to add some rules of Ban Pick classes in order to make the tournament more exciting, but this may be a nightmare for players who participate.

Q: If you could go back in time, is there anything you would have done differently for the MDI? What wisdom have you gained from competing in the MDI that you plan to apply to your preparations and gameplay for future Mythic+ tournaments?

Moon (月色) - Just so so: Looking back on the tournament, we had some flaws in our performance due to the pressure and the mentality required. I hope we can keep a positive attitude and play steadily in future matches. There are a lot of good ideas that could be used in the Sanguine Depths, such as pulling two packs of mobs with General Kaal in the hallway and then straight to the Anima cage. This significantly shortens the time we need to clear the dungeon and improves the usage of the Anima cage!

Semage (雨帆) - Just so so: We trained all the maps in this MDI tournament, but we didn’t train specific maps to find a better route or plan to get faster in time. We still lacked experience and innovation, but we will not miss any good ideas that might be useful if we participate in the MDI tournament again in the future.

PDF - Stygia: Although we made a lot of mistakes in this MDI tournament, we are very happy with the result because, in such an intense period of training, completing such a result was satisfying for our team. But when it comes to something we could have done differently, maybe if we could have practiced more during the final phase, and if had arranged our time better (regardless of exhaustion from around real life and practice), we may not have need so much luck and could have just relied on our team’s “hard power” to win against Team DGS without mistakes. In this MDI, we found that although an individual's gameplay is important, the choice of route, the depth of the class pool, the number of practices, and the cooperation between teammates are all very important too. If a team wants to win the MDI tournament, all of these things are indispensable. So in the future when we prepare for the tournament, we must pay attention to our class pool and learn the advanced foreign routes, communicate with more people, watch our own replays, and so on to improve our results.

“I hope we all can find our own happiness and passion in World of Warcraft. Just So So will never give up!” —Moon (月色)

Q: Is there anything else you’d like to say to our readers? Do you have any words of advice for aspiring players?

Fly (阿飞) - Just so so: Love him/her? Take him/her to MDI! Hate him/her? Take him/her to MDI!

Moon (月色) - Just so so: Drjay once said to us, “Passion and dreams are far more important than money in life.” I hope we all can find our own happiness and passion in World of Warcraft. Just So So will never give up!

Semage (雨帆) - Just so so: World of Warcraft is THE BEST GAME! Never give up!

PDF - Stygia: A lot of people say that we are the epitome of an ordinary players team. In fact, we are indeed all ordinary players; we are not professional players. In real life, we are students and engineers. As long as you have a passion for the game, you can practice and compete in tournaments like us too. Even though there is a gap between us and the professional teams, we still have an elegant demeanor for being amateur players.

About the Authors

Vitaminpee specializes in tanking classes in WoW and other MMORPGs and loves doing competitive Mythic+. She is the Editor and Assistant Producer of Raider.IO and is currently pursuing her Masters of Business Administration. She is a partnered Twitch streamer and Discord Partner. Feel free to message her via Twitter for any business-related inquiries.

Neo, Aka Soulawaken is a Chinese World of Warcraft streamer that streams on DouYu, and Neo is also the Raider.IO Chinese Community Liaison. Neo has been working with Raider.IO for more than 4 years to synchronize data from CN WoW servers with other servers around the world. Neo has long hoped that one day Netease will re-enable the player armory API so that players in China will have free and easy access to Raider.IO and other World of Warcraft third-party sites. He plays Warriors in World of Warcraft for 5 years and has mastered a unique technique known in Chinese as "整蛊". His favorite catch phrase is “真对啊哥”, which is "that's so true" in English.