No matter what happens to PSG.LGD in the realm of Dota 2, they are always viewed as a major contender for any upcoming international event, be it a DPC Major or The International. Such a sentiment surrounding the Chinese team remained compact even after two days in the group stage for the ESL One Berlin Major.

Despite falling 2-0 to Gaimin Gladiators in the first day of play, PSG.LGD rebounded by defeating Southeast Asia’s Execration and South America’s Evil Geniuses, thus remaining in the hunt of finishing Top 4 in the group and securing a place in the upper bracket for the main event phase.

Of the players contributing to PSG.LGD’s bid toward winning a DPC Major for the first time since the 2021 WePlay AniMajor is Nicholas “zeal” Lim Eng Han. The 24-year-old Malaysian Position 3 player joined PSG.LGD before the Spring Tour following the team’s move of loaning Li “项羽” Longwu to Invictus Gaming.

With zeal on board, helped by his familiarity with Lin “planet” Hao and Guo “shiro” Xuanang as they were teammates together in EHOME in 2022, PSG.LGD finished in second domestically to return to international play eager to erase the bitter memory of finishing 9-12th in the Lima Major, which was the worst finish from the org since ESL One Katowice 2018.

Prior to facing EG, zeal spoke to Jake “SirActionSlacks” Kanner for an interview about being with PSG.LGD, his career, and his thoughts on the rest of the field in the Berlin Major.

Joining PSG.LGD

Have you done any one of these interviews before like this?

zeal: This is my first interview and my first time in a Major so I haven’t done any interviews before.

Well, you have nothing to be nervous about. Have you seen your Liquipedia picture?

zeal: I did.

Thoughts?

zeal: Not really good. I think I might have made someone angry.

You didn’t make anybody angry. You gotta make your mark. This is the Major where we get your headshots and people start to know a little more about you. Tell me about yourself. What’s your story?

zeal: I played in EHOME last year and for this year, I got a chance to play with my ex-teammates Shiro and planet and I’m here to make a mark, I guess.

Can you tell us a little about LGD? Have you been scrimming in China or what’s the deal about that? What’s the relationship with your teammates?

zeal: Two weeks ago, we were bootcamping in EU already. We were in Paris before the new patch [dropped] so we didn’t really get too much scrim time but we are trying to adapt to it.

I think you guys have been adapting to it pretty well. Are you guys feeling confident on it?

zeal: Yeah, I’m sure we are doing okay. We want to do better.

Is there anything that is surprising you so far? I know China and Southeast Asia have their own meta. Now that we’re in the international stage, is there any hero popping off that made you feel, ‘oh wow,I didn’t know that one is good’?

zeal: I guess everything is new to me since this is the new patch. We’re trying to bring something new to the mix.

Image Credit: ESL