After Winning $60k World of Tanks Tournament, EL Gaming Says "Our Performance was So-So"

Chinese pro gaming team EL Gaming are no strangers to the competitive World of Tanks scene. The team fought their way to the grand final on the world stage in Wargaming's 2015 World of Tanks tournament. Following their win at the Asia Pacific Season 2 tournament last weekend, they are currently slated to take part in the upcoming finals on April 6 in Warsaw, Poland, where they will face-off against eleven of the best teams in the world for a share of a $300,000 prize pool.

GameSpot sat down with the team immediately after their victory over rival Chinese team RefornGaming at the Season 2 Asia Pacific finals to discuss the current state of the competitive World of Tanks scene, their current strategy, and their thoughts on the European scene.

EL Gaming's World of Tanks team is comprised of seven players. Commander JiaJin "Reflection" Li calls the shots, while ShaoQing "FOXTS" Guan often takes the lead in interviews, serving as the recognisable face of the team.

GameSpot: Congratulations to all of you on your win in the Asia Pacific Season 2 final. How are you feeling right now?

FOXTS: Our performance was so-so. The opponents' performances were not bad. At the end of the day this felt like a smaller stage for us. It was not too difficult for us. We feel like we haven't shown a hundred percent of our abilities.

Your team used some strange or different strategies this time around, some of which drew quite a reaction from the audience. Why did you decide to do that?

Reflection: A part of the reason why we used different tactics this time around is because this was the best time to try new strategies. Because the WGL grand finals are next month, we want to try all the best new and possible ways to get the final victory.

Going into the grand final, which regions do you think will be the ones to watch out for?

FOXTS: The most important and hardest enemy is still the same one [as before], which is CIS team Na'Vi.

Why Na'Vi in particular? What sets them apart from other European teams?

FOXTS: To us, we feel that Na'Vi have already spent a lot of time and have a lot more experience, at least five or six years, over the Chinese teams. As a whole, Na'Vi has very good foundation and excellent strategy and planning for their matches, which is where we are looking to improve. They don't make mistakes.

What do you think are the biggest differences between the Chinese team versus the European teams?

Reflection: It's not so much the difference in strategy but the difference in experience. Specifically Na'Vi, they are a very stable team and as a result they make very few mistakes. They also have very good coordination and think together well. By comparison, Chinese teams don't have as much experience in these tournaments so they can make errors that they shouldn't when under pressure. This is something we need to work on, too.

Leading up to the WGL world finals, will you be getting help from the other Chinese teams? Or is it a case of every team for itself?

Reflection: We will practice with a focus on our own strategies, but we will seek assistance from teams in Asia, because we are based in China.

GameSpot will be covering the grand final event in Warsaw, so be sure to stay tuned to our World of Tanks gamespace for updates!