In a heartfelt letter to his former teammates, mentors, and friends, John Jester “JEZTAH” Ching bids farewell to competitive gaming:

First of all, I would like to congratulate Nomets.. You guys really deserve the win, nice game!

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is John Jester Ching and have been playing DotA since March of 2005. I have been using the nick “JeZtAh” ever since. I first started playing at battlenet USWest, I played everyday and whenever I played with a pro player, I would save the replay and analyze his moves. I mainly built my foundation of skills on battlenet since I wasn’t familiar with Boystrek and dislike spending money on cafes.

During freshmen years, I formed a team with my classmates who love to play dota also. We would skip classes or skip lunch just to play dota. We only practiced on pub games since we were not familiar with any teams in Davao. We joined the Metreon tournament but lost to Ding’s team. After the tournament, I disbanded my team since I saw no progress and other members weren’t as committed as I was.

Weeks after, yAJQt approached me asking if I wanted to join RiorEN’s team since they were lacking 1 member. I was only a substitute player but was happy to be invited and had accepted the offer. It was in Blinque and the only faces I was familiar with were yAJQt, RiorEN and burnz. I didn’t know my other teammates who were laser, adi and chris. We defeated the defending champion that time which was “DC Clan”. I had average skills that time but what I lacked was experience. We easily got up to the finals. The team we faced that time was team “Qt” which was again headed by Ding. We lost and I saw the big gap of skills and experience in our team. After the tournament, RiorEN asked me if I wanted to join their team and become a regular member, I was happy that time.
Our team “Class SS” practiced always mostly thru pustahans and playing GG at Boystrek Ilustre (GG client wasn’t available at BT Jacinto during those times). We contributed innovation to dota here in Davao, we introduced new heroes which were never used before.

Months after, we teamed up against Ding, yAJQt, and yUKz to form “Team Nomets”. There was monopoly of players and of power during those times. Our team was the top team in Davao and proud to say also in Mindanao. We won many tournaments and also won DCE 2007. Sadly after DCE, the team disbanded due to internal conflicts (RiorEN wanted to carry end gamer, conflict between Ding and RiorEN’s ideas and etc.).
Ding, yUKz, burnz, cocoy and tOp formed “team ChiLL” while me, RiorEN, yAJQt, chian, duke and badz formed “Team CORPO”. As time passed, yAJQt also recruited subang to be one of our support players. We would always beat ChiLL in practice games. The Kadayawan event soon emerged and everybody was expecting us to win. But sadly we lost to Team ChiLL and that was the start of their winning streak. Starting that time, we had a hard time beating Team ChiLL. We could only beat them in practice games with a ratio of 5 wins in 20 games.

December came and Dotastrategy hosted a tournament at BT. We easily got up to the finals and faced “Team HiGH” which was headed by RiorEN. Again, everybody was expecting us to triumph over them but unfortunately, we lost. Team ChiLL won that tournament again and RiorEN left our team to organize his team.

After that tournament, I only played dota sometimes and told our captain yAJQt that I would be inactive for 1 month due to school and other reasons. When I started playing again, I didn’t feel the same thrill and same enthusiasm as I had before and wanted to stop playing and leave the team. I wanted to quit but team CORPO lacked 1 member because DukE had problems attending games and practices. So I decided to play on for the sake of our team and for the sake of loyalty. During summer of 2008, our team had a meeting on who would like to go to Manila for the ACG. I said I didn’t have money for the transportation so the first 5 that time were: yAJQt, subang, chian, duke, paul.

I didn’t play much during those times because I expected that I wasn’t included in the first 5. But again, due to unfortunate events DukE wasn’t able to attend games and practices so I took his spot. I was lazy but I wasn’t irresponsible to leave my team without a 5th member. We improved a lot during summer, maybe because of playing always and our manager Ria Jose always set up games and practices for us. We became stronger and became the top team in Davao, Team ChiLL weakened due to one of their main player yUKz leaving the team.

We were the top team in Davao when suddenly during June, I heard the news from Ding that Team CORPO disbanded already. I was bitter since none of my teammates urged the responsibility to inform others of the decision which was decided irrationally. I had the chance to quit that time but then tOp and chian contacted me and persuaded me to organize a team. I told them that I would quit after DCE and they agreed. We formed “DC Clan” together with rEy and hussien, we honestly don’t know what the meaning of DC Clan is. Maybe it’s for Davao City, but it sounds too lame LOL. We were recognized as one of the top teams in Davao together with Nomets, HiGH and 50ph. We joined the ACG tournament but lost in the first round due to unfortuitous events.

This DCE, everybody expected Nomets to be the champions, but the place of runner-up was still a mystery. We had an easy time winning the bracketing but had a hard time during the final four match-ups on the last day of the tournament. We had a hard time with Team HiGH, our score was only half of theirs but we managed to win through backdoor. Then comes Nomets, we unveiled our ultimate lineup which included Davion. It was a very thrilling game and it was hard to know who would win. But still, Nomets won the game. We got 2nd place and it’s not bad considering our team is only less than 1 month old. I’m so happy with my latest team DC, I felt valuable and enjoyed the camaderie of all the members.

And now, I announce my official retirement from competitive dota. Thanks to the following people who have supported me and my team during my dota years:

Dotastrategy & Ria Jose – our manager and our sponsor, thanks for your support and trust
RiorEN – for letting me enter the gateway to competitive dota, mejo matagal rin tayo nag sama class ss, nomets hanggang corpo.. masipag tong taong to at matyaga magturo.. pero ngayon ROCKSTAR na cya.. haha!
yAJQT – for referring me to RiorEN and for being captain of my former team CORPO
tOp – my latest captain, and imba support ang THINKER lol.. salamas sa trust na binigay nyo sakin sa DC
duke,chian,rey,hussien – my latest teammates, nice game guys! Good luck sa inyo! good frends and good comrades.. hindi autistic c chian! o yan pinagtanggol na kta! duke, magdala ka parati ng jogging pants ha pag may practice sa dota lol! rey, pogi ka pla ha? pati sa dota pogi rin haha! hussien, BADTRIP! haha
Subang,paul,burnz,cocoy – imba kayo team nomets.. hehe! Imba dota strat ni subang sa girls.. paalam na kay dragon boy! nilabas na lahat ng tinatagong lakas, haha!
Team high
And all the BT friends.. good luck sa dota nyo!
I will still be playing pub games, but I’ll be staying away from competitive gaming since I’ll concentrate more on studies and love life.. =) good luck sa lahat ng dota players sa davao, tnx sa support and trust… I’ll miss you guys! This is farewell for now.. =)

I have managed 8 DotA teams in more than a year, and among the more than 40 players I have handled, Jeztah is my favorite player. He is not only a versatile player, he is a good tactician, a responsible student, and a good person. (Sabi niya good lover din siya sa gf niya!) He has also given me the least worries and pasaway moments. As a manager, and as a friend, I am proud to have worked with THE JEZTAH CHING!

The DotA community, especially Davao, will surely miss his warm smile, and his pa-cute poses.

JOB WELL DONE JEZTAH! You might not have retired as a champion, but you have maintained your integrity and commitment through and through even when it wasn’t really your life’s priority anymore, and that too me says, it was worth it.

(I go find a new favorite player now. :P)

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 6th, 2008 at 9:47 pm and is filed under Announcements, DotA Allstars, Players. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.