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Filipino DOTA 2 Teams and Players Who Have Made Their Mark In The International Scene
The Filipino social media gaming sphere broke last August, when local group TNC Pro Team landed in the top eight of the 2016 International Dota 2 Championships (TI6). They’ve conquered the biggest e-sports tournament in history—in style—sweeping tournament favorites OG out of the door and securing for themselves $519,262 (a whopping P25,000,000) and arguably becoming the most successful PH-based competitive gaming team ever.
Despite many touting them as the next big head honchos, the boys in orange finally actualized their potential with the addition of NA-based journeyman Jimmy “DeMoN” Ho. His addition to the team last June allowed the team to end the country’s 5-year TI drought, where they would eventually shake up the entirety of the global DOTA community by pulling out the biggest underdog win in TI history.
Where TNC is Philippine DOTA’s most successful team, Dj is without a doubt its greatest player ever.
Beginning his pro career by joining friends/teammates/Marikina homebois Mark “Cast” Pilar and Ryo “ryOyr” Hasegawa in South Korea to form Rave-DOTA, the first Professional all-Pinoy team to be based outside the country, Dj embodied risk and sacrifice in order to chase his dream of becoming a world-class player.
After giving the country its first multi-million peso finish at an international DOTA 2 tournament with Rave (more on this below), Dj’s career truly hit its stride in the 2015-2016 season after moving, this time to Malaysia, where he would play under the wing of Southeast Asian legend Chai Yee “Mushi” Fung in Fnatic.
In the next 12 months, Dj would become the only Filipino to attend all three Majors and the season-ending TI in one cycle, helping his team to finish top 6 in all Majors and eventually finish fourth at TI6—just outside the finalists’ podium.
During his stint with SEA’s most successful team from the past year, Dj became the region’s consensus best player—a title, which denies in interviews, he consistently affirms with his spectacular play.
The #Raveolution of 2015 will forever go down in e-sports history as the team of individuals who took the risk to play out of South Korea and gave a nation of hungry DOTA fanatics its first taste of international glory by placing 5th at the DOTA 2 Asia Championships. And bagged $152,876 (P7 million).
Although they would eventually fail to make it to that year’s TI, Rave will always have their place in the local DOTA fans’ hearts as the harbinger of better things to come for the world’s most passionate DOTA fanbase.
The young prodigy turned heads when he officially became the youngest player ever to attend DOTA 2’s yearly main event. Spending his 16th birthday playing in the TI6 wild cards in Seattle, Abed showed the world why he is the hottest rookie to come out of SEA the past season.
Adding mystique to this Cavite-based prospect is his mastery of Meepo, a DOTA hero that demands godly-fast clicks and intense micromanagement to be effective in the competitive scene. The best part? His legend’s just beginning.
Execration was initially comprised of two squads before being united into one solid team and is made up of Kimo, Foxx, Ewe, RR, Abeng and their manager Beho. The team—previously sponsored by InterActive Philippines, a name they also adopted in the past—had its first taste of victory at the Star Ladder Star Series Season 10-SEA Division and with the addition of Bimbo, the former captain and mid-laner of another team, Execration continued to move upwards in the SEA Region. They’ve also earned a slot as the SEA Representative for Star Ladder Star Series Season 10-Lan Finals.
In the last two years, Execration let go of some members to make room for new ones and is working to rebuild their strength and momentum. This year, the team qualified for The International 2016 but failed to make it to group stages. They, however, won at the MPGL Southeast Asian Championship, beating MVP 2-0 in the grand finals. Execration is expected to make even bigger changes and we can’t wait to see what the team has in store for us.
