Mineski CS:GO: Why Do They Stand Above the Rest

Mineski CS:GO has only begun its journey in 2016, but they have already made waves both in the local and SEA scene.

At the time of writing, Mineski is participating in the Asian Gaming Community (AGC) and E-Sports Entertainment Association (ESEA) leagues, going up against some of SEA’s best teams such as Made in Thailand (MiTH) as well as nxL. They have garnered seven wins in all their matches on AGC, while they have a 6-2 record on ESEA, losing only against MiTH and nxL, 14-16 and 12-16, respectively.

Locally, they have completed a clean sweep of Hasleft in the grand finals of Mineski CS:GO Shootout Season 2 (3-0). They also defeated other local teams such as One Size Fits All (OSFA), Expendables and G1.Wolves (formerly Raised by Wolves), among others, making them the Philippines’ best CS:GO team at the moment.

It is impressive to see that they have gotten these results despite the fact they have played officially for only two months.

Many would ask how this team is able to defeat established opposition and show strong results within a three-month period.

READ: Fire Base: An Interview With 5Peaks

A rich history

Back in June 2015, there was a team called the “Creation of 5 Peaks”, better known as “5Peaks” locally. At the time, their roster contained some of Philippines’ best players in their respective roles: Ryan “BabyBoy” Crisostomo was known as a proficient entry fragger, registering a kill-death ratio of 1.05 in all the matches that he has played.

Meanwhile, Stephen “Getziimov” Doron was locally known as the “Philippine pasha” among members of the local CS:GO community due to his skill with the sniper rifle, consistently creating highlight reel-worthy plays on the server:

Dominic “Cpt.Hannibal” Fajardo was renowned both for his rifling ability as well as his diverse set of strategies, such as when he lead 5Peaks through a series that had maps spanning for at least 29 rounds in order to grab the first-ever Mineski Shootout CS:GO title.

Along with young talent Mark “aimix” Dela Cruz and support player Arvin “ToMi” Lim, they went on to win the first ever Mineski CS:GO Invitational over Raised by Wolves with a scoreline of 3-1 (26-23 on Mirage, 16-14 on Overpass, 13-16 on Cobblestone and 21-19 on Dust 2).

Meanwhile, Kevin “dispenser” Te and Jayvee “dubstep” Paguirigan were also making waves in their respective teams: dispenser was considered to be a vital cog in the Wolves’ Shootout campaign, while dubstep was a feared player on the server due to his fragging skills.

Seven months later, on January 10, 2016, Mineski officially announced the signing of their CS:GO team. The roster included BabyBoy, Getziimov, Cpt.Hannibal, dispenser and dubstep.

On paper, they were already one of the best teams that the Philippines can offer in the CS:GO scene.

The difference between Mineski and the rest of the current playing field is that they went on to prove their worth, both on LAN and online.

Who delivers the wins?

To start things with, Dubstep is one of the team’s main entry fraggers. He currently has an average of 0.88 kills-per-round (KPR) rating as well as a 0.59 deaths-per-round (DPR) rating: A higher KPR on a player means that he was able to consistently get kills on a round regardless of the round’s outcome, while a lower DPR on a player means that he is able to effectively control the game by being alive as much as possible.

He recorded his best KPR at 1.44 during his match against PowerhouseSG in the ESEA Asian CS:GO League, with 26 kills over 18 rounds of play, while he died the least against Thresh eSports in the Asian Gaming Community CS:GO League, dying only four times over sixteen rounds, earning him a DPR of 0.25.

Next comes Cpt.Hannibal, who is the mastermind behind Mineski’s varied strategies. On a team level, he can dictate whether the team should follow a pick-based style or an aggressive execute style on the Terrorist side of the map, while he can change setups on the Counter-Terrorist side of the map in order to achieve dominance.

However, he is best known for his clutching skills, as he can turn a 1 vs. 1, 1 vs. 2 or even a 1 vs. 3 situation into a win for his team through his optimal positioning and acute game sense, as seen in this play against Hasleft.

Any aspirant top-tier team should have at least one player who can clutch rounds consistently: Examples in the international scene include flusha from Fnatic and xyp9x from Astralis. Cpt.Hannibal’s clutch board on the ESEA leaderboard clearly show this, as he takes six 1 vs. 1s and four one-on-twos for a total of ten clutches in the league.

Then, we have Kevin “dispenser” Te, who is one of Mineski’s main attackers. He is the other half of the “DD” killing machine: With a KPR of 0.94 and a DPR of 0.57, dispenser cracks sites open with his entry kills, making sure that he gets at least an average of one kill per round on the board.

He has the same record KPR with dubstep, getting a 1.44 against Metamorphic (as opposed to dubstep’s 0.55), while he got his lowest KPR at 0.58 against Japan’s Detonator on Mirage. He also got his highest DPR on that same match at 0.81, while his matches against Detonator on Overpass and nxL on Cache got him a DPR of 0.79. This just shows that Mineski relies heavily on dispenser and dubstep to get the entries on the map.

Going on, we have BabyBoy and being a support player, he is not expected to bring in the numbers when it comes to fragging. However, a quick look on the ESEA charts show that he both contributes to the team by gaining objectives on the map as he has a round win share (RWS) of 15.53, which is not far behind dubstep’s 15.70: RWS tells how much you influenced the rounds that you won in a certain match.

In addition, he has two 1 vs. 1 clutches, two 1 vs. 2 clutches and two 1 v. 3 clutches, which just shows that he can also bring back rounds that Mineski is not supposed to win in the first place. In other words, he is the cog that allows the rest of the team to focus on their respective roles.

Finally, getziimov is the AWPer of the team and is responsible for getting picks for his team in the early game. In addition to being the 4th best sniper in the ESEA CS:GO Asian League, clocking in at 45 kills, his RWS (12.20) and his overall positive kill-death record at 1.47 suggest that he is able to do his role effectively. In a recent game against N2EP of Indonesia, Getziimov shows why he is an effective sniper in this highlight reel.

What should be expected?

They are having a very strong start in their career and their current standings attest to this, as they are in fourth place in the Asian division of the ESEA Pro Season League S21, as well as having an undefeated streak in the AGC CS:GO League. Three of their members (BabyBoy, getziimov and Cpt.Hannibal) are now two-time champions of the Mineski Shootout tournament, while dispenser and dubstep have just won their first title with the current roster.

It is clear that they have the manpower to become a strong team in the Southeast Asian region: Having two frag machines, two proficient support players (who also happen to know how to clutch) and a dedicated AWPer is more than anyone can ask for at the moment.

If they continue to improve their form and increase their team chemistry, we may see a year Philippines’ FPS teams are feared and respected in their respective titles…and most importantly, see Mineski become one of Asia’s most powerful teams this year.

The time is ripe for Mineski to rise. It is all in their hands now.

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