Here’s to a New RAVEolution!
The Dota 2 scene has been echoing team MVP.Phoenix and Fnatic especially with their recent performance in the Shanghai Major. The Southeast Asian region is slowly igniting and making its mark–ready topple down teams from other regions. But there’s another spark. Rising from the ashes is another #RAVEolution and it brings back the fire once extinguished.
The wait is over, Rave welcomes the return of their former members: Michael “Ninjaboogie” Ross–as the team captain– Jio “Jeyo” Madayag and Ryo “Ryoyr” Hasegawa. The Southeast Asian team is reborn once again, ready to unleash its power in competitive Dota.
Joining them are two new players namely, Frederico “derp-” B. Mampusti and Rafael “rapy” Sicat Palo. Their squad is ready to face the competitive scene starting with ESL One Manila.
Bring in the veterans
Rave became one of the top teams in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia in 2015 but by the end of the summer, their performance waned. They weren’t able to get a direct invite from Valve in last year’s The International (TI5) and lost to MVP.Phoenix during the tournament’s Southeast Asian Qualifiers.
THROWBACK: Dota 2 Asia Championships: #RAVEvolution
Rumors spread about Rave’s roster change which was confirmed on Rave’s official page and Jio “Jeyo” Madayag, who announced his break from the competitive scene to head back to Canada and continue his studies. Ninjaboogie also announced his retirement from the team but will not leave the competitive scene. That was just the start of Rave’s roller-coaster ride of reshuffle.
Team manager, Pyung “pYung” Kwon and the team’s former captain Mark “Cast” Pilar agreed on reconstructing the team. Cast posted a statement that they will still play under Rave’s banner for the upcoming Mineski Pro Gaming League (MPGL7) and the team will be based in the Philippines instead in South Korea. For their lineup, they included Marvin “Boombacs” Rushton as an official member Rave and Ralph Richard “RR” Peñano as a standin.
Not long after the announcement of the changes, pYung revealed that Rave is officially inactive and have no official members. Cast then posted that they will play under a different banner for MPGL7. With Ryo “ryOyr” Hasegawa and Djardel “DJ” Mampusti, Cast stated that will play under MSI-EvoGT. However that wasn’t the end for the members’ journey since ryOyr joined Mineski while DJ was picked up by Malaysian-based team Fnatic but that is another story.
READ: Rave Confirms Inactivity
Rave was in ashes but is ready to be reborn. In November 2015, Rave announced the formation of Rave 2.0, a new team that will be formed through a series of tryout. It was the first-ever tryout in the country.
According to Hoffman-Rae Sacobo, team manager of Rave, they sorted out players in the Philippines with 6k MMR and test which players fit perfectly in the team.
Fresh new players entering the scene brings new hope to the competitive scene in the country and based on their performance, it’s only a matter of time before they can reach to their proper potential. However, their lack of experience can also block their way of getting there. The return of Ninjaboogie, Jeyo and Ryor might just be the missing formula to the team’s success.
Bring in the glory?
Ninjaboogie later co-founded an Australian-based team called Banaaaanas last August 2015 and competed in the Beyond the Summit (BTS) Southeast Asia but was lost to First Departure in the qualifiers. He eventually joined Mineski-X last January with Joel “XTiNcT” Chan.
For ryOyr, he had a good run with Mineski after reading joining last August. They had accomplished a lot for the Southeast Asian region especially when they performed well during the Frankfurt Major. But he decided to return to Rave with Ninjaboogie.
Jeyo, on the other hand, went to team FIRE during the same month which later on became Team Archon last October. This North American team was lead by Brian “FLUFFNSTUFF” Lee and had several good performances. They took the opportunity from Digital Chaos in the Shanghai Major American Qualifiers. Unfortunately they did not survive during the first round of the lower bracket in the Main Event and settled in 13th-16 place after they lost to EHOME.
Ninjaboogie when he was in Mineski-X won in the Shanghai Major Pre-Qualifiers but fell short in the Southeast Asian Main Qualifier. Ryor had good performances with Mineski but it always fell short during crucial matches like during The Summit 4 and the Frankfurt Major.
Post-Rave Peformance
Jeyo:
ryOyr:
Rave Performance
Ninjaboogie:
Jeyo:
ryOyr:
Ninjaboogie didn’t have much action in the competitive scene compared to when he was under Rave’s banner. He had a 60% win rate during that time and it wouldn’t be fair to compare it to his performance post-Rave.
For ryOyr and Jeyo also have a 60% win rate and there is a slight difference in both their win rates compared to their post-Rave records. Jeyo had 55% win rate when he was in Team Archon and ryOyr had 54 when he was with Mineski.
Although it is seen that their GPM and KDA is slightly higher compared to their post-Rave performance. It may be because of the difference of training environment. In Korea, Rave was able to scrim with Chinese teams and the Internet is far more convenient compared to the Philippines.
With the new Rave lineup, the veterans will fight alongside the rookies. Hoffman said that a mixture of veteran and rookie players can both benefit from each other and help create balance for the team. It will also become a learning process for the young ones to improve their skills.
Both rapy and derp- are new to the competitive scene and both of them are looking forward to contribute to the team’s success. Also carrying the Mampusti name, derp- is the older brother of Fnatic’s DJ. He is more than ready to mark his name in the competitive scene and improve his skills.
“New players has this fire and excitement to play as a pro that makes them stride harder to succeed while the veterans becomes the stabilizers of the team that will help on winning,” he said.
There is no certainty about how their performance will be but Rave 2.1 will become an exciting addition to the Southeast Asian teams. Fnatic and MVP.Phoenix aren’t the only teams to watch out for in the region. We can see more surprising performance in the following tournaments. ESL Manila is the first target of Rave and they are hoping to continue and relive their glory.
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Our first official game is a WIN!GGWP Team! Godspeed!-hoff
Posted by Rave-Dota on Saturday, March 12, 2016
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Rave Player Feature No.5Name: Jio MadayagAge: 22IGN: Rave.JeyoRole: CarryHometown: Valenzuela CityJeyo has been…
Posted by Rave-Dota on Saturday, March 12, 2016
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