by Jasper Arcalas and Earl “Rave28” Guevarra

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In just a few hours, 2014 will come to an end. It has been a roller coaster ride for Philippine eSports.

2014 must have been the greatest year for Dota 2 though it did have its ups and downs. The #DarkHorse run of Execration in StarLadder X made waves in the global competitive scene while the first ever dubbed Overseas Filipino Gamers (OFGs), Rave Dota, pushed the limits and capabilities of Filipino DOTO not just in the country but also in Southeast Asia (SEA).

It’s not only in Dota 2 that Filipino gamers gained fame and respect from the competitive scene.

Who would forget the Coup at Warsaw with Filipinos waging war against international vets? Even if they didn’t land in any podium finish, indeed, Captain Batman and friends stood their ground for the country. Pacific Macta also brought glory to the three stars and a sun in CrossFire.

But 2014 was not all about triumphs and victories, it was also a year of controversies and downfalls.

During mid-year, the match-fixing scandal took the Philippine Dota 2 scene by surprise and was followed by temporary bans on one of the best League of Legends team in the country, Manila Eagles, because of ghosting. This year, Elgee, one of if not the best FPS players laid down his guns and ammunition.

So without further ado, here are some of the momentous times of Philippine eSports in 2014!

Dota 2

Undoubtedly, 2014 has been one of the greatest years for Philippine Dota 2. Different teams rose to stardom, proving that Pinoy Doto is not only at the regional level but also at the global stage. But behind these glorious moments, issues resulted in disappointment and backlash.

 I. Dark horse turned respectable

Team Execration at Starladder X Lan Finals (Kiev,Ukraine)

In October, Filipino Dota 2 gamers rejoiced when then Interactive Philippines.Execration (IAP.XcTN), now just Execration, punched their ticket in the Local Area Network (LAN) Finals of StarLadder Star Series X in Kiev, Ukraine.

It was not a piece of cake for the Filipino boys. On the way, they needed to go through a grueling tiebreaker with Johnny’s Revenge and Titan (now known as Team Malaysia) — teams at such high caliber that could have extinguished Execration’s hopes for an international feat.

Undoubtedly, Execration is one of the vets in the Philippine scene. They may have undergone many roster changes through the years, but they proved to be one of the best. But behind a veteran team is an undying heart — the team being managed and majorly supported by the ever passionate Dota enthusiast, Arvin “Beho” Risos. Beho even went to the Ukrainian embassy in Vietnam in order to secure the team’s visas to Ukraine. This is just one of the million efforts that Beho has made not only for the team, but for Philippine Dota.

Just before they flew to Kiev, XctN got tons of support from fellow pro-gamers, amateurs, spectators and even gaming companies such as Steel Series.

Even if they didn’t land a podium finish, they gained the respect and attention of international players, proving what the Filipino Dota Spirit really is. They defeated Virtus.Pro (VP) and even went head-to-head with powerhouse teams such as Team Secret (Secret) and Natus Vincere (Na’Vi).

II. NCR shaken; Visayas draws nation’s attention

Has the era of NCR’s dominance in the Dota 2 competitive scene come to an end? No one can tell, but with the looks of Metro Manila-based teams this year, they aren’t in good shape. This year, the Visayas region took the nation by surprise with strong and promising teams such as Arcanys Gaming from Cebu and Insight.PH from Bacolod.

Undoubtedly, one of the greatest stories that the country has witnessed was Arcanys’ tale to the top. Arcanys has been around for a good amount of time, bringing the fight to the battlefields of Dota from the Queen City of the South. However, this year was to be their “ultimate breakout” as they snatched two major Philippine titles: First, they won the ESL Philippine Dota 2 Finals against a Mineski squad with Johnny “JoHnNy” Lee and Ah “ahfu” Fu in October and second, they grabbed the MPGL Philippine Grand Finals against Click N’ Search, which marks the first time that a non-Luzon team has taken an MPGL title.

Of course, the tale of the South does not end there as they basically ran over everyone in the Southeast Asian scene to arrange a grand final showdown with Korea-based Filipino gamers, Rave Dota.

No one will forget the “sword and shield” of Prince Vince “MightySavior” Enriquez as well as the otherworldly arrows of Marvin Salvador “Boombacs” Rushton. Of course, it must be mentioned that Heinrich “Heinrich” Abad, Jun “Bok” Kanehara and Delbert “friedbutterflys” Cortez all contributed to the strong team that is Arcanys today.

If anyone asks who the sixth man of the squad is, then one can safely say that Alan Debonneville is the person behind Arcanys Gaming. As the manager of the squad, he makes sure that his team gets all it needs to be the best — from boot camps to personal company. He is  the Superman of the team!

 “We’re very proud of the achievement of our team. They’ve only formed in August and in a matter a few months of hard work, they’ve managed to beat most Filipino teams and many overseas teams as well. We’re really happy that serious training is paying off. Getting a bit of rest now over the holidays but also staying focused on getting even better next year.“ – Alan Debonneville, Arcanys’ manager

III. Overseas Filipino Gamers take center stage

If anyone remembers the days before the last edition of the International, then they would remember that there was a team called “Eye of Tiger: Hammer”, which was said to be “a team with potential to become a strong team one day”. Can anyone guess who they were?

Ladies and gentlemen, they are Rave Dota.

They were the first Filipino Dota 2 team to get a good placing at a Chinese LAN event during i-League Season 1 as well as one of the most consistent squads in the Asia-Pacific region. They are also considered the first ever Overseas Filipino Gamers (OFG) due to their gaming situation: Filipino gamers based in Korea and who went back to the Philippines to showcase their cold-blooded skills.

In late November, they bagged the MPGL VI SEA Grand Finals title along with P800,000~ cash (the biggest share in Philippine eSports history), cementing themselves in the annals of Philippine Dota 2 history.

But does anyone know how many games they needed to play in order to get to this spot? They played 115 official matches of Dota 2 from June this year, ranging from the unpredictable best-of-ones to the nerve-wracking best-of-fives. Anyone can roughly estimate that they have played some 300 hours of Dota 2 officially, not counting the scrims and the public matches.

There is only one keyword here: Dedication.

Rave is a fine example of how a team should work: They are dedicated to their game, they are clear with what they want and they are ready to sacrifice even the warmth of their homes to compete at the highest level.

IV. One, two, punch combo events

The last quarter of the year 2014 saw many events come to light. Filipino gamers anticipated the sixth installment of the Mineski Pro Gaming League (MPGL) SEA Grand Finals at Skydome where they witnessed an all-out Filipino war. The two-day event pitted 16 of the best teams in the region to have their share of the overwhelming base P1 million prize pool —  the biggest prize pool ever in Philippine eSports history.

The next major event was the The Net.Com (TNC) eSports Grand Finale, a big leap for Eric Redulfin and company. The event was held at 4th Floor Event Area, The Annex, SM North EDSA , where different eSports titles had their respective grand finals — from Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) games such as Dota 2 and League of Legends (LoL) to First Persoon Shooting (FPS) like Assault Fire and even Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG) Dragon Nest and Yulgang.

Aside from major events, lots of small online and offline tournaments were held not only in Metro Manila but all over the country; the likes of Razer National eSports Xtreme Tournament (NeXT) and etc, proving that Philippines is the capital of Local Area Network (LAN) tournaments.

With all these behind, what lies ahead for tournament organizers in 2015? Would we witness bigger tournaments than these? Would we fill a stadium like what Redulfin said? One thing is for sure, the tournaments are growing and there’s no stopping the organizers.

V. Reincarnation: Tiwala lang… where did Mineski go?

One of the best and the sigil of Filipin Dota, the team that started #TIWALALANG #BUSYAN — where have they been? Many people counted out Mineski just before this month. Indeed, they have dismal results both locally and internationally which led many to wonder whether Mineski has turned into a tier-two team.

Mineski overcame struggles which resulted in a big revamp in their squad. After series of roster changes, Mineski imported two Malaysian pros in the forms of Johnny “JoHnNy” Lee and Ahfu-Taufukia.

After dismal results and downfalls, Mineski gave one last push to prove that they are still one of the contenders, as they took three championships just before the year ended: the Selangor Cyber Games, the MOL Dota 2 Championship and finally, the Hitbox Obutto Championship. In addition, they placed fourth in the recently concluded OK.-Dota 2 Championship.

With these seemingly endless top four finishes, can we say that this is just a lucky streak? Or is this revival for real?

VI. Match-fixing Exposé

In what was probably considered the biggest disappointment of the year, Filipino Dota 2 gamers woke up to a shocking scandal on Oct. 13, 2014.

A Redditor named “ConcernedPhCitizen” leaked details of alleged match-fixing deals between a certain Michael Vallejos, Jonathan Radores and members of Mineski and MSI-EvoGT. As time passed by, more and more incriminating evidence was revealed. At the time, the management of the two teams placed involved players under preventive suspension while they were conducting their investigations.

After days of investigation and deliberation, eSports organizations and concerned teams removed the players from their respective organizations and sanctioned them, preventing them from coming back to the competitive scene for the most part.

Such an exposé will forever change the Filipino Dota 2 landscape as it not only involved top teams such as Mineski and MSI, but also opens up the possibilities of another match-fixing lurking around — or perhaps, a different type of scandal.

League of Legends (LoL)

While 2013 was the year in which the Philippines shined the most — fielding a team at the Season 3 Worlds Championships as well as proving to be a consistent force in the Southeast Asian arena — 2014 has been the year of silence for the League of Legends scene.

I. Eagles down the flight

In an unfortunate turn of events, just weeks after the alleged match-fixing scandal in Dota 2 happened, the PH LoL scene was shocked by Manila Eagles getting banned from the competitive scene due to “ghosting”.

In the investigation of Garena Philippines, they found out sufficient pieces of evidence to prove that such an act did happen. Robert “Trebor” Mansilungan and Elvis “Knut” Zhao were banned from playing for two years, while Manila Eagles was banned for a year. The team, which was one of the staples of the local LoL scene, broke up afterwards.

At the moment, the local scene is trying to regain its footing. This can be seen in Garena Philippines’ efforts to reorganize everything, from tournament rules to the leagues themselves.

As Shannon Alder puts it, “All great beginnings start in the dark, when the moon greets you to a new day at midnight”.

With the start of Season 5 and 2015 on its way, it’s a new hope and a greater chance for the PH LoL scene to showcase and prove not only at the national level but at the global stage that Filipino Champions have what it takes to be called “champs!”

First Person Shooting (FPS)

I. MSI Elgee retires

Elgee with his wife celebrating MSIEvoGT’s Silver finish during the WCG 2013(C/O Mineski.net)

One of the most shocking changes in the Philippine FPS scene this year was Elgee’s retirement from the competitive scene. He is best remembered for his time as a member of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse as well as his clutch 1v4 play during the World Cyber Games (WCG) in 2013.

Elgee mentioned that he was supposed to retire back in 2012 after winning the Philippines’ first medal in WCG. However, his teammates pleaded with him to stay for one more time and so he went on to play until his retirement this October 2014. He further mentioned that physical constraints are already preventing him from performing at his best, thus further contributing to his retirement.

He is currently the Chief Gaming Officer of the MSI organization. Not only is he the person who leads all the teams in the MSI roster, but he also remains to be the biggest driving force in terms of discipline and skills in the FPS local scene.

Elgee will be always remembered as one of the best if not the best cyberathletes that the Philippines has ever produced.

II. Pacific.Macta: Continuing a strong tradition

Image from Macta Infirma Crossfire Team Facebook Page

People acquainted with the competitive scene will remember that MSI’s Elgee Gaboy, probably one of the greatest Filipino FPS players of all time, retired from competitive gaming a few months ago. At the time, there were a quite a lot of people who were concerned about who will continue his legacy. After all, he and his team was well-known in the FPS community as the “Chinese slayers” for beating some of the strongest Chinese teams at the World Cyber Games — something that raised the standards of Filipino shooters.

Pacific.Macta stepped up to take the mantle. In the Philippine qualifiers of the Crossfire Stars Grand Finals, they beat teams such as Pacific.Wara as well as MSIEvoGT, two teams considered to be the cream of the crop of the local scene. However, it is important to note that Pacific.Macta has been around for a very long time. In other words, they know the game as much as their counterparts do.

In the group stages of the Crossfire Stars Grand Finals held in Seoul, Korea earlier this month, they absolutely floored the opposition, beating Chinese team EP and North American team !nstinct with very good performances. Everyone expected them to get a podium placing with this kind of play despite this being their first major event abroad. In fact, they were considered the “dark horses” throughout the tournament.

In the playoffs, they dominated South American team NTS Gaming, only to be stopped by the Chinese team Modern.DYTV.EP in the semi-finals. They dropped to the third-place match, beating the European team PENTA Esports within two sets, thus completing their first world championship run with a respectable third-place podium placing.

These guys have proven that they are more than capable of continuing the strong Filipino tradition in the FPS scene. But whether they win a world championship is another story.

World of Tanks

 I. We will not forget: The coup at Warsaw

Image from PVP Superfriends Facebook Page

If you don’t know the name “PVP Super Friends”, then we think that it’s a very good time to do so. The team is one of the most consistent World of Tanks (WoT) teams in the Southeast Asian region. At the beginning of the year 2014 however, only a few people knew them outside the tanking scene.

Led by their charismatic and wacky captain Alvin “Batman” Urbiztondo (along with his trademark Batman mask), they gave a lot of people a run for their money with their strong performances at the Wargaming.net League Grand Finals in Warsaw, Poland.

Their crowning moment at the tournament is most probably their second-round loser bracket playoff win against Fnatic. The European team is known to be one of the best World of Tanks teams in the world at the time, and the Asian WoT community could not believe that the Filipino side pulled off such a win!

Batman and company finally fell in the losers bracket round against Red Rush: Unity. However, their performance was enough to gain them 4th place, a place in World of Tanks history and most importantly, a place in the hearts of the worldwide WoT community.

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