The Philppine Break: An Introduction

After Rave’s recent participation in the I-League where they convincingly defeated Power Rangers in the Quarter Finals and took a game off Oldboys in a fight to the bitter end, IAP.Execration’s nail-biting victory in the Starladder X Sea Qualifiers as well as their recent break to WePlay’s Main Event and MSI’s 2nd place victory at the Asian IeSF Asian Championships (which will make them viable to represent Asia in the World Championships, along with MVP.Phoenix), one is inclined to say that the renaissance of the Philippines in the Dota 2 scene has come, after many seasons of disappointments and false hopes. Surely, we should be happy that we have right now at least two teams that will fight for the pride of our country in the international scene, no?

I am really happy about these recent developments, and I am really amazed at how fast these teams have adapted their play styles against the various teams that they have faced over the past five to seven months, and personally, I would like to see other Filipino teams take the mantle and go represent our country in the international Dota 2 scene.

However, it is not all roses and rainbows, as there were also many difficulties along the way. For the record, it took three months from their last win against MVP.Phoenix for Rave to win again, and yes, no one will forget how Execration stumbled in their final group match against Johnny’s Revenge, which lead to the infamous triple tiebreaker round where IAP redeemed what was theirs by taking down JR in a decisive manner and by defeating Titan in an hour or so of extreme Dota play.

These things prove one seemingly small detail that should be taken note of: Our teams have still much room to improve, and they can use more theory-crafting and consistency in the mix (which is not just a problem for our teams, by the way, but for most of the SEA region as well; after all, no one says “SEA DOTO 322” for no reason whatsoever!) After all, we have already good players and an improving infrastructure (yeah, I know that people will contend by saying that we have the worst Internet in SEA), but at least, teams have started to realize that it takes more than five players and a charismatic manager to be able to break out from the local scene into the global spotlight.

So now, let me go into theory-crafting and consistency: Firstly, theory-crafting is basically creating new drafts or new usage of items on heroes that may have never used the item before; it can also simply be adding a previously unused hero into the mix and using it as effectively as possible. Rave has been said to be doing this with the initiative of their manager, who has by the way allowed them to don the Philippine flag despite their sponsors being Korean; this has resulted in much better drafting over the months, regardless of patch (6.81 onwards), and this has been quite responsible for their victories even against teams who seem to be much better on paper. That being said, many other teams can this in order to diversify their drafts or to simply improve their overall play, and let me warn you: Theory-crafting is risky, especially when it is applied to a high-stakes game: Win, and you change the metagame. Lose, and you’ll be the laughingstock of the gaming community for a period of time!

Secondly, consistency is something that most of our teams lack. Sure, our teams take games off each other thanks to their familiarity with each other’s drafts, but how about when they face teams from other countries? Watching replays and some advanced planning can help, but it can only do so much: The only way to get a feel of how other teams play is to face them on the field and learn from the experience: This is why joining tournaments are important, because they allow the participants to see what they can bring to the table, which in turn, use to improve their respective styles. In this regard, Execration has been slightly ahead of the Filipino teams, and in fact, quite a number of people have noticed that they do not “throw” games when they lose; rather, they lose games simply because their draft cannot comply with the needs of that particular match-up or that their draft cannot stand up to the potential of the other team’s lineup (as seen in their final game against JR in the group stages of Starladder SEA Qualifiers).

Overall, I am happy that some other teams, most notably Arcanys and Mineski, have from time to time tried to do something despite the fact that they have comparably inferior results compared to their compatriots. However, time will tell whether they will step up their game; I hope that they do so, because each team that we have in the international scene directly increases the quality of the local scene…and indirectly contributes to the development of a gaming scene as a whole!

I am wishing the best of luck to both IAP and Rave, as well as to MSI (and Mineski, who has been invited to the Thailand Dota 2 LAN Tournament) in their endeavors. I hope that they get themselves to 5th gear and bring the bacon to our country!

Mabuhay!

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