Filipinos Overcome Koreans, Punch Ticket to Los Angeles
Korea-based Filipino team Rave Dota (Rave) defeated Korean rivals, MVP.Phoenix (MVP.P), in a thrilling best-of-five series Saturday, March 14, punching their ticket to a local area network (LAN) finals in Los Angeles, California.
Rave, the Overseas Filipino Gamers (OFG), overcame all odds against MVP 3-2 in the grand finals of The Summit 3, an America-based tournament, to secure their “fifth” international LAN competition.
“I feel MVP was able to get us out of our comfort zone and you can tell [it] from our [performances] in game 2, 3 and 4. We had to make some quick changes and luckily it was enough to win the tough series,” Michael “nb” Ross, Rave’s support player, told eSports by INQUIRER.net.
MVP.P and Rave’s rivalry developed through the months since the Filipinos stayed in South Korea. Their rivalry has reached the point wherein they know each other’s gameplay and strategies.
“It [has] come to a point where Rave and MVP understand each other so well since we face each other all the time. I believe every match against them is the toughest. Every week we both continue to improve. I respect the old players in MVP very much and it seems [that] their new roster is still a threat,” nb said.
With this victory, nb says that he hopes that this would secure them a direct invite for The International 5 (TI5), the world championships of Dota 2.
Rave will be flying within the week to compete in the Major All Stars (MAS) in Malaysia which is set to start on Friday, March 20.
“[We are] definitely in great shape since we just won The Summit 3 qualifier. Unfortunately, we couldn’t put much time [for] practice since we’ve been busy with tournaments almost everyday and Jeyo being unwell. I hope we can keep repeating our performance,” nb said. “Thanks for all the support and especially to all my close friends. I love my sister Michelle and my nephew Augusta very much! Dan keep taking care of them bro and I’ll be seeing the three of you soon.”
Rave is the first team to qualify for The Summit 3 that currently holds a total of P6.5 million ($146,765) prize pot as of writing which will be held in the Beyond the Summit (BTS) studio in Los Angeles on May 13-17. The last grand finals meet between these two teams was in the Korea Dota League (KDL) Season 3 where Rave dethroned then back-to-back champions MVP.P.
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The Summit 3 SEA Qualifier Grand Finals: El Clasico
Photo banner grabbed from Google Images.
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