Prologue

To claim that Fnatic’s Djardel Jicko “Dj” Mampusti is the best player the South East Asia (SEA) region has ever produced is a debatable topic. He has, after all, worked his name into the conversation among the likes of his own teammates Chai “Mushi” Yee Fung and Chong “Ohaiyo” Xin Khoo. The pair have had the most success in SEA ever, with a reputation built on creating dominating line-ups that reigns in terror over the region year-over-year. The pair are also decorated veterans, with Mushi being a part of one of the most dominating team franchises post-TI 3, Team DK.

He also has competition in terms of results and legacy. YamateH’s pre-Dota 2 achievements with Kingsurf and his work in 2013-2014 Titan kept a listless SEA region afloat for years. Eccentric Iceiceice’s individual accolades and exploits in some of the best Chinese teams of the last few years has also placed his name among the best players the region has ever produced.

What is unassailable are the facts: That he, a 21-year old Filipino, traveled to Korea in 2014 with team Rave. In the span of his stay with Rave he grinded public matches endlessly in between training sessions and matches at the Korean Dota League, reaching 7,000 Match Making Rank points (MMR) in the world’s most competitive solo queue: China.

That in his campaign with Rave the team went on to place 5th-6th at the Dota Asian Championship, defeating Invictus Gaming in the lower bracket before falling to Big God, earning the single biggest prize money won by a Filipino team in an international LAN, against stiff international competition.

That since his time with Rave, he has found himself with a veteran Southeast Asian group led by Mushi and Ohaiyo, and together have forged Fnatic — the best SEA team to date — with mind-blowing win-streaks in a region shared with another Tier 1 team in MVP Phoenix.

That in his short time as a professional Dota 2 player, he has played all five roles across two teams. Since 2014, Dj has served faithfully in his roles to push an underfunded Filipino team to Tier 1 of the SEA region and now is lifting Fnatic across some of the best teams in the Manila Major.

His time in Fnatic has had him share farm priority with the likes of Mushi, MidOne and Ohaiyo, while still finding the time to make game-winning plays on any hero he pilots.

https://esports.inquirer.net/14786/dj-and-fnatics-quest-for-a-lan-title

That on Wednesday evening, June 8, Fnatic’s Dj blew up Chinese rivals LGD away from the winner’s bracket through an expertly choreographed finish: on Enigma, Dj single-handedly turned around a losing fight by completing a Refresher Orb mid-fight, hide it on a courier and have it delivered to him in the space of 3 seconds, before jumping back into the fight with the Black Hole ultimate to steal the game away from the Chinese.

Dj might not be the best player of all time in SEA, but it’s becomingly increasingly difficult not to talk about him.

Chapter 1: Understanding Dj

Dj is a shy man.

The crowd at the Mall of Asia Arena saw first-hand how shy Dj truly was. There, despite winning an important game against a formidable foe, Dj barely held the glance of his interviewer and frequently nodded his head as the arena chanted his name.

But the shyness isn’t a measure of his killer instinct. Beneath the quiet and reserved nature lurks a player itching to be recognized in the highest echelons of the game. There’s a hunger to be the best, and the shy, boyish looks of Dj belie his drive to succeed.

Dj is a shy man, but he is also a hard working man. He is a driven man.

Friend and former captain at Rave, Mark “Cast” Pilar, characterizes Dj’s shyness as one of his strongest qualities. “He’s very shy and very quiet, but he’s a very positive player to work with,” Cast told me once, in talking about Dj, “When we were teammates, he kept his head down and played. He wants 0 drama and prefers to keep playing and improving.”

Cast met Dj back in the days of DotA 1, when Cast led a proto-team of now Dota 2 pros in bet matches in the cities of Marikina and Antipolo. He recalled that even as a child, Dj was quiet and eager to learn. “We used to sub him in bet matches,” said Cast. “Other teams recognized us so we’d put him in to get them to commit to a match. Then we’d beat them.”

His current teammates, Ohaiyo and 343, note that the lone Filipino in a squad composed of four Malaysians is often the one that wants to practice and play the most.

“We never really have problems communicating with him [Dj],” Ohaiyo told me in a past interview. “We try and communicate in English as much as we can but he usually just says a few words when he’s in the game. He just signals me, ‘I’m going bottom!’ or ‘Let’s kill Venge’ and that’s it. Our communication with him is never hard.”

“In the house as well we usually talk and watch movies together, but then when we play Dota it’s the only thing he wants to do,” he added.

Barring some time off to be with family and loved ones, Dj’s work-ethic to the game is almost unparalleled among SEA players.

Says Cast again about Dj, back when they were in Rave: “Sometimes we get bored and lonely [in Korea], but there are some players in our team who don’t mind. Chrissy (Dj’s former gamer tag) just wants to train and play. Maybe he’s on his phone texting somebody, but mostly he’s in-game.”

The result of that hard work and dedication is paying off in the post-TI5 season. At ESL ONE Manila, it was Dj that was singled out by teams like compLexity Gaming and Mineski as the core problem in trying to solve Fnatic. His Enchantress play in the month leading up to the event had been a consistent thorn in the side of any team looking to challenge the dominance of Fnatic.

“Fnatic is also going to be tough competition. They have been absolutely insane lately even without Mushi. I think Dj is the best Filipino player right now also. He works as hard as anybody which I respect,” said Kyle “swindlemelonzz” Freedman.

Chapter 2: The path to Newbee

Fnatic’s analyst Muriëlle “Kips” Huisman’s meticulous prepwork for the event held clear targets in mind.

“LGD and Newbee are both looking very dangerous. Both are in our direct path and they have similar styles. What’s worse is that they’re the most consistent in those styles,” said Kips.

“Against Liquid, we’re kind of 50/50; we have the same fighting style so I think we can play with that. It will come down to fine tuning our execution,” she explained. “But against the most consistent Chinese teams, who can punish aggression the best out of the tournament, it’s hard.”

But Kips isn’t too worried. In her eyes, the team has the tools to win.

“If we can get past LGD, we can get past Newbee,” she said with caution. “Of course, we might not be able to get past them, but I feel that we are well-prepared to do so.”

With the win against LGD last night however, Kip’s prepwork seems to have have a double-edged effect. Her work correctly informed Fnatic about LGD’s reliance on Maybe, and how their team’s gold proportions are anchored on Maybe’s farm rate. It was this, together with other information and the team’s own resilience, that pushed them past LGD.

But her work and the team’s collective success have placed them in the path of one of the few teams in the world with the claim as being the best: Newbee, who have so far only dropped one game in the entire tournament.

“They [Newbee] are very defensive, with very quick defensive TPs,” she said. “It’s dangerous for us.”

If Fnatic hope to succeed against Newbee, then the team certainly has the background for it. What it will come down to is the execution; an execution that is anchored heavily on Dj, 343 and Ohaiyo.

Epilogue: Dj-God

At Shanghai, Fnatic’s run ended in 6th place. At that tournament, Fnatic played an underwhelming group stage and only rallied to a middle Top-8 finish after a lower bracket run where they took games off OG and a lethargic Newbee.

But pundits were right to point out that the Fnatic from Shanghai were nowhere near as dominant as the Fnatic that entered Manila. For the last Major, Fnatic have walked in with the most disciplined drafts the team has ever had thanks to Adam “343” Shah’s own talents. The team has also fixed their gold distribution issues, with Mushi and MidOne fluidly passing farm priority, with Ohaiyo pulling in resources when it really counts.

But while the team’s successes have surely been a result of their collective hardwork, what has captured the minds and imaginations of audiences, analysts and fans is the story of Dj.

It’s a simple story: the story of a player whose career has been rooted in hard work, who has consistently pulled out miracles when his team needed him the most, and who will be competing against one of the, if not the actual, best teams in the world.

Perhaps he is the best the SEA region has ever produced. Or perhaps, he is more modestly the best the Philippines has ever produced. It may be too early to answer these questions. T

But the fact of the matter is that Dj is a made man; the best Filipino Dota 2 player of all time is a 21-year old who has slavishly played the game for years, across multiple countries. That his legend is a story in the process of being written, with the author no one else but himself.

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