Just when the spotlight was on the other side of virtual gaming, a Filipino team fought hard to shine bright in a big Chinese tournament.

Rave Dota (Rave), the Overseas Filipino Gamers (OFG), survived two three-way tiebreakers, securing the 12th and final slot in the Dota 2 Asia Championships (DAC) as well as at least P2.1 million ($48,318) in their pocket, earlier today.

Dota 2 is a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) game which pits two teams with the goal of destroying the central structure of the opposition. The Dota 2 Asia Championships is a weeklong tournament in China pitting the best teams in the world vying for their share of the $2.77 million (P122 million) prize pool — one of the biggest tournaments ever in competitive gaming or eSports’ history.

The Filipinos outplayed two Chinese teams, CDEC.Douyu and TongFu, to advance to the play-offs of the tournament. They faced both teams yesterday for the tiebreakers, which ended yet again in another tiebreaker.

TIED. The results of the first set of tiebreakers between Rave, TongFu and CDEC. (Photo captured from Liquipedia)

In their first match for the second round of tiebreakers, Rave faced TongFu. The Korea-based Filipino team outclassed the Chinese team in a one-sided 34-minute game. The Filipinos held the lead earlier in the match, gaining the much-needed tempo in their first tiebreaker game. They had the gold lead just after the get-go and never lost hold of it.

BIG GAP. The net difference between the two teams at the end of the game.

Rave got all the core items they needed for their heroes and slowly took advantage of their upper hand. They easily managed to sweep the outermost towers of the opposition, paving way for a well-planned base siege. The big difference in terms of the net worth and experience was clear-cut for the Filipinos’ victory. They ended the game with a net lead of as much as 33,597 gold and a 19-kill deficit over the Chinese team.

OVERKILL. Rave outplayed TongFu holding the kill lead way ahead of them.

The Filipinos then faced CDEC. Coming in to the second game, CDEC was under the pressure of time rating evaluation. TongFu defeated CDEC yesterday in 38 minutes while Rave defeated the former in 34 minutes and 40 seconds. With these, CDEC must defeat Rave below the 34-minute and 40-second mark. If the game exceeds the said time limit, the Filipinos would be the victor.

Given the pressure at hand, the Chinese team opted for an all-out push (the action of seizing the opposition’s buildings and turrets) lineup while the Filipinos went for middle game and lane control focused heroes. At the early mark, the Filipinos found pickoff after pickoff, something that wasn’t in favor of the Chinese.

EARLY. Rave slowly gained the early lead of the game after getting solo kills and pickoffs.

Despite the kill lead advantage of the Filipinos, CDEC utilized their lineup at its best, taking down tier 1 towers (outermost protective turrets) left and right, gaining the gold advantage at their side. More so, the Chinese had the greater control over the map with properly placed observer wards (an item that serves as a spy over a certain area), giving them a proper vision of Rave’s movements.

UP! CDEC’s gold advantage over Rave, 10 minutes in the game.

However, Rave.Mark “Cast” Pilar’s Leshrac (an intelligent hero with nuke damage good for defending and pushing) proved to be a hurdle for the Chinese as he constantly spammed his skills delaying their push in the lane.

LIGHTNING BOLT. Rave.Cast’s Leshrac spamming lightning storm on the enemies, delaying their push.

As the game hit the 17-minute mark, with at least 22 more minutes left for CDEC to claim victory, the Chinese faced a lopsided clash in their own jungle territory. Rave wiped out the whole opposition and forced a buy back from them (reviving instantly in exchange of a certain amount of gold) in exchange of two of their own — making the kill score 10-6.

SWEEP. Rave managed to wipe out the whole team of CDEC, also forcing a buy back from them.

FORCING THE ISSUE. With the pressure at hand given the time rating evaluation, CDEC tried to go high-ground but to no avail.

With the time rating ticking down, the Chinese went to force the issue. They tried to go high-ground (seizing the base) but the defense of the Filipinos was too much to overcome. CDEC did manage to pick-off one of Rave’s heroes, but an instant buy back was the reaction from the Filipinos. As Rave’s heroes in front held the wave and push of CDEC, they found the right opening for a clash, resulting in another team wipe.

CAUGHT IN BETWEEN. As the push of CDEC was delayed by Rave, the latter found the right opening for a lopsided clash.

Rave fortified their heroes with the items they needed to secure the victory. At the 26-minute mark, the Filipinos held the gold lead for the first time in the game. From this point forward, being eight minutes away from the time bomb, CDEC had no options left but to force the issue once more.

NO TURNING BACK. Rave held the gold lead after a series of lopsided clashes.

The whole CDEC team went in the bottom lane once more, pushing and trying to seize in for the second time around. Rave saw the push coming in, so they spread out in their base finding their own positions for the possible last clash of the game. Rave constantly spammed their skills, delaying every second of CDEC’s push. It was now or never for the Chinese team; they seized in, cast all their skills and gave everything they had to no avail. The momentum proved to be at the Filipinos’ side as they wiped out the Chinese opposition for the third time of the game, successfully defending their base. Seconds after — six minutes before the match reached the time rating mark — CDEC tapped out, giving the “gg” (good game, meaning forfeit) call.

TOO MUCH TO HANDLE. CDEC was wiped out for the third time around, forcing the “gg” call from them.

KILL! The kill score at the end of the match between Rave and CDEC.

“We knew we had to limit our mistakes and just hold out in our base,”  Rave’s support role player, Michael “nb” Ross told eSports Inquirer. “The lineup we had was perfect to spam them out and we tried to have our buy backs ready. Time was their [opponent] for that match and it got the better of them. I’m happy to be apart of the main event so we have more chances to prove ourselves to the whole Dota community.”

“This win definitely means a lot to us. Every one of us is so happy that we did bring pride not just to our country but also for the SEA community. We somehow [proved] that SEA and PH players can be competitive when it comes to [eSports],” Rave’s Captain, Cast, told eSports Inquirer.

DAC is dubbed as The International (TI) of Asia or mini-TI. The International is an annual tournament organized by Dota 2’s game developer, Valve, where the 16 best teams in the world — 11 of which are handpicked by Valve — compete for a share of an overwhelming prize pool and the glory to be called the best in the world. TI 4 had an enormous $10 million prize pool — with $1.6 million as its base prize pool and was raised by the Dota 2 gaming community through ticket sales.

DAC currently has a growing prize pool of $2.77 million as of press time  (base prize pool of $250,000). The prize pool was raised through compendium (a packaged book that serves as an all-in tournament pass) sales and compendium points (used to level-up the compendium) sales with 25 percent of each going to the prize pot.

‘Alive and kicking’

“We all feel happy but we know it’s still a long and tough road but we are still alive and kicking,” nb said.

It was a rough journey for Rave throughout the course of Dota 2 Asia Championships’ group stage. They were considered as one of the underdogs coming in the tournament and being the lone Philippine flag bearers.

Rave won three out of their first four games of the group stage in the tournament. On the second day, the Filipinos pulled one of, if not, the biggest upset of the tournament after steam rolling over the defending Dota 2 World champions, NewBee. The exemplar performance of Rave during the first two days against top-notch teams was a fruit of their stay and boot-camping in Korea.

The Filipinos also gained the respect and recognition of international giant teams such as Team Secret, who expressed their “surprise” at the performance of Rave in the tournament even if they managed to defeat them in the group stage.

MAIN EVENT. The main event will follow a double-elimination format. (Photo grabbed from Wykrhm Reddy)

The following days of the group stage proved to be frustrating for the Filipinos as they slowly fell in the group stage standing. At the end of the group stage — after playing fifteen games — Rave had a 5-10 standing which dropped them to the 12th spot tied with TongFu and CDEC.Douyu.

“[Our victory] definitely [boosted the] morale [in me] which I lost [toward] the end of the group stage. We were back to the way we used to be, pumping each other up after every good fight,” nb admitted after surviving the three-way tie breakers.

“[It was] tiring but worth it. Especially when you know that [even] after a losing streak [there] are still a lot of people who support and cheer us up,” Cast said.

Rave climbed their way up in the Southeast Asian (SEA) region rankings after grabbing titles left and right. They showed what Korea brought to their level of play after winning the Mineski Pro Gaming League (MPGL) Season VI SEA Grand Finals last year. And they made waves not only in the SEA region but also in the international scene after dethroning the two-time Korean champions, MVP.Phoenix in the Korea Dota League (KDL).

The Dota 2 Asia Championships main event will be held at Shanghai Grand Stage from Feb. 5 to 9. DAC is organized by Perfect World, a China-based online game company and the publisher and operator of Dota 2 in China.

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