Filipinos Falter in Top 5-6, Take Home P6.6M

The Filipinos fall short against Chinese veterans in a $3 million Dota 2 tournament at Shanghai, China, placing top 5-6 and taking home at least P6.6 million prize money ($149,175+) Saturday, Feb. 7.

Big God (BG) — a team of mostly Chinese veteran professional Dota 2 players — eliminated the Overseas Filipino Gamers (OFG), Rave Dota (Rave), in the Dota 2 Asia Championships (DAC) after a nail-biting series, 2-1.

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 DAC is a weeklong tournament pitting 16 of the best teams in the world vying for their share of the $2.94 million (P130 million) prize pool — one of the biggest tournaments ever in competitive gaming or eSports’ history.

The Chinese veterans were the clear favorites to advance in the losers bracket given their talent-packed team.  BG mostly consists of Dota gods (a status dubbed by the Dota 1/2 community to a professional player who has showed exemplar performance in his career) and veterans in the Dota 2 scene.

BG didn’t fail to live by their name as they held the lead early in the first game, utilizing their gank and ambush-oriented lineup. The Chinese veterans found pick-off after pick-off creating farming (the act of slaying minions to earn gold) space for their hard carry. Ten minutes in, Rave’s hard carry was greatly lagging behind in terms of net worth as they were at the third to the last spot, while BG topped the net worth taking three spots to their heroes. This forced the Filipinos to find a way to somewhat catch up from their deficit in the game.

CATCHING UP. Rave found a three for one exchange in the top lane to somewhat slow down the lead of BG early in the game.

At the 12-minute mark, they made a successful gank in the top lane taking down three heroes of the opposition in exchange of one, tying the kill score at nine-all. However, this did not falter the Chinese veterans as they continued to hold the lead in terms of net worth difference. Big God caught one of Rave’s core heroes off-guard, paving the way for a free Roshan kill at the 15-minute mark.

OPEN. A crucial pick-off on one of Rave’s heroes paved way for a free Roshan kill for the Chinese veterans.

HOLDING ON. A great initiation from Rave caught BG off-guard ending in a five-man team wipe — getting the much needed tempo for a comeback in the game.

The Chinese vets slowly got their items for their core heroes and with a 14,500 gold lead and 10,000 experience lead at their side, they looked to be unstoppable at this point. Both teams turtled (a defensive strategy wherein the team farms their jungle and plays safe), with the Filipinos still struggling with the net worth of their hard carry. Spectators and even shoutcasters were shaken at the 31-minute mark when Rave wiped out the whole opposition from a well-planned engagement from Rave.Ryo “ryOyr” Hasegawa’s Tide Hunter’s — who had a surprise Refresher Orb (an item that refreshes all the heroes’ skills cool down) — double ravage.

The last clash proved to be the turning point of the game as Rave.Jio “Jeyo” Madayag’s Drow Ranger found himself climbing up slowly in the net worth chart. More so, Rave’s Djardel “Chrissy” Mampusti’s Storm Spirit was one of the key players that helped the Filipinos get back on track. He found crucial pick-off after pick-off, creating more space for his team.

SURPRISE. After a lackluster early game, the Filipinos found themselves in the right position for a comeback.

At the 35-minute mark, the Filipinos smoked-up (an item that makes the heroes invisible) and went in the bottom lane where they eventually sniped three heroes of Big God in exchange for none of their own — gaining for the first time in the game the gold lead with their core heroes having their much needed items. Rave erased a 14,000 gold lead by BG in just seven minutes.

RAVEd. Another great engagement from Rave caught all the heroes of Big God ending in a team wipe — forcing the opposition to tap out from the game.

It was no turning back for the Filipinos as they forced the issue in the middle lane as they seized in the opposition’s base at the 41-minute mark. A great initiation by ryOyr caught all of Big God’s heroes off-guard, leading to a five-man team wipe — forcing the good game call from the Chinese veterans.

COMEBACK. The net gold and experience difference between the two teams in game one of the best-of-three elimination match.

In the second game, BG proved why they were worthy to be called Dota gods as they took down the Filipinos in just 15 minutes. BG opted for an all-out push lineup with Rave having no defensive heroes that could stop the Chinese’s massive push.

BG’s lineup was indeed a big hurdle for an anti-push-less Rave as the Chinese took down their two towers in the bottom lane just before the game hit the six-minute mark. There was no stopping the Chinese as they took another set of towers in the middle lane at the 8-minute mark. With all the towers taken down, BG had the early gold lead at their side. The early push by the Chinese created so much space for all their core heroes getting their items easily.

The Filipinos had no answer with the massive push of the Chinese opposition. BG didn’t hesitate a single bit as they forced the issue seizing in Rave’s base through the middle lane at the 12-minute mark. The Filipinos couldn’t stop the Chinese push as BG easily took down their middle lane set of barracks. Rave gave everything they had but to no avail as they got wiped by BG, eventually calling the good game call at the 15-minute mark, forcing a game three decider.

EARLY CALL. The Filipinos tapped out just 15 minutes in the game after the Chinese showed exemplar pushing power.

In the deciding match of the elimination series, Big God drafted a better lineup in paper than that of the Filipinos’. The Chinese squad looked determined to take the deciding match with a great start in the laning phase. BG found pick-offs left and right, resulting in a early kill score lead. The pick-offs proved to be crucial in the game as they created so much farming space for BG.

The Chinese topped the net worth chart 20 minutes in the game with almost all of Rave’s heroes lagging behind. With all the items at hand and well-farmed core heroes, BG took down Roshan at the 21-minute mark. The kill score at this point was 10-2 in favor of the Chinese veterans. All things considered, it looked to be another struggling game for the Filipinos as they faced a big deficit in terms of gold and experience.

After slaying Roshan, BG decided to go high ground (attacking or seizing the base) through the middle lane at the 25-minute mark. However, Rave shocked the Chinese opposition with their formidable defense as the Filipinos took down three enemy heroes with their barracks unscathed.

The game was stalled from this point on. Both teams were looking to play safe and avoiding mistakes that would backfire at them. The Filipinos utilized every single resource they had to somewhat catch up with the big deficit created by the Chinese squad. The silence was broken ten minutes after the last clash. Rave caught three heroes of BG off-guard in the middle lane, killing them without any exchange and cutting the kill lead to just five.

Both teams once again opted to turtle and stall the game as much as possible. Big God played safe and tried to split push slowly in the map after that unfortunate mistake at the 35-minute mark. The Filipinos found some ways to close the gap in terms of gold and experience to just 5,000 at the 40-minute mark — almost making the statistics dead even.

The game was stalled again for 20 minutes. With almost all the core heroes of both teams completing their six-item inventories, the Chinese felt that it was the right time to force the issue as they seized in the opposition through the middle lane. However, what they thought was going to be a clear-cut victory turned out to be a lopsided clash in favor of the Filipinos. Rave killed four heroes of BG as well as forced a buy back from their hard carry — keeping the Filipino dream alive once more.

After that successful defense by the Filipinos, the game was plagued by technical issues resulting in consecutive pauses. Both teams experienced packet loss and game lag due to server instability. The following minutes were so intense that both teams committed some errors which could have affected the outcome of the match. At the 70-minute mark, it was now or ever for both teams. Rave caught the hard carry hero of BG alone in their own territory but came short. BG’s carry hero survived the ambush with only 5% life points left. The Chinese took advantage of the location of the failure as they turned the clash around, resulting in a five-man opposition wipe. It was the only thing that BG needed to seal the deal. The Filipinos bought back some of their heroes but to no avail. The Chinese veterans’ attack was too much to handle, and Rave threw the white towel at the 73-minute mark.

More than the money

Despite falling short in what would have been the biggest upset that the Filipinos could have pulled off, they still got the hearts and respect not only of their countrymen but of the international scene as well.

“We may have been eliminated but I’d like to believe we earned the respect of the Chinese fans,” Rave’s support player, Michael “nb” Ross, wrote on his Facebook account. “Never in my life have I seen hundreds of fans waiting for us to exit the venue, giving us a round of applause as soon as we exited and asking for autographs. A wonderful experience indeed!”

Other Dota 2 international scene personalities also expressed their messages for Rave.

“GG! Olats for Rave-Dota, but very strong and respectable performance at the Dota 2 Asia Championship. SEA Dota Fighting!” David “Godz” Parker, an Australian shoutcaster, wrote on his Facebook page.

“[Good Game, Well Played], @RaveDota2 should be very proud,” David “LD” Gorman, the one who shoutcasted the final games of Rave, tweeted.

Coming in the tournament directly invited but considered as somewhat underdogs especially among the western titans, Rave delivered the goods. They showed great heart and fighting will throughout the tournament. They received praises from Team Secret shortly after their match where the Filipinos got defeated.

The #RAVEvolution was somehow in jeopardy when Rave was caught  in a three-way-tie with two Chinese teams. It was one-of-a-kind three-way-tie as they played it out for two rounds to determine the last team that would advance to the playoffs or main event. Rave made it.

The Korea-based Filipino team admitted that they lost momentum during the group stage but found their selves back and fought once more — pushing their limits beyond the walls. They even managed to knockout the sole Russian representatives, HellRaisers, in the first round of elimination. Just before their match against BG, they upset the The International (TI) 2 Champions, Invictus Gaming, securing themselves the sure top 6 placing.

Rave climbed their way up in the 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).

DAC was organized by Perfect World, a Chinese online game company and the publisher and operator of Dota 2 in China.

Photo banner by Juan Carlo Candido “Jucasa” Saquin.

Related Articles:

FILIPINOS KNOCK-OUT RUSSIANS, SECURES P5M IN CHINESE DOTA 2 TOURNAMENT

HOW MUCH HAS RAVE WON IN THE DAC?

FILIPINOS FIGHTING HARD IN $2.7M CHINESE DOTA 2 TOURNAMENT

DOTA 2 ASIA CHAMPIONSHIPS: #RAVEVOLUTION

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