UPDATE:

The winners of the Redemption Vote have been announced. Invictus Gaming will be going to the Beyond the Summit house. Get ready for mini-skirted ChuaN, everyone.

The #RAVEolution Continues

Rave-dota, the Korea-based Filipino professional Dota 2 team, had their US Visas approved this morning, April 17, 2015.

With the approval, the Filipino team will be able to compete at The Summit 3 (TS3) this May 13-17, 2015 at the Beyond the Summit studio house in Los Angeles, California.

The team qualified for the tournament after besting Korean team MVP Phoenix 3-2 in an online tournament qualifier. Three members of Rave, namely Ryo “ryOyrb” Hasegawa, Djardel Jicko “Chrissy” Mampusti and team captain himself Mark “Cast” Pilar, traveled back to the Philippines after competing in the Malaysia Major All Stars tournament last March to secure their visas for the event.

Earlier, the team was barred from a return flight to their gaming house in Incheong, Korea after immigration officials asked them to disembark from their flight. Because of this, the team was forced to play in two other tournament qualifiers (Electronic Sports League and RedBull) with two members in Korea and three players here in the Philippines.

The team’s request for an expedited process for their US Visas was not approved in time for the MLG Pro League in Columbus, Ohio early this April. Through the help of Senator Benigno Paolo “Bam” Aquino, however, the team was able to secure their visas in time for TS3.

Rave is joining the star-studded competition as they duke it out with the best of the best (in Dota 2) for the $200,000 prize pool. Winning this tournament increases their chances of being invited to The International 5, the world championships of Dota 2. Last year, The International 4 broke records as the largest prize pool for a videogame tournament with $10.9 million in total prizes.

The Redemption Vote

Dota 2 is indeed a very diverse and interesting scene even outside the game. Beyond the Summit has devised quite the interesting method for the teams who did not make it through the qualifiers. The Redemption Vote basically turns it into a popularity contest for the remaining teams. To what lengths are the pros going through to win the public’s love, affection and most importantly the votes? Whatever it takes apparently. The teams are resorting to quite the shenanigans  for a ticket to TS3 in Los Angeles, California. What originally started with seven teams, (Ninjas in Pyjamas, Team Empire, Team Leviathan and Asus.Polar have been eliminated) only three remained (Invictus Gaming, Alliance and Natus Vincere) for Phase 2.

The Final Three

Alliance

Long-standing Swedish giants in the Dota 2 scene and winners of The International 3 (TI), Alliance, has had a tumultuous status recently with an unstable roster. It is indeed a rebuilding process for this team which seeks to reclaim its former glory. What is Alliance promising to do for your vote?

• Has the backing of former Alliance player and current Cloud9 captain Jackie “EternalEnvy” Mao to bleach his hair and upload the Anime-themed playlist famous on his stream
• Henrik “AdmiralBulldog” Ahnberg will do a 24-hour stream on camera.
• A ‘sexy’ Backstreet Boys themed music video of the whole team

Natus Vincere

Another team looking to regain its former mojo, the Ukrainian powerhouse has also had a fluctuating roster as of late, with returning fan favorites Ivan “ArtStyle” Antonov and Gleb “Funn1k” Lipatnikov. Has Natus Vincere been reborn to win? Only time will tell. What is the team promising for your vote?

• A documentary style video looking to answer the mystery of why ArtStyle left Na’Vi after winning the first TI in 2011 and the conspiracy theories that followed; ArtStyle himself will answer along with team manager Oleksandr “ZeroGravity” Kokhanovskyi.
• Ten Arcanas will be given away through their social media accounts.
• Pre-Summit 3 Bootcamp captured on Webcam and one game Twitch streamed daily with in-game team speak throughout the course of the boot camp

Invictus Gaming

Invictus Gaming has made a lot of waves recently. They won their first LAN with a revamped roster at the Major All Stars in Malaysia after Xu “BurNIng” Zhilei and Zeng “Faith” Hongda returned. Their pitch was filled with promises of cosplay and fan service. The whole team including management will dress up as sultry maids. Wong Hock “ChuaN” will dance for us in a short skirt if IG gets through.

Out but not forgotten

What did the other four teams who have been eliminated promise?

Ninjas in Pyjamas

Another Swedish team Ninjas in Pyjamas has been having a great year albeit being new to the Dota 2 scene. A much bigger force and exponentially more popular in the Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) scene, the organization looks to gain support from both of these fan bases by promising a Dota 2 match as well as a CS:GO match between the two squads if circumstances were different.

Team Leviathan

The North American team may have hoped their ‘home court advantage’ would have given them the boost to make it to the main event in LA but alas with little success and a not so established fanbase it was a long shot at best. They did promise an Andrew “Jenkins”  Pudge in every game if given the chance. They did try hard for the votes. They even made a campaign video strung up from Marvel’s Ant-Man trailer.

ASUS.Polar

ASUS.Polar came so close to winning in the qualifying stage of TS3 but fell one game short. They also campaigned heavily for a shot at the Redemption Vote which featured Artem “fng” Barshak and Ilya “Illidan” Pivcaev duking out a scene from Mortal Kombat if they advanced . Sergey “God” Alexandrovich Bragin  also promised 100 in-game autographs as well as showing off his acting chops in a scene from his LGD.International days

Team Empire

The Russians have already notched three 1st place finishes in 2015 alone. It has been a good year for them but unfortunately they didn’t make it through the qualification stages of TS3. They also made a mad push for the Redemption Vote through social media but ultimately fell short.

The mysterious Team Empire Twitter guy promised to bleach his hair, rap Eminem and take over the BTS Twitter (permission willing).

Roman “Resolut1on” Fominok, Andrey “ALWAYSWANNAFLY” Bondarenko and Airat “Silent” Gaziev  will give away 300 in-game autographs.

In the game of Redemption, you win or you don’t win at all

What does it take for someone to win the Redemption Vote? Check out what Cloud9 did to win the Redemption Vote at TS2 with the help of Evil Geniuses featuring Saahil “UNiVeRsE” Arora and Kurtis “Aui_2000” Ling in a Disney classic.

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