DOTA 2 in the PH: More Than Just a Game

Defense of The Ancients 2, which is also known as DOTA 2, is a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena game that is popular around the world. Even in the Philippines, it is impossible to enter an internet café without seeing at least two people playing the original DOTA, DOTA 2, League of Legends, and a lot more online games. This game is so popular that even Claretians cannot get enough of it as they treat it as a pastime, a dueling ground, and even an escape from reality. In fact, the popularity and the competitiveness of the games enabled the beginning of the E-Sport age. Sponsors, uniforms, awards, and prize pools are now part of what we thought was just a useless game. It’s not about the fun now, it’s all about teamwork, coordination, skill, and luck.

DOTA 2 is now slowly replacing its ever-so-popular predecessor as the number of DOTA 2 players increase over time. The Philippines has so many DOTA 2 players that we have ranked 3rd in the list of DOTA 2 players by country following Russia and China respectively and beating the United States. The game is so big here that Valve, DOTA 2’s publisher and developer, decided to host its quarterly tournament here in the Philippines and named it “The Manila Majors”. The Manila Majors was held at the Mall of Asia Arena from June 3 to June 12, 2016. It had a $3,000,000 prize pool, $1,110,000 of which is to be given to the champion. After a series of intense games, the European-based multinational team “OG” won. OG, which has Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi who is currently regarded as the best DOTA 2 player , was considered as the best team and an unstoppable powerhouse as they won major tournament after major tournament.

“The International” is DOTA 2’s most prestigious tournament which is held annually at KeyArena in Seattle. This year’s tournament, The International 6, happened from August 2 to August 13 and had a whopping prize pool of $20,770,460. Everyone was certain that OG would easily win this tournament since they were able to do so during the previous competitions. Upon facing elimination, all they had to do was to defeat “TnC Pro Team”, a Philippine DOTA 2 team.

At this time, TnC was barely able to get visas in order to enter the competition, but thanks to Valve and Senator Bam Aquino, they were able to qualify and join, making them the 2nd Philippine-based team to enter The International (The first Philippine-based team to qualify for this important tournament is “Mineski” at The International 1). After defeating the Chinese team “Vici Gaming Reborn”, they had to face the powerhouse OG. Nobody trusted that they would win as the three-game series’ betting was 89:11 in favor of OG; there was absolutely no way that the best team would be defeated by the small fry. Filipinos Marc Polo Luis “Raven” Fausto, Carlo “Kuku” Palad, Samson Solomon “Sam_H” Hidalgo, Nico “Eyyou” Barcelon, and the Vietnamese-American team captain Jimmy “DeMoN” Ho must all work together in order to stay alive in this competition. To everyone’s surprise, they were able to outplay the Europeans and take game 1 in the best of 3 series. OG was now a game away from being eliminated and TnC was still able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat as they finish the series 2-0.

Cheers erupted from the arena as TnC jumped up and down with joy and disbelief while OG approached them silently, shaking their hands as their plans of winning faded away. This was truly a historical moment in the professional DOTA 2 scene even though it wasn’t the finals for it was already an unbelievable milestone to eliminate OG, the dream team, from The International 6. This win secured them $500,000 and a spot in the top 8 teams. It was also able to establish much-needed respect for Filipinos in the DOTA 2 community since Filipinos were infamous throughout South East Asia.

Unfortunately, their next game against the North American team Digital Chaos ended in a 2-1 loss eliminating them from the tournament killing the short-lived “Pinoy Dream”. Nevertheless, TnC’s performance is still a hot topic even today and that is something to be proud of. Thanks to TnC Pro Team and other Filipino players like Djardel Jicko “DJ” Mampusti and Abed “Abed” Yusop, we now have a respectable place in the DOTA 2 community. Soon, our fellow countrymen will reach even higher goals as they carry our country’s name and flag. Skilled Filipino players are scattered everywhere and may also reach the professional level as long as their mothers allow them to play one more game before they do the dishes.

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