Now on its 7th year, ‘The International’ is one of the biggest and most successful events in the field of e-sports gaming. Defense of the Ancients, popularly known as DotA, has been in the scene since the early 2000s and has been evolving ever since. Now, teams from all over the world have been fighting about who’s the best in the DotA 2 realm for more than a million prize at stake.
Meanwhile, individuals from different teams have been representing the Filipinos. These young players have been doing it even before the said gaming event: Abed Azel ‘Abed’ Yusop (Digital Chaos), Djardel Jicko ‘DJ’ Mampusti (Fnatic), Fernando ‘Nando’ Mendoza (Execration), James Palatolon ‘Cartman’ John (Execration), Kimuel Borromeo ‘Kim0’ Rodis (Execration), Ralph Richard ‘RR’ Peñano (Execration), Ryan Jay ‘Bimb0’ Qui (Execration), Carlo ‘Kuku’ Palad (TNC Pro Team), Marc Polo Luis ‘Raven’ Fausto (TNC Pro Team), Sam Enojosa ‘Sam_H’ Hidalgo (TNC Pro Team), and Timothy John ‘Tims’ Randrup (TNC Pro Team).
TNC Pro Team’s Tims, Raven, 1437, Sam_H and Kuku
Photo from TNC Pro Team – Dota 2’s Facebook Page
Execration’s Nando, Kim0, James, RR and Bimb0
Photo from Execration’s Facebook Page
Abed of Digital Chaos
Photo from Abed Yusop’s Facebook Profile
DJ of Fnatic
Photo from Djardel “Dj” Mampusti’s Facebook Page
DJ of Fnatic ended up being eliminated in the group stages while Abed of Digital Chaos and the whole Execration Team ended up in the lower bracket of the main stage of the competition. Only the TNC Pro Team with Canadian captain Theeban ‘1437’ Siba at the helm ended up in the upper bracket landing in the Top 12 spot and the bigger chance of winning the Tournament. The Chinese teams have been dominant in the group stage with LGD Gaming, LGD Forever Young, Newbee and IG landing in the Top 12 spots of the tournament.
Photo from Wykrhm Reddy’s Facebook Page
Abed with Digital Chaos and Execration in Day 1 battled it out, as a loss in the lower bracket mean an elimination in the main stage. Digital Chaos has survived Chinese Team IG.Vitality, making them advance in the tournament while Execration has been eliminated by European Team Secret and will be leaving with $120,000 USD taking 13th-16th place.
TNC Pro Team also had a tough day ahead Day 2 as they fought with Chinese Team LGD.
Forever Young, but things did not go well for the Filipino team as they have lost causing them to move to the lower bracket of the tournament.
Day 3 seemed to be a rematch of The International 6 for TNC Pro Team and Digital Chaos but both fall down in the hands of European Team OG and Chinese Team LGD Gaming respectively. They both leave with $360,000 USD landing them in the 9th-12th place.
Aside from the battles inside the game, there is also another competition held by The International 7. The Dota 2 Short Film Contest which has been announced before the tournament is also at stake. The Masked Warrior is an entry by the Filipinos and was made by Wonderlast Films.
In-game voting photo via DotA 2.
(RELATED:Â WATCH: ‘The Masked Warrior’ Is a Promising DOTA 2 Short Film Entry“)
Good game, well played guys.
