Suntec Convention Centre in Singapore will open doors in early October to mark the opening of the new Dota 2 season with the PVP eSports Championship. Although the event will not be part of the Dota 2 Pro Circuit, it will attract teams from all over the world.
The Philippines is one of the regions which will be represented in the tournament. Following a period of open qualifiers which took place from July 21 to September 2 this year, the list of candidates was narrowed down to four teams – TaskUs Titans, Sterling Global Dragons, I love Kiki and Team Admiral.
This weekend they will fight it out for the single qualifying slot.
Format
Only one of the four teams will have the chance to advance to the main event in Singapore. The format will consist of lower and higher elimination brackets. The four teams will be drawn in two pairs and in the first phase of the event the matches will be played as best of three. The two winners from the semi-finals will advance to the winners’ final. The two semi-final losers will not be eliminated but instead will have a second chance to continue in the tournament. In a best-of-one elimination battle, the winner of these two will become the first finalist of the lower bracket. Meanwhile, the winner of the winners’ final will advance to the grand final, while the loser of this clash will drop to the lower bracket final. The winner of the lower bracket final will continue to the grand final, which will be played as a best-of-five series.
Players to watch
ryOyr (Ryo Hasegawa)
Team: TaskUs Titans
Approximate earnings: $242,914
Position: support/core
Signature heroes: Crystal Maiden, Rubick, Dazzle
ryOyr has played throughout his career in the South East Asia region where he made his debut with Eyes of Tiger, a South-Korean team, in 2013. Their roster was soon picked up by his native Philippines organization Rave. Since then, ryOyr has played for Filipino teams only, some of which are the biggest in the country (as well as the region) – Mineski and TNC Pro Team. Notably, he has also played for MSI-EvoGT and a had a second spell at Rave. ryOyr eventually joined TaskUs Titans in September 2017 and has been with the team for more than a year now.
A versatile player, ryOyr can be seen to play either as support or offlaner. As a support, he most often plays in the position 5 role. As such, his duties are to protect the laning stage farm of his carry. He prefers lane supports such as Crystal Maiden and Dazzle, but is also very handy in the hands of Rubick and can make some impactful plays with well-timed rotations. As offlaner, he likes team-fight heroes, such as Dark Seer.
Bimbo
Team: TaskUs Titans
Approximate earnings: $68,604
Position: support/core
Signature heroes: Queen of Pain, Shadow Fiend, Ember Spirit
Bimbo (also known as Raging Potato) is another player to keep a close eye on. The Filipino has played for only three teams in his career. Starting in Mineski, Bimbo was a crucial part of the team from the dawn of Dota 2 (2011) and spent three years there before joining Execration for a brief period in the same year. Bimbo returned to Mineski after two months for almost another three-year period, before heading back to the ranks of Execraton. Following a seven-month spell there, Bimbo became an integral part of TaskUs Titans in February this year.
Playing most of his career as core player and quite known for his aggressive Shadow Fiend and Queen of Pain, in recent times Bimbo found his new calling in the support role, where he plays either as position 4 or position 5. His most-played heroes in the last six months are Wind Ranger and Leshrac which conveniently can take either a core or a support role or transition from a support to a core role in the course of the game, thus enabling a versatile style.
