Two days ago, following Extremist’s qualification into the Shanghai Major SEA Qualifier, the entire Philippine Dota 2 community was all hyped up by the fact that there are now four Filipino teams participating in the said qualifier, as XTRMST joined Mineski-Dota, TNC Pro Team, and Execration, all of which were invited. Except none of the above managed to make it into the playoffs of the said tournament

Now, two days later, they combine for a horrendous 7-25 record on their way to dropping out of the qualifiers, leaving the #LabanPinas fans no team to root for in the upcoming days. Only Mski-Dota and TNC walked away with wins, but only one of their seven wins was actually against a non-PH team. Meanwhile, both Xctn and XTRMST finish with 0-8 records.

MUCH LOVE, MERACLE

While the day started out with Mski-Dota being the last remaining local hope that had a probable chance of advancing into day three, a quick 1-1 draw against compatriots TNC in the day’s first series had forced their backs against a wall. They proceeded into their fourth and final series, against First Departure needing a 2-0 win, or else depend on a win by XTRMST against Taring, who up to that point had yet to claim a single victory.
Things started well for Mineski in their first match against FD, but Meracle‘s Ancients-Lifestealer-Radiance strat allowed the Singaporeans to stay in the game, forcing things to a standstill. The two teams continued to play more conservatively for a while. After picking up an aegis for Jay‘s Clinkz, it appeared that the last PH hopefuls were finally ready to attempt high ground.
And then disaster struck. Jay disconnected and found himself unable to reconnect to the server for quite a while. Out of pause time, they were told to resume by the admins. Fortunately for the team, as well as to their legions of fans from all over the world, Meracle went out of his way and offered to use his team’s own pause time to help wait for Jay and Julz (who eventually disconnected as well) to come back, saying that he didn’t want to win such an important bo2 in such a way.
Eventually, the two dropped players managed to rejoin the game, but even this would not be enough, as FD would still go on to win the game.
By this point in time, XTRMST had already dropped their first game against Taring. This meant that Mski and XTRMST both had to win their last games, which were to be played simultaneously, for the Philippines to have one last shot at advancing. Unfortunately, neither of them could force the W despite playing their hearts out, closing the door on their country’s chances.
With this, First Departure and Team Taring advance to the playoffs, ranked first and second, respectively.

FNATIC BACK ON TOP?

Meanwhile, GROUP B opened the day with a surprise of their own, as Mineski-X, a team barely a week old, forced a draw against Fnatic, who were favorites not just to take their group, but also to claim a Shanghai stint of their own. This signified that the whole group was ripe for the taking, which further intensified the competitive fire of all teams involved.

This early setback didn’t faze Fnatic that much, as they proceeded to win all but one of their remaining games, allowing them to easily claim the top seed, securing a first-round faceoff against Taring tomorrow morning, in what is bound to be yet another exciting matchup between old school Malaysian legends Mushi and Yamateh.

With Mski-Dota dropping out of the tournament, it appears that Fnatic is ready to claim the SEA throne for themselves once more.

On the other hand, Mski-X’s early win against Fnatic was not enough for them to secure their own place in the playoffs, as they finish their regular matches tied for second with Korea’s MVP.Phoenix, the only other team in their group to claim a win over Fnatic. Coming into their last match of the day, which was against one another, Mski-X and MVP had similar 5-1 records.

Both needing a 2-0 win over the other to earn a spot in the KOs, they merely ended up splitting their bo2. As of the publication of this article time, they are still playing their tiebreaker. Winner advances to face a piping hot FD squad first thing tomorrow morning, while the loser has to try again next season.

Shanghai Major – Regional Qualifiers