Lon, Tryke, Kuya Nic, Kuya D, Wolf, and Pao cast their predictions!
The International 2018 is just around the corner (we really can’t stress this enough)! To get into the TI mood, we at Mineski.net talked to some of the casters of Sanduguan: The 2018 Philippine Coverage Of The International to know which of the three Southeast Asian representatives they think will perform best at this year’s grand Dota 2 showdown. (We also asked who they think will be their winners and losers, but we think you’d be more interested in the first one.)
Responses have been translated from a mixture of English and Filipino.
Marlon “Lon” Marcelo
Lon’s The International 2018 winner: Mineski numbahwan! You heard it from me and me only, I came from the future! If ever they didn’t end up winning, they can try again next year.
Lon’s The International 2018 loser: That’s hard but I feel like it’s OpTic Gaming. It’s just a random guess because all of them are deserving.
Lon’s SEA bias: I feel like all of them has a solid chance, but of course, we’ll go for Mineski-Dota. TNC Pro Team for number two, and Fnatic Dota for number three. Ays ba yun? (Is that alright?)
Irymarc “Tryke” Gutierrez
Tryke’s The International 2018 winner: PSG.LGD. I really don’t think The International tradition will be broken. Well, if it happened for three or four years, maybe that’s still passable. But if we’re going to the eighth The International and we’re still following the east-west pattern, I don’t think I would want to fight against that.
Tryke’s The International 2018 loser: Predicting for the last place is hard, but I think it’s Team Serenity and OpTic Gaming. It’s just a wild guess.
Tryke’s SEA bias: I really believe that TNC Pro Team has a high skill ceiling especially when they finally find the right mix with 1437 as their coach and with them executing the plays. Although you can never really count Mineski-Dota out because they are technically the best in Southeast Asia. They have one player for each Dota 2-loving Southeast Asian countries. They have a solid chance, but I don’t feel like this patch is for iceiceice, and that’s going to be a problem for them.
So given the 2-1-2 meta, and with 1437—who can quickly adapt to the change of meta—as the brain behind TNC, I feel like TNC has the highest chance.
Nico “Kuya Nic” Nazario
Kuya Nic’s The International 2018 winner: Team Liquid, back-to-back champions. Even though it’s LGD and Virtus.pro’s power spikes, there’s one thing you can take away from Team Liquid and that’s their skill and momentum.
Kuya Nic’s The International 2018 loser: Winstrike Team. Shoutouts to v1lat, just kidding! It’s between paiN Gaming and Winstrike Team. paiN still has an anchor in w33ha, and Winstrike has a player that attended The International before. And comparing the foundation of both teams, paiN has the better one.
Kuya Nic’s SEA bias: I have two answers: One is the logical one which is Mineski, and two is from my heart which is TNC.
Just like what we have discussed in an episode of Rosh Pit, Mineski has a Chinese-like playstyle—more safe, more stable, and they have the more experienced players in terms of international scale.
But I cannot take away the fact that I need to root for TNC. I am hoping that they can give us one hell of a The International run. I’m not saying that they can be a champion or they can go to the grand finals, though it’s possible. I just hope for a run that we can remember for years.
Aldrin “Kuya D” Pangan
Kuya D’s The International 2018 winner: That questions’s actually pretty hard, even though it’s the question every The International. But without bias, and if we’re going to base everything on the trend, it’s going to be PSG.LGD. But if you’re asking me as Kuya D, I want, of course, Mineski-Dota to win.
Kuya D’s The International 2018 loser: paiN Gaming. Even though they were able to play in some Dota Pro Circuit tournaments, paiN still lacks experience.
Kuya D’s SEA bias: I feel like all three teams will have a good performance at The International. On the latter part of the season, we saw how dominating TNC was, and even though they came from the regional qualifier, TNC is still TNC.
It doesn’t matter how you were able to qualify—from a direct invitation, or qualifier, or wherever—it’s all based on your performance at The International. But if we’re really going to base it on their performance throughout the season, I’ll give it to Mineski. Given the fact that they are the fifth team in the Dota Pro Circuit race, it only means that they really did perform well. Not mentioning the one Major and one Minor championship title under their belt.
I feel like Mineski will perform the best at The International 2018, but overall, all Southeast Asian representatives will have a good run.
Paolo Bago
Pao’s The International 2018 winner: PSG.LGD. Every other team is gunning for Virtus.pro and Team Liquid, so it leaves a spot for a team them. They will win not because they are the best team, but because they have the highest chance to upset the best teams.
Pao’s The International 2018 loser: It’s hard to argue that Sylar won’t be the last place this year, but I think it’s going to be VGJ.Thunder. They had a really good showing, but after the Galaxy Battles, they were in a slump. Even rOtk admits about having issues within their team and I don’t think they have the tools to fix it.
Pao’s SEA bias: It’s pretty hard. I think Mineski-Dota is still very clearly the best out of the Southeast Asian teams. I think TNC is the biggest wildcard because they can upset anyone especially in a best-of-two round-robin format, and Fnatic has the most recent showing.
I think it’s even but there’s a good chance it’s either of them. I will have to say though that in this situation it will come down to Mineski and Fnatic. But I wouldn’t be surprised if TNC pulls off the upset, because the one thing that I can say for sure is they have 1437, which happened after TNC recruited Armel. So I don’t know how good it’s going to be for them. I wouldn’t be surprised if TNC has a good run but I really can’t say for sure because they have yet to win a best-of-three, but they have proven that they can take games of even VP.
Caisam “Wolf” Nopueto
Wolf’s The International 2018 winner: My mind says it’s PSG.LGD, but i think Team Liquid has a solid chance to become back-to-back champions. Every curse has to be broken, and I think it’s going to be this year.
Wolf’s The International 2018 loser: paiN Gaming. They are the team that is too easy to punish. Although we know how talented they are, they are really predictable.
Wolf’s SEA bias: For Southeast Asia teams, I think it’s Mineski-Dota. All Southeast Asian teams are volatile but if you compare all three of them, relatively speaking, Mineski is the most solid one.
