The Filipino Dota 2 community is one of the most passionate communites out there.
Their passion for the game has manifested into some unreal casting,
massive performances on the biggest stages Dota 2 has to offer,
and unquestionably the most exuberant crowds in Dota 2 history.
As with any passionate community, there have been plenty of highs and lows.
Here are our top 5 moments that saw the Philippines shock the entirety of the Dota 2 community.
Having your own voice added to the game, you love and cherish is a dream for almost any caster.
It cements your legacy and portrays that you’ve finally made it to the upper echelons of shoutcasting.
So when Mineski TV’s very own Marlon “Lon” Marcelo and Aldrin “Dunoo” Pangan made it to the TI8 battlepass
with their now iconic catchphrases, it marked a landmark moment in Filipino history and showed
the world a glimpse of the passionate Filipino Dota community.
The SEA Dota 2 community was ignored for quite a long while by Tournament organizers and Valve.
Tier 1 LANs like ESL One were non-existent in the SEA region for way too long.
But all that changed when Manila got the opportunity to host, not one but two Top-Tier tournaments.
The Manila Major and ESL One: Manila 2016 made their way to the Philippines.
And The Philippines delivered spectacularly.
To this date, the Dota 2 community whole-heartedly agrees that these two tournaments
were by-far the most hyped, energetic, and by all accounts the best crowd that Dota 2 has ever seen.
Unfortunately, this was one of the darker moments in Filipino Dota 2’s history.
Kuku made a few inappropriate comments in one of his pub matches which lit a fire that spread throughout
ultimately proved to be his own undoing in the Chongqing Major.
The comment infuriated the Chinese Dota 2 community and transformed the Dota 2 communities,
separating it as China vs The World.
It was a bloodbath.
In the end, Valve stepped in and banned Kuku from the Chongqing Major to calm the flames.
While the community has finally moved on from the incident, the fact is that it is a dark blotch in Filipino
Dota 2 history.
What can we say that hasn’t already been said about this moment.
On one hand, you have two-time major champions, a dream-team composed of some of the best players in the world.
On the other hand, you have a humble team from the Philippines whose biggest achievement
up until that point was a 5th place finish in WCA 2015.
On paper, TNC should have been rolled on by OG.
But the Filipinos did the impossible.
In one of the best series of Dota, that we’ve ever seen, TNC Pro team did the unthinkable,
they beat down the European squad pulling off some spectacular plays and drafts through sheer
grit and determination to declare the arrival of Filipino Dota 2 to the World.
When the 2017-18 DPC season began, not even the most ardent Filipino fan would have ever
thought that a Filipino based team would ever win a Major.
But Mineski lived to defy those expectations.
The Filipino based squad kicked off the Dota 2 season in a high triumphing in the Bucharest Open 2018
and handing SEA their first ever Minor win.
But they regressed in the months succeeding that tournament. So they entered DAC 2018, with
relatively low expectations from Filipino fans.
Mineski, however, surpassed all expectations as they proceeded to take down one team after the other,
not dropping a single series and made it all the way to the Grand Finals to face PSG.LGD.
PSG.LGD were China’s best team at the time and had beaten all of the favourites including
Team Liquid, Evil Geniuses and Virtus.Pro and looked set to defeat Mineski to claim the title.
An intense BO5 that went right down to the wire followed.
Both teams went blow-for-blow against each other and pushed the series to a Game 5.
Mineski clutched the series and the tournaments with a phenomenal performance from all 5
of their players to hoist the Trophy and claim SEA’s first ever Major victory.
