Meet the team who recently won the Dota 2 Asia Championships, and get to know their humble beginnings.
Written by Ken Drazen
4 min readPublished on
Founded in 2013, Team Mineski began as an all-Filipino team. It was in only in 2015 when Mineski started bringing in players from foreign countries, including Malaysia’s very own Siong “JoHnNy” Tait Lee and Tue “Ahfu” Soon Chuan. Slowly over the years, the team progressed and proceeded to set up their base in Malaysia.
The current lineup in Mineski Dota 2 was formed right after the The International 2017 qualifiers. Consisting of Chai “Mushi” Yee Fung, Kam “Moon” Boon Seng, Daryl “iceiceice” Koh Pei Xiang, Anucha “Jabz” Jirawong, and Michael “Ninjaboogie” Ross Jr, they decided to compete in World Cyber Arena and since they had so much success during the tournament, these world class players decided to stick together to now become the powerhouse that drives Mineski on its way to The International 2018 (TI8).
What’s interesting about the team’s victory at Dota 2 Asia Championships 2018 (DAC 2018) was that Mineski didn’t really set out to win the tournament in the first place. According to team manager Orrin Xu, their initial target was to place fifth or sixth. But coming into DAC 2018, the players brought their A-game and the their strategy and playstyle seemed to work during the event.
Mineski first publicly appeared in The International 2011, where they placed 11th out of the 16 teams participating. Later in that same year, the team joined the Malaysia Invitational and won third place, trailing behind the likes of Team Mith.Trust and Team Orange Esports. In 2012, the team didn’t make much of a stand except for winning the Razer Dota 2 Tournament.
In 2015, Mineski definitely ramped up their game by joining even more tournaments to make an impact in the Dota scene, both locally and internationally. The team tried their hand at every tournament they could get.
Competing in the Mineski Pro-Gaming League Season 7 to ESL One New York, ESL One Frankfurt and even the Nanyang Dota 2 Championships to the World Cyber Arena 2015. The team might not have won all those tournaments, but they did, however, close the year with an impressive ninth place at the Frankfurt Major 2015.
With their slow progression, the team only started to catch the attention of the Dota 2 audience in late 2016. This was when the team began seriously recruiting more established players. From then on, they’ve risen and fought their way to become one of the best Dota 2 teams the SEA region has ever seen. This was also the year Mineski pushed harder than before by joining more tournaments also defeated Chinese team, LGD 2-0 to claim victory at the PGL Open Bucharest Major.
Other notable tournaments in 2016 include Mineski’s third place win at the ROG Masters 2016 and another third placing at the ASUS ROG SEA Cup 2016. As for 2017, the team won the fourth season of the ProDota Cup SEA as well as the qualifiers for World Cyber Arena 2017.
Past records have shown that throwing several power players together might not necessarily work, but in Mineski’s case, the SEA team has managed to prove everyone wrong by winning key tournaments right from the start of the year. In 2018, Mineski placed second at the StarLadder Minor, losing to TI7 champions, Team Liquid in the finals. And at the PGL Minor, they’ve outdone themselves by beating LGD and Evil Geniuses to win the entire tournament.
Whether other teams like it or not, Mineski has risen and become a serious contender for a spot at this year’s TI8 . Not only SEA teams, but international teams should also start devising strategies to play against them.
We’re just several months away from TI8, but Mineski has already stood a firm ground in the Dota Pro Circuit. Not to mention, for longtime Mushi fans, this might just be his final opportunity to realise his lifelong dream of winning a TI championship and retire as a professional player.
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