Last February, the gaming peripheral company Razer announced its plans to launch one of the biggest video game tournaments in the Southeast Asian Region—The Razer DOTA 2 Tournament, which was held in the Singapore IT Show (at the Hall 602 in the Suntec Convention Center) on March 8 to 11, 2012. This tournament featured two teams from Malaysia and the Philippines in a five-versus-five single elimination contest. Orange e-Sports represented Mayalysia, and Mineski carried the Philippine flag in the tournament. The event was streamed live via Rapture Gaming’s Twitch account, which allowed DOTA 2 enthusiasts that could not physically make it to Singapore to watch the tournament on their computers.
Interested teams were encouraged to sign up for the event, with the registration fee set at S$10 (or 7.95 in USD). The teams that signed up were also allowed to issue a public challenge against the Philippine team on the first two days of the tournament—with the organizers making this chance more tempting with a $1,000 prize up for grabs. The Razer DOTA 2 Tournament lasted for four days and boasted of a prize pool of fifteen thousand dollars.
When the tournament ended, Mineski from the Philippines emerged as the victor in the video game battle. Mineski bested other teams from Southeast Asia and took home with them a combined total of more than six thousand dollars in cash and merchandise. Orange e-Sports from Malaysia won second place and $1,680 worth of merchandise and a thousand dollars in cash, while AeonSports from Singapore secures a bridesmaid finish—winning almost two thousand dollars in cash and merchandise. The teams that came in fourth to eighth place were awarded $800 each.
Valve Software, the publisher of DOTA 2, asserted that the PC title is still “undergoing a closed beta phase.” The game is lated for release later in the year and will be available to excited players all over the world through Stream, an online delivery platform.
DOTA, which stands for Defense of the Ancients, is a bestselling strategy title which was the real-time mod for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and the expansion game Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. DOTA 2 is the highly anticipated sequel of the bestselling game for the Windows and Mac platforms. The sequel is promised to be faithful to the main mechanics of the game, which requires two teams of players to fight against each other. These two groups are called “Sentinel” and “Scourge,” respectively. The Sentinel team operates on the southwest corner, while the Scourge takes the northeast. Their bases are defended by towers and units, and in the very center of these bases are the “Ancients,” which are buildings that must be destroyed by the enemy in order to win the game.
The title is very popular among most countries in Southeast Asia, with gamers from the Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore being the most prominent in the region. The gamers from these countries are also the victors in the Razer DOTA 2 Tournament.
