Local fans are keeping an eye on Abed Yusop, a Filipino professional gamer who currently plays for Evil Geniuses in the ongoing Dota 2 premier event, The International 10 (TI10).
The 21-year-old Yusop is one of five Pinoy esports enthusiasts seeking glory in the 12th year of the game’s annual world championship tournament, which offers a grand prize of over US$18 million.
Playing in his sixth season with EG, Yusop came up with a performance that put his team to the fourth spot in Group A on Friday.
The 21-year-old Filipino midlaner first led the EG to a 2-0 win over Team Aster, putting on a show with mobile and versatile melee agility hero Ember Spirit in Game One.
Then, he helped EG sweep in by taking Game Two of the Series A4 duel through a decent Void Spirit performance.
EG advanced to the series duels of the Group Stage in a tie for third spot after coming up with a 2-1-1 win-draw-loss record in bracket A.
To reach the group stage, EG needed to get past T1 side, which had Pinoy gamer Carlo “Kuku” Palad playing.
After their 2-0 sweep, EG still advanced after suffering its first loss in the Singapore major finals to top Group A qualifier Invictus Gaming.
The top-ranked North American squad is made up of Daryl Koh Pei Xiang, Andreas Nielsen, Israeli Tal Aizik.
The other Filipinos who are striving to make a name in the Ti10 scene are Karl Matthew Baldovino, Marc Polo Luis “Raven” Fausto, Palad and Djardel Jicko B. “DJ” Mampusti
Baldovino, 23, is currently playing for T1, Marc Polo Luis “Raven” Fausto is with Fnatic, while Mampusti is the Fnatics skipper.
The Evil Geniuses is one of the oldest North American professional gaming organisations since it was founded in 1999.
The champions of TI10 will claim $18,208,300, as well as the coveted Aegis of Champions to serve as proof being the best Dota 2 team in the world.
Bigger, better
This year’s grand prize is much bigger from previous years, with TiI9 in 2019 awarding US$15.6 million out of its US$34.3 million prize pool
Since it inception in 2011, The International has transformed the landscape of competitive esports by gathering the world’s finest Dota teams together and setting a new standard for a champion’s prize.
From those origins, the Dota Pro Circuit has grown into a fierce competition that spans both the calendar and the globe, with all players still focused on a single goal—victory at The International.
This year, “Dota 2” organizers decided to use an artificial crowd cheer function called Spectator Cheer, which allows the fans to send virtual cheers.
Under the group stage, former Eighteen teams are divided in two groups of nine teams each where they play in a round-robin format.
All matches are played in a best-of-two format, and the top four teams in each group advance to the Upper Bracket of the Main Event.
While the bottom team in each group is eliminated, the remaining squads will advance to the Lower Bracket of the Main Event.