Pinoy gaming team Mineski.Infinity to vie for $1 million at The International

Posted on August 17th, 2011. Written by Rico.

Valve kicks off The International later today. 16 teams from all over the world (8 from China) will compete for a chance to win the $1 million grand prize! It’s all in the name of promoting Dota 2. Representing the Philippines is a 5-man team named Mineski.Infinity.

The International is a Dota 2 tournament that starts later today in Germany. It will kick off with a group stage, where each team will play against the other teams in their group once (for a total of three preliminary matches). The group stage matches will determine the rankings for the playoffs.

Here’s how the playoffs will progress:

The winners bracket starts with the eight teams who finished first and second in their groups coming out of the group stage. The losing team from each match in the winners bracket moves down into the losers bracket. The winners bracket final is a best of three match, with the winner of the bracket moving on to the Championship Final. The team that advances from the winners bracket will have a one win advantage in the championship final, which is a best of five format.

The losers bracket starts with the eight teams who finished third and fourth in their groups coming out of the group stage. The losing team from each match in the losers bracket is eliminated from the competition. The losers bracket final is a best of three format, with the winner advancing to the Championship Final.

Group A	Group B	Group C	Group D
iG (China) EHOME (China) Mski Infinity (Philippines) SGC (Serbia)	TyLoo (China) OK.Nirvana.cn (China) OK.Nirvana.int (EU) Virus (France)	MYM (Denmark) M5 (Russia) MiTH-Trust (Thailand) MUFC (Malaysia)	Na’Vi (Ukraine) Scythe.sg (Singapore) GGnet (EU) nevo (Denmark)

Dota 2 (Defense of the Ancients 2) is a strategy video game where two teams of up to five players each take control of hero units. It’s the standalone sequel to an extremely popular Warcraft III mod. Both teams attempt to fight through their opponents’ defenses, backed up by computer-controlled “creeps” supplied on a regular basis. The objective? Destroy the enemy’s “ancient” located inside their base. To develop 2 Dota 2, Valve hired “IceFrog” to lead a team back in 2009. IceFrog, who developed the original Dota, has kept his identity secret.

Mineski.Infinity (full name Asus Mineski Infinity Happyfeet) is in Group A, with Chinese teams iG and EHOME, and Serbian team SGC. Here’s the list of the 16 participating teams:

The Philippines will be represented by the Mineski.Infinity team members:

	Alias	Name
	Wootz	James Kenneth Valdez
	John	John Jerik Roxas
	RR	Ralph Richard Penano
	Julz	Julius De Leon
	Owa	Joshua Dela Serna

Below is the official, yet tongue-in-cheek, statement released by Mineski CEO Ronald Robins:

“Ever since the organization was formed, we have vowed ourselves to push the limits of competitive gaming scene to the next level and I think this is yet another step for Philippine e-Sports to be part of the elite category in terms of Dota in the whole world. Dota 2 will surely be exciting and a lot of gamers are waiting for it to come out as well. Thanks to Valve’s generosity where all teams have the chance to compete with each other on Gamescom and furthermore the $1,000,000 prize is somehow a goal for every gamer to achieve, giving every gamer hopes in regards to making e-Sport a reality in this world.

Mineski International, Inc. is very happy to be a part of this event launch. We are already doing our best to prepare our gaming team by providing their basic needs and training grounds as well as the best gaming equipment. Thanks to Razer Philippines for the full Razer sets.

Valve will undoubtedly be successful especially on how they give back to the community. Kudos!

Good luck to all the participants and let’s go AZKALS! Ooops.. Dota 2 Philippine Team!”

As of this writing the team and Mr. Robins are already in Cologne, Germany. The International will kick off by 4pm today Philippine time, during the Gamescom 2011 convention. Mineski will first face off against Serbians SGC. More information on the live online broadcasts are available on the official Dota 2 site. Good luck guys!