THE ATENEO Defense of the Ancients (DOTA) 2 Team, composed of Diego Rivera, Juny Blanco, Ian Kua, Sonson Ledesma, and John Ong, topped the tables at the main event of the Impetus 2017 DOTA 2 Tournament on Saturday, June 24 at the High Grounds Cafe in Tomas Morato, Quezon City.
They secured a finals slot after a promising run in the knockout phase of the online gaming league.
The inaugural tournament, organized by the University of the Philippines Gaming Guild (UPGG), represents a landmark in the growing electronic-gaming industry. It was modeled after the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) to foster competition at the university level.
Promising a Php 25,000 grand prize and the rights to the league’s first title, Impetus features representative teams from the league’s eight constituent schools in contention for supremacy in the online multiplayer video game.
Beginning months prior, an initial online round-robin pitted each school against each other for seven-game pool play to determine rankings based on win-loss records for the eventual knockout stage. The succeeding round of eight would separate the schools into a Winner’s Bracket and Loser’s Bracket after a best-of-three game series, with a ladder format then leaving the top two teams to battle for the crown.
Led by captain Ledesma, the Blue and White’s contingent concluded the preliminary round at a precious vantage point on the seedings, snagging second place behind a top-ranked University of Santo Tomas (UST).
Nicknamed “ADMU Saltstack,” the Ateneo team opened the main event with an easy sweep, bannered by stat leader Blanco, who carried the team with a 12:2:7, 23:6:12 kill-death-assist ratio. Although the team outclassed National University (NU) in two games at 26-10, 42-20 to advance to the Winner’s Bracket, their semi-final match against the University of the East (UE) proved to be a much steeper climb.
Pitted against a tough UE squad, the Blue and White prevailed after a hard-fought three-game match, winning a ticket to the Winner’s Bracket finals at 32-26, 27-43, 35-33.
En route to the cash prize and the Impetus title, the Ateneo gamers will next clash with UST in their penultimate hurdle in the competition, facing the odds as the tournament comes to a heated finale on Sunday, June 25.
