photo credits: @Wykrhm Reddy
Hey everybody, and welcome to day 1 of GosuGamers coverage of the Manila Major.
I’m going to be on the ground this week covering the event live from The Mall of Asia. We’ll be adopting a new format for our coverage of this event; I’ll be live blogging onto a daily news post that will go up at 10AM every morning (Manila Time) and be updated all through the day with news as it happens.
I’ll also be Vlogging from the event floor and these vids will be published on the daily news pages as they’re recorded. Now, I’m running the video and interviews off my phone, so apologies for any shaky camera work, I’ll attempt to keep it as professional looking as possible.
You’ll be notified of interviews in the daily news post but the interviews themselves will be published as stand-alone content.
Hope that all makes sense!
Remember to keep checking back through the course of each day to keep track of all the events as they unfold.
10:00 pm: Secret and EG are out.
Teams Secret and Evil Geniuses have been eliminated in their lower bracket matches against Team Empire and VG.R respectively.
This ends the tournament run for the two western powerhouse teams.
Stay tuned tomorrow as we continue our live coverage of the event.
6:20 pm: Alliance v Mineski.
You'd be mistaken for thinking this was the grand finals from the crowds response.
Mineski, the local heroes, are about to up against the heavy-weight titans of TI3, Alliance.
Alliance are undoubtedly the favourites going into this series. However, Mineski are known for their unpredictability; and in this BO1, that element of randomness could give them the edge they need to push past Alliance and continue in the tournament.
6:00 pm: compLexity Gaming takes out Wings Gaming.
Col has successfully defeated Wings Gaming, despite Wing's taking possession of the Tiny - Wisp combo during the draft. The game looked rough for Col early on thanks to a missed Black Hole from the enigma and a solid lead from the heroes of Wings.
Complexity were able to fight their way back however, defeating Wings in this BO1 and sending Wings home.
4:30 pm: OG takes out Na'Vi.
OG has succeeded in taking their series against Na'Vi in a clean 2-0 set. From the performances seen today, many of the crowd are beginning to wonder if OG are on the path back to their dominant performance of late last year.
We've also been out talking to some of the fans and getting a feel for the venue. Stay tuned later today to see our recap video of Day 1.
3:15 pm:
OG has successfully picked Na'Vi apart in game one in what seemed to almost be no contest at all. Dendi's Tinker was never able to contribute a great deal and Na'Vi was never able to gain the momentum they needed to damage OG.
1:55 pm: Na'Vi v OG.
Na'Vi and OG have just made their way onto stage to setup for their set. If this series is even half as intense as the one that came before it, we're in for an afternoon of amazing Dota!
1:30 pm: MVP take the first set of the main event 2-0.
MVP Phoenix have just staged an amazing comeback, defeating Team liquid in a game that came down to the absolute wire.
Both teams ancients were exposed after Liquid took an early lead; but MVP, through a series of amazing plays, was able to topple Liquid and take both matches of the set.
If you missed this series, make sure you go back and watch game 2.
11:50 am:
MVP Phoenix have comfortably taken their first victory of the main event, toppling Team Liquid in game 1.
11:00 am: MVP Phoenix v Liquid.
Our first set of the day has begun with Liquid vs MVP Phoenix.
The crowd is absolutely electric in here. Every fight or kill is rewarded with cheers so loud the production team just had to turn up the volume on the casters.
10:00 am: Opening Ceremony.
The Manila Major is officially underway as the teams enter the arena to a level of applause I haven't seen outside of an International. The crowd here really is going crazy... and this is only day one.
It seems Valve have learnt their lesson after Shanghai, as the production value looks to be much higher this time round.
We do, however, seem to have no WiFi in the press room (I'm running this off my phone... on roaming), so GosuGamers may very well be your exclusive coverage of the event until someone else figures out how to get internet access.
Let me know in the comments below what you want covered and what you want to see so I can seek it all out for you.
