It’s really tempting to call Execration the ultimate underdog of The International 2017; however a closer look at their current roster, especially if compared with other qualified teams from other regions, should change this perception. In the end, the team captain, Kimuel 'Kim0' Rodis is a SEA scene veteran and under his command Execration are happy to send their squad for the second time to The International. And interestingly enough, despite countless roster shuffles, the squad that qualified for TI7 has three players from the old 2016 team that fought in the Wildcards.
Execration Roster:
Fernando 'Nando' Mendoza
James Palatolon 'CartMaN/James' John
Ryan 'Bimbo/raging-potato' Jay Qui
Ralph Richard 'RR' Peñano
Kimuel 'Kim0' Rodis
When discussing Southeast Asia roster instability, Execration’s past year is the perfect example. Immediately after the big disappointment from the TI6 Wild Card, where they finished third and therefore were sent home before the main event actually began, Execration dropped three players and built one of the strongest SEA rosters at that time.
Djardel 'DJ' Mampusti returned to Philippines and joined Kim0 and Abed 'Abed' Yusop at Execration despite finishing on the 4th place at TI 6 with Fnatic. The post TI6 Execration team also introduced one extremely talented youngster, Khim 'Gabbi' Villafuerte who would later on become a true star under the Clutch Gamers flag. Nearly one month after TI6, this new Execration team went to MPGL Southeast Asian Championship and looked like the one to beat as they ravaged through Fnatic, Mineski and MVP Phoenix (top 6 at TI6) to win the tournament. Their dominance through the entire event made them a target for everyone in the region and with not too many LAN events happening ahead of the Boston Major, Valve decided that they deserve a direct invite at the first Major leading up to TI7.
Execration’s Boston Major story is, unfortunately, one of the "saddest in Dota 2 history" as Kim0 himself described what happened to his team in November last year. Due to one missing paper that would have confirmed their invitation to the event, Execration weren’t able to sort out their US visas in time and were forced to wave goodbye to their first Valve main event.
That was the moment from which everything began to fall apart with a domino effect for the Filipino squad, who for the rest of the season couldn’t keep a roster in the same formula for more than a few weeks. Players came and left Execration like people in an internet café. However, they had one small stroke of luck at the end of November 2016 when they were invited to ROG MASTERS as replacements for Next Generation. Their roster was already a bit different from the one invited to Boston Major, but they still managed to reach the grand finals where they lost to Team Secret. A week after this event, they played with yet another roster in the ESL One Genting qualifiers and came on top to claim the one available spot at the first LAN of 2017. By the time ESL One Genting LAN began, on the 6th of January, the Execration roster was again different but they still finished top 6, ahead of the other two SEA teams present at the event, Fnatic and Warriors Gaming Unity.
For the next two months after Genting, Execration were finally training in the same formula for the Kiev Major qualifiers but in the meantime new forces, like Team Faceless or Clutch Gamers were rising in SEA. Execration couldn’t even pass the qualifiers group stage back in March and since then nobody really heard of them anymore, except the times when a player would leave the team to join Clutch Gamers, Fnatic or Mineski. From March to June, Execration went into a continuous shuffle frenzy. Counting every small event happening in the SEA scene or every regional qualifier for a LAN, a total of 10 different players had played for Execration. But through all this madness two of the TI6 roster members stayed loyal to the organization, namely Kim0 and Nando. The final roster was revealed only on the 22nd of June when The International 2017 open qualifiers kicked off. Ralph Richard 'RR' Peñano, who played alongside Kim0 and Nando in the TI6 Wild Card returned home after playing for Mineski and Happy Feet, and alongside him, Execration also welcomed aboard a SEA veteran, namely Bimbo, or better known by the SEA fans as “raging-potato” and James (formerly CartMaN), a newcomer.
While James is the pure definition of a rookie, his professional career dating from September 2016, Bimbo is exactly the opposite. For the past five years, he’s been a loyal member of Mineski, his long tenure with them being stopped this year in May when Mushi was brought to reset and start something new at Mineski.
One interesting thing to note is that through all his time spent at Mineski, Bimbo has mainly played the carry role, and now with Execration he is also making a role change, leaving Nando in the safe lane while he is moving to the offlane.
Bimbo’s unquestionable experience combined with Kim0’s leadership skills seemed to have worked wonders for Execration, who qualified to the biggest event of the year with a mix of players that had only a few days at their disposal to gel and figure out a common strategy. The current Execration team might as well be that one rare case when five players simply click together without any effort. Three of them have a TI story behind them already and know what to expect in Seattle. Bimbo and RR have recently played together at Mineski so they already know each other well. The only big question mark is James and his ability to perform in the mid lane, given his youth and lack of experience. He did exceptionally well in the open and regional qualifiers on heroes like Lina and Queen of Pain, which seem to be his favorites, but The International 7 group stage will be his first true test.
Execration’s biggest enemy right now is their own capability to keep cool under pressure. Their biggest strength is that no one can really tell what their game plan might be, except for noticing that in the 17 games played for the TI 7 qualifiers, they chose the Radiant side in 14 of them. Nando and Bimbo are two versatile cores that can swap roles easily. Nando is quite famous for his Puck plays, but his carry position from now is not exactly suited for this hero. However, it won’t be completely surprising if Execration will, at times, swap the roles between these two. They already did it in the qualifiers and got Faceless really confused when they faced a Bimbo Ursa and a Nando Puck. So, from Execration we should only expect the unexpected.
If we count the Boston Major as their potential second Valve event, then this year’s International is their third attempt to reach the main event in a Valve organized tournament. Hopefully third time's a charm for them and we will get to see more of Kim0 and his team on KeyArena’s big stage.
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