Mineski came back from a 0-2 deficit to defeat First Departure on the finals of the Raidcall SEA Invitational League. Prior to this, the Filipino team has been hounded with poor endings on their tournaments, seen on their runner-up finishes on the RGN League and ACG 2013. The former of those two tournaments is a 2-3 defeat on the hands of Singaporean team First Departure.
It was First Departure who faced them on the finals again. This time however, the Singaporean team is enjoying a one-game advantage on the best-of-five series after advancing from the upper bracket. Mineski, on the other hand, had to dig deep and work their way up from the brutal best-of-one games on the lower bracket to reach the finals. FD is playing with their former player, Meracle, as a stand-in for the space voided up by their formed middle-lane player, Poloson.
First Departure raced off to a victory on the first game they played on the finals, and with the initial one-game advantage they had, found themselves a win away from the title. Mineski fought back, however, behind consecutive wins lead by their captain Jay's Invoker. The second of those two wins for Mineski brought back a nostalgic feeling as Meracle's Naga made it very hard for the Filipino team to push despite their massive lead throughout the game, but he fell short this game and thus bringing the game on the do-or-die fifth game.
After opting for a Storm on the first three games of the finals, First Departure lost that hero on the final game as Mineski picked it for themselves. That turned out to be the biggest hero of the series, emphasized by the very beautiful Roshan steal after a bad team fight and a seemingly lost game. That kept Mineski's chances alive, and they eventually were able to siege FD's base with a farmed up Lone Druid.
>> All VODs from the match be found here
Mineski earned $800 for their victory, while First Departure ends up with $200. Mineski was playing with their 6th-man, Gio, instead of Joven.
The Raidcall SEA Invitational League is a 12-team tournament which started last 6 January. Among the teams who joined the tournament are Spirit (ex-1st,VN), Orange and MiTH.Trust.
