The first edition of The Masters will kick off at the end of May, and while the Philippines qualifiers are still undergoing, the LAN event broadcast crew has been announced.
If you already miss Slacks’ special content from the Kiev Major, Manila Masters has you covered! Fans’ favorite SirActionSlacks will strike again this month with his unique video segments, but this time around from Manila, Philippines. Jorien 'Sheever' van der Heijden will conduct the panel discussion from SM Mall of Asia Arena while the local star Eri Neeman will entertain the crowd from his stage host role. Eri is not the only local personality taking part in the Manila Masters talent as MineskiTV’s Allyza Taylor will be also joining the crew as the official interviewer of the event.
With most of the familiar faces getting a well-deserved rest after the Kiev Major, two commentators, more known for their online casting, are set to make their big LAN debut: Trent 'TrentPax' MacKenzie and Grant 'GrandGrant' Harris. Part of the MonnduckTV studio now, Trent has a huge amount of hours of online casting, and has been part of the recent Kiev Major qualifiers broadcasting crew. He’s more focused on the analytical part of Dota 2 and has been the stats and analyst man for CompLexity Gaming at The International 5. Some of you might remember him from Northern Arena BEAT Invitational, from November last year where he’s been part of the analyst desk.
Alongside Trent, at the same NA Beat Invitational, was GrandGrant. Also on the analysts panel back then, Grant might strike familiar to more of you courtesy of his appearances at The Summit events. The Manila Masters has more surprises for the Dota 2 fans, who most probably will be happy to see David 'Luminous' Zhang finally making his return to the commentating desk. Lumi hasn’t been in the spotlights for far too long, his last appearance at a premier event being over a year ago, at the first season of SL i-League Invitational from Minsk, Belarus.
Manila Masters broadcast crew:
Desk Host:
Jorien 'Sheever' van der Heijden
Stage Host:
Eri Neeman
Analysts/Casters:
David 'LD' Gorman
Owen 'ODPixel' Davies
David 'Godz' Parker
Ben Merlini Wu
David 'Luminous' Zhang
Grant 'GrandGrant' Harris
Trent 'TrentPax' MacKenzie
Panelist/Translator:
Jack 'KBBQ' Chen
Special Content:
Jake 'SirActionSlacks' Kanner
Interviewer:
Allyza Taylor
Stats/Observers:
Jonathan 'PimpmuckL' Liebig
Ben 'Noxville' Steenhuisen
The Manila Masters LAN finals will take place from 26th to 28th of May at the SM Mall of Asia Arena with eight teams fighting for the tournament title and a share of the $250,000 prize pool. The recently crowned Kiev Major Champions, OG will be there to play in front of their fans from Southeast Asia and alongside them will be Evil Geniuses, Team Secret, Newbee, NP, Invictus Gaming, Faceless and a yet to be determined Filipino squad.
With the post Kiev Major shuffle madness coming up shortly, hopefully most of the squads will have the rosters we know. From all the eight teams expected to arrive in Manila at the end of the month only NP is already down to three members, the Canadian squad choosing to undergo a roster change right after they missed the qualifiers to Kiev and just after they received a direct invite to The Masters.
