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TI8 Mineski - Old Friends, New Challenges

Forum Index > The International 2018
4 CommentsPost a Reply

TI8 Mineski - Old Friends, New Challenges

July 21st, 2018 21:40 GMT
Text byuberxD

Old Friends, New Challenges


Gameplay

Players

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It would be unwise to ignore the history of the Mineski organization when talking about this squad. As with many origin stories of Dota players and teams, Mineski began as an internet café (better said cyber café) that was founded back in 2008 by Ronalds Robins, a Warcraft Dota All-Stars player. After 10 years of constant success on the business side, Mineski now has 10 times their starting seat count and 130 other cafés in Philippines, overseas branches and one of the finest Dota 2 rosters currently on the Pro Circuit.

But it wasn’t always like this; despite being invited to the first ever International, the organization has found little success at the top of the Dota 2 scene. After TI1, it took 4 years for to Mineski to get back to a Major tournament – the Frankfurt Major held in 2015. After a surprising victory in the following Manila Major Qualifiers, the team got an unsurprising last place. A change was needed yet again and this time Mineski decided to give a call to an old friend, ninjaboogie; who re-joined the team in July 2016 after a lackluster period on Rave. It didn’t end up well for that stack and another big reshuffle in March 2017 took place: Meracle, RR and Julz left the organization while and the legendary Mushi, accompanied by KyXy and Ryoyr, joined the team. The task was larger this time: get back into the International.

And Mineski got back – to the drawing board – as they failed to achieve said goal by being eliminated in the qualifiers. Ninjaboogie and Mushi (who missed his first TI since TI1) were left alone with the endeavor of rebuilding Mineski, once again. This time, two familiar faces were there to lend a hand: after also missing his first TI, iceiceice rejoined Mushi in a squad; and the legendary coach 71 agreed to finally coach a Mushi roster. Add Jabz and Moon and we get one of the strongest SEA-only stacks in a long time just in time for the debut of the DPC format.

Mineski had quite the breakout in the DPC: in the first ever DPC LAN they grabbed a second place finish, losing to the recently-crowned TI7 champions. Despite the fact that their good performance was to be expected due to the pedigree this lineup has, a more unexpected first place at the Bucharest Open positioned them just behind Liquid; the Dota community couldn’t quite believe it. As the competition rose with more stacked LANs Mineski quickly fell behind Newbee, Virtus.pro and even Universe (Fnatic). Mineski were feeling somewhat lost in the middle of the season, but DAC 2018 came at the right time for the team; it was the tournament to bounce back into shape or to just fall apart. Mineski defeated LGD in the finals once again and the comeback was real, Mineski had just become the undisputed best SEA team, and a powerhouse to be reckoned in the DPC. It ended up being the victory that secured them the TI direct invite due to the dominance of Virtus.pro and Liquid, adding the rise of LGD combined with the fall of Newbee. iceiceice and Mushi are finally back at the International after once absence that felt like an eternity… it just wasn’t the same without them.

Gameplay


Different teams and orgs have different approaches to the game, but with the exception of Wings, all the TI winning stacks had at least one veteran in their lineups. The recent TI champions have successfully mixed new talent with the experience a veteran brings to these kinds of competitions, and for this TI, Mineski has that kind of squad.

Experience has served this team well and it is not only thanks to Mushi and iceiceice, but 71; the brilliant coach. While some squads like a very strict approach to the matches, hence emotionally investing themselves in the results, Mineski favors a more nonchalant approach to their game. Experienced players prefer to play their big matches this way, since the lack of pressure allows confidence to flow easily and enables the players to play naturally. This kind of attitude of Mineski may be credited to 71, who has mentioned that he believes that utilizing his players to their fullest potential is key for his job. Not only that, but just when Mineski began to fall apart and neither Jabz nor Mushi wanted the drafting responsibility, 71 was there to take care of it. iceiceice and Mushi, in particular, know about this ‘pressure’ thing better than everyone else in this squad, as they not only played at defining matches in TI, but also played together in the memorable DK TI4 squad, which back then had an enormous pressure to win the tournament as perhaps the very first All-Star roster.

Without pressure, this squad has absolutely no fear of pulling out a pos.1 Wraith King, swapping Mushi and Jabz’s roles for a Meepo pick, or switching the ever-flexible iceiceice Pangolier for a sturdier Tidehunter pick. Teamfighting, saving cores and disrupting enemies are the indispensable components of a classic Mineski draft, which are directly related to its backbone: iceiceice, Jabz and ninjaboogie.

Mushi and Moon will usually rotate their choices inside a more restricted hero pool, as long as there are no cheesy strategies planned, while ninjaboogie and Jabz have a more diverse set of effective heroes. As a position 5 support, ninjaboogie is in charge of providing his position 1 carry with a stable lane and getting the early team items. Classic position 5 stuff. But even if ninjaboogie would rather protect his safelaner, static lanes usually mean death for Mineski, and that’s where Jabz comes in. If things are going well for either Mushi or Moon – whoever is playing the safelane – ninjaboogie will join Jabz in ganks around all the 3 lanes. Jabz has multiple tasks in this team; he is the Io player, the Meepo player, the one that pressures the enemy safelane alongside iceiceice and the overall stun/disabler with Nyx and Naga. Not only that, but his Nature’s Prophet (6-1 in pro matches since April) will likely be a pain to deal with for the enemy supports as he joins in ganking the enemy safelaner. Jabz clearly prefers movement, but as we stated, with today’s dual-lane meta it is not strange to find him in the offlane for the first minutes of the laning phase.

If the support play is half of the backbone of this team, then iceiceice is the other half. Constantly switching from different heroes, the current gameplay of iceiceice is way sturdier than what some might expect: he will usually grab Tidehunter or Underlord, two picks that don’t provide the traditional mobility and chaos that iceiceice’s Timbersaw, for instance, used to offer. Pangolier is there to bring back the usual gameplay he is known for. iceiceice is the kind of player that needs to be able to make plays, and Pangolier allows him to easily reach the enemy backlines and cause chaos on the supports and force cores BKBs. The hero was simply meant to be played by him.

Players


Mushi
Moon
Iceiceice
Jabz
Ninjaboogie


Click the player images above for more information

Chai "Mushi" Yee Fung

Notable heroes:

Few players in this TI have a reputation like the one Mushi holds, an iconic status only comparable to those who have already held the Aegis. Being known as the best midlaner since the WC3 days, long gone are the days in which both the Chinese and Western scene dreaded the invincible Mushi. Diminished as a legend but far from beaten in spirit, Mushi has arrived at the contest for the Aegis alongside a known partner; iceiceice. They are here to finish an endeavor that should have ended during Orange’s brilliant run at TI3 or with that legendary DK squad of TI4.

Mushi’s reinvention hasn’t been easy; he’s had to learn to switch lanes and roles whenever the draft demands it, leaving the flashier roles to newer players with fresher ideas and quicker reflexes. This evolution on his game led him to reach one of highest pick and win rate on Gyrocopter in the recent months, favouring a standard Drums-BKB build that suits Jabz and iceiceice’s bloodthirsty gameplay. Otherwise, Mushi will be playing Luna with a more farm oriented build, prioritizing Manta before the BKB. Despite this, old habits die hard and for a player so connected to the Chinese scene – either by playing in their squads, knowing 71 from a long time or simply preferring Chinese girls over Malaysians – Mushi will likely give some priority to Outworld Devourer; a classic mid hero for a classically mid player.

Kam "Moon" Boon Seng
Notable heroes:
During the 2016-2017 season, Warriors Gaming.Unity gave us some surprises in a couple of Qualifiers, LANs, and at the Boston Major. A young player known as NaNa was taking his very first steps at the top of the competitive Dota 2 scene, and it was quite a first impression; WGU got eliminated by the champions OG in a single-elimination bracket after defeating the already veteran compLexity squad. The future was bright for WGU and NaNa, but fate had other plans in mind. Failing to qualify to anything relevant after that, NaNa (now Moon) was recruited by Mineski, giving him a confidence boost that was evident at Mineski’s early events.

Moon is an odd solo mid player; usually a team will give this player a tremendous freedom of hero choices and will commit heavily on giving him the best game possible, but the vagaries of hero balance and strict guidance from 71 have forced Moon, despite his aversion, to pick DK in so many matches that since April he’s the player with the most games in the hero. This is a pretty solid strategy that is backed by a stellar 64% win rate on the hero. Another very usual pick for Moon is Death Prophet. There’s actually not much room for the poor Moon to shine in other heroes, but at least he can take credit of being a stellar Timbersaw player in a team that already has iceiceice on the roster.

Daryl Koh "Iceiceice" Pei Xiang
Notable heroes:
iceiceice has the not-so-common combination of a very likeable personality and amazingly talented play. His beginnings in Dota 2 are not as noble as his ex-DK partner, as he was interested into the Starcraft 2 scene at first – even earning a spot at Blizzcon 2010. iceiceice is known for many things but a flashy play style is the one that highlights his career, and Pangolier fits that role perfectly. It wouldn’t be a mistake to say that IceIceice brought the hero to the spotlight; it is not coincidence that iceiceice holds an absurd 71% win rate on the hero in his previous 14 matches. We already mentioned how the hero feels like it was designed to be controlled by iceiceice, and this is the best representation of his play style. If you were to think of a classic iceiceice hero you wouldn’t think about Abaddon and Omniknight, two somehow similar heroes with very different results for him. Perhaps the problem he has with Omniknight is that the hero cannot afford to get caught off guard, as the hero is susceptible to lockdowns as he has no mobility whatsoever. On the other hand iceiceice can be aggressive while on Abbadon and run through the enemy team to disrupt their backlines. If all of this fails, a stable Tidehunter, Underlord or a bit more surprising Magnus pick often makes him perhaps the most important asset of the team during the draft. You can’t just ban out him of the match.
Anucha "Jabz" Jirawong
Notable heroes:
Jabz arrived on Mineski alongside iceiceice after they failed to qualify for TI7 with Faceless; a team that he joined after iceiceice announced his interest in a fresh and new high MMR player for his stack. And that is what Jabz is: fresh and new talent. After playing in core positions, the transition to pos. 4 was unexpectedly smooth for this young player; with a hero pool consisting of more disruptive supports such as Naga Siren and Nyx Assassin, Jabz will showcase his excellent mechanical skill and will sometimes swap roles with Mushi when a Meepo pick is on the menu. We mentioned Jabz’s fondness for mobility on a metagame that demands more stable dual lanes, and for this his Nature’s Prophet play comes handy for Mineski. Expect Jabz to gank the enemy safelane along iceiceice and maybe Ninjaboogie every time their other cores are having some downtime, because his ridiculously high win rate on this hero will likely be targeted by the enemy drafter.
Michael "Ninjaboogie" Ross Jr.
Notable heroes:
The oldest member on the team joined Mineski back in July 2016 – which is quite a long time ago by Dota standards (especially SEA). Despite him joining the iconic Dota organization, ninjaboogie was a HoN player before, like many other pros. He was the leader of DuskBin gaming at the age of 19, one of the finest SEA teams at the time. As usual these veteran players were once cores in their older lineups; ninjaboogie left Rave as a carry player but joined Mineski not only as a sixth player, but also as a support. This transition wasn’t easy, as constant setbacks sent Mineski back to the drawing board during the 2016-2017 periods. But as with most things, perseverance and time made Ninjaboogie one of the finest position 5 players in the SEA scene.

As the top Disruptor of the SEA scene, Ninjaboogie has a very traditional position 5 support style in which he will usually babysitting his safelaner, using picks like Vengeful Spirit, Bane and Shadow Demon to secure a stable laning phase from which the team can build up their transition to the mid game. Ninjaboogie might not be a flashy position 5 or a commanding figure like Puppey or PPD, but his selfless play style is needed when you have this kind of pedigree on your team.



CREDITS
Writer: UberXD
Editor: Sn0_Man
Graphics: Valve, Julmust, Exitiums


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Writer<-- occasionally in English - @uberdota
Archeon
Profile Joined May 2011
1717 Posts
Last Edited: 2018-07-21 23:10:46
July 21 2018 23:06 GMT
#2
Thank you for the writeup. Mineski is probably the team that fits the average TI winner of recent years the best, they have a broad pool, are somewhat under the radar and have shown that they can beat tier 1 teams.
Whether or not they are able to up their game and increase their consistency remains to be seen, but they are definitely a team to watch out for.
low gravity, yes-yes!
korendir
Profile Joined August 2011
Singapore206 Posts
July 22 2018 15:53 GMT
#3
i'm always supporting my boy iceiceice and will definitely cheer for them this TI. Alas, their consistency this entire season is sooo up and down. In their best form, they look like they can easily win TI. But there are times when they look like a messy pub team too.

Still, looking forward to see them perform well in TI!!
Yurie
Profile Joined August 2010
7069 Posts
July 22 2018 17:12 GMT
#4
Interesting that the only two noticeable heroes they had in common with VP was DP and Disruptor.
MetalMercury
Profile Joined January 2015
United States1040 Posts
July 22 2018 23:43 GMT
#5
This team does much better when they aren't running around playing tournaments all over the place; I expect them to really come out and do well at TI; perhaps they are even a top 5 or 6 in terms of chances to win it.

One thing is for sure: they will either come out flat and do poorly, or they'll look almost unstoppable.
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