Tag: Featured

When we think of esports athletes, we tend to think of relatively older players who either have dropped out of school to chase their dreams or be semi-responsible for their academic lives. More often than not, it’s tempting to play games over doing homework, since most of us probably dislike the idea of not having fun.

Well, one might wish that we had been taught how to balance games and academics since we were young — perhaps most of us would be Ph.D. gamers by now. Jokes aside, a delicate balance between games and life, in general, is as necessary as ever, especially during a time like today where the pandemic made every other thing, aside from work and studies, a little more tempting than usual.

To have the innate ability to balance those two extremes is a talent of its own, one that needs to be nurtured since young. But since most of us are casual gamers, we might not have much of a problem. But what about the professional players? They certainly have a life outside of games, don’t they?

Most adult gamers literally have a job of playing games professionally, so they might not have too much of a difficulty in that aspect. Younger professional players, however, mostly have to keep up with their academic or work life. Without a good balance on both ends, things might get cluttered; either you give up gaming or studies altogether.

The ideal is to not completely abandon either one of them, as both possess their own sets of benefits and struggles. It’s safe to say that a responsible gamer is the best kind of gamer; one that understands the importance of both and upholds the responsibilities entrusted to them.

Such a character does exist in real life, a person whose age might shock older readers. His name is Jason “f0rsakeN” Susanto, a 17-year-old VALORANT player from Indonesia. Some of you might have heard of his name in the professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) scene, but he has since made the switch to Riot Game’s hottest esports title of today.

There’s a lot to be told about Jason. His earliest days of playing professionally, his transition to professional VALORANT, and his recent successes with the Singapore-based team called Paper Rex. Let’s break his journey down part by part.

Dawn of the Aerowolves

Jason started his first professional stint with the subsidiary roster of a prominent Indonesian CS:GO team of its time, Recca Academy. Back in the day, Recca Esports was amongst Indonesia’s strongest teams, especially when its roster was filled with the likes of BnTeT, FrostMisty, roseau, Sys, and Jason’s very own brother, xccurate.

In fact, Jason has started playing competitively since the age of 11, way before his prime career time. However, there was an internal problem in the Recca Academy roster, which ultimately led to the disbandment of the roster altogether.

Fortunately, Jason soon found himself playing with a former Recca Academy teammate of his, Jose “Histoire” Iman. After the team’s disbandment, Jose’s father founded the organization known as Aerowolf, to which Jason was quickly invited to their premiere CS:GO debut roster.

It was starting this time when Jason’s name quickly became a headline. With Aerowolf, the then 13-year-old Jason won ROG Masters 2017 Asia-Pacific: Indonesian Open Qualifier #2 and ESEA Season 25: Open Division – Asia-Pacific thereafter. Jason who was initially simply known as “xccurate’s brother” proved that he too had what it takes to be a professional esports player.

What’s amusing is not only Jason’s ability to achieve such a title at such an early age, but also his ability to balance both his academic life and chasing his esports dream. His secret lies in his father’s reminder to always balance responsibilities and Jason lives up to that standard.

In an interview with Jason, he explained that “since childhood, I was taught by my father to study earnestly and diligently if I’d like to play games. I was told to maintain a balance between academics and pursuing a career in gaming. That is what enabled me to try to balance things out in various ways. For instance, every time I come home from school I would immediately do homework or study before I play, and so on.”

Jason’s thought process at his age is truly commendable. Hearing his story made me realize how my younger self could’ve achieved more if only I had better managed my priorities.

Certainly, Jason is also somewhat lucky to have supportive parents behind his back. I had a chat with Jason’s father back in 2018, and throughout our conversation, it’s vividly clear that he’s open to a progressive perspective towards esports, so it shouldn’t be surprising that his children are presently excelling in esports.

But parents aren’t the only ones to deal with when it comes to playing professionally. Education plays a crucial role and excelling in school is seen to be of great importance especially in Indonesia.

Again, luckily for Jason, his school acknowledges and is very much supportive of his esports career. He said, “My school knows that I am active in the field of esports. They responded by having a positive outlook towards esports and I am even given the permission (to be absent) whenever I need to attend and compete in a tournament.”

Indonesian CS:GO Winter

Things were going well thus far in Jason’s esports journey. With the agreement and support from both his parents and school, he’s very much set to play CS:GO competitively; what’s left is for him to actually win tournaments.

Sadly, after being together for about five months, Aerowolf’s CS:GO division became inactive. With the initial departure of the Malaysian player Ashraf “acAp” Firdaus, Anlika “LurkZz” Putra, Andrew “Bali” Joseph, and Windi “wnd” Halim soon left the team as well. Only the two “brothers” are left in the team, that is, Jason and Jose.

It didn’t take long before Jason found a new home for himself. His choice was tied between joining either one of Indonesia’s top teams at that time: teamNXL and BOOM ID (now BOOM Esports). Jason finally decided to join BOOM ID, playing with the likes of 6fingers, and mindfreak, who is still Jason’s teammate up to this day. More on that later on.

His earliest days playing under BOOM ID, which later became BOOM Esports, weren’t exactly the nicest days. The team struggled to attain much of an achievement in the entirety of 2018 and had to undergo various player-swaps before starting to climb back slowly in 2019. BOOM Esports was able to secure several qualifier victories but still struggled in Main Events nonetheless.

During their time with Jason, BOOM Esports’ biggest achievement included their victory in Indonesia Esports Games 2018 and particularly GeForce Cup Pacific – Indonesia, where Jason took down his brother’s team to win first place. Later on, BOOM Esports won a third-place finish in GeForce Cup Pacific held in January 2020.

And now that we have entered 2020, you probably know what soon came down: the COVID19 pandemic. Most, if not all, LAN events got canceled worldwide due to restrictions, and most tournaments were forced to be moved online. Jason is “very sad because before the pandemic, events were held offline, but now we have to play from our homes.”

Before the pandemic hit, however, BOOM Esports already made a drastic roster change in their CS:GO division. They had just acquired players from the Brazilian team INTZ, and thus released their underwhelming Indonesian roster, except for Jason who stayed under the organization but remained inactive.

It is also around this time that the Indonesian CS:GO winter took place, perhaps even before 2020 kicked off. With the release of VALORANT, many former CS:GO players decided to transition to the new game given how stale the CS:GO professional scene has become. Nevertheless, Jason remained in the CS:GO scene, at least for a good while.

While being inactive under BOOM Esports, Jason spent a good amount of his time playing as a stand-in for different semi-casual and temporary lineups like FFAMIX, SGINDOMIX, and Big Time Regal Gaming.

Jason’s official team, unveiled in mid-2020, turned out to be a new team called JMT Game Team, consisting of the Taiwanese player Marek, Chinese players equal and Drea3er, as well as the Russian player killmatic. The team didn’t achieve much during their time, as the Asian scene was greatly dominated by more experienced teams, such as that of xccurate’s.

Unsurprisingly, Jason only spent a few months playing under the new organization and quickly found a new home in Paper Rex.

The T-Rex in Paper Rex

On September 4, 2020, Jason found himself playing under the Singapore-based organization Paper Rex. The team had struggled to keep up with the rest of the Southeast Asian scene, but picking up a new roster that included Jason proved to be the right fix they needed. It is also in this team where Jason teamed up with a familiar face, Aaron “mindfreak” Leonhart, whom he had played together with under BOOM Esports.

Aside from Jason, Paper Rex picked up players like Kumersan “Tommy” Ramani, Tidus “StyroN” Goh, and decided to move their player Alexandre “alecks” Sallé to the coaching role. With the new roster, Paper Rex won second-place in ESEA Season 35: Open Division – Asia-Pacific losing a short 1-2 match against TIGER in the Grand Finals.

According to Jason, Paper Rex is the best team he has ever played with. Out of all the teams he had played in previously, he chose Paper Rex as his favorite because “they are capable enough to manage what the players should do during training and are clever in setting schedules for training.” He also added that “the training given to us are never in vain as I gained a lot of knowledge playing with this team.”

Of course, playing under an international team like Paper Rex comes with its own set of challenges for Jason. Since he’s playing with an international team, he has to communicate with the rest of his team in English, which he admits to still struggle with until today. Moreover, their communication takes place via Teamspeak because of the current situation.

Paper Rex’s last achievement in CS:GO was their first-place victory in eXTREMESLAND Festival 2020: Southeast Asia, beating the likes of ZIGMA, Beyond Esports, and BREN Esports. After about five months of playing with a stable roster, the team suddenly announced an abrupt departure from CS:GO, including the retirement of all five of their players.

It is later unveiled on the following day that their roster, in fact, didn’t completely disband. The same five-man roster plus coach was signed into their novel VALORANT division, and their new journey awaits in a much greener pasture.

According to Jason, members of the Paper Rex roster agreed to make the switch and he himself agreed to it, especially seeing how much the professional Southeast Asian CS:GO scene has dimmed in recent years. Their switch looked very much inevitable. Jason himself had already made a name in VALORANT, as he topped first-place the Southeast Asian VALORANT leaderboard.

Paper Rex 2.0 and Beyond

Paper Rex didn’t take long to keep up with the rest of the Southeast Asian VALORANT teams — indeed a very sharp change since their CS:GO days. When asked whether he found difficulties during his transition to VALORANT, Jason explained that it was “not too difficult given VALORANT’s similar in-game shooting mechanics.”

Additionally, he shared that his CS:GO skill “just needs to be sharpened in the aspect of utilizing each agent’s abilities. Aside from that, the gameplay and aiming mechanics are almost identical to that of CS:GO.”

Jason considers his first-place victory in eFire Master League Season 1 and a third-place finish in VCT 2021: Southeast Asia Stage 2 Challengers Finals to be his best achievements in VALORANT thus far. His ultimate goal, however, is to not only play in a North American or European team, but to also win every tournament, and to be a world-renown player.

Paper Rex and Jason’s next upcoming event is VALORANT Champions Tour Stage 3, to which Jason claims that he’s “very confident and convinced” that he and his team could win VCT Stage 3 in the days to come.

Looking at how far Jason’s esports journey has come is truly inspiring. His story is unlike others and what’s even more amusing is that he is achieving so much at a very young age. As I begin to wrap up this writing, I came to recall his father’s closing message as we closed off our 2018 conversation: “I have kept my eyes on him. He will be the best player in the future.”

Cover Image by Paper Rex.

Almost all competitive events know and love the idea of having dark horses on their participant list. These dark horses are full of surprises, secret tactics, and, more than anything, have almost nothing to lose. Win or lose, most of these dark horses never fail to deliver entertaining matches, ones that audiences will likely remember forever.

When and why this phenomenon happens remains a wild guess, but when it does, it usually defies all possible odds, with chances being as slim as ever. The same story was told in Dota 2’s latest offline Major event: ONE Esports Singapore Major 2021.

The Filipino squad of OB Esports x Neon, formerly known simply as Neon Esports, did what most didn’t expect at all. Sure, they didn’t go home as champions of the event, but their journey and fight showed how intriguing and intense a Dota 2 match could be.

A Major Roster Problem

Before their matches even began, OB x Neon faced a major roster problem. Their supposed Hard Carry Player, Natsumi-, was “unfit to travel” with the rest of the team to Singapore, where the Major was held in. This alone was already a huge problem as a roster change right before an event is certainly not fun to have.

Nevertheless, OB x Neon secured a stand-in player to fill in their empty slot, their former Offlaner, Rappy. Rappy was a member of Neon Esports for almost two years and has played over 1000 matches together, so this move is indeed sensible.

There’s still an issue with the respective player roles, since Natsumi- is a Hard Carry player, while his substitute, Rappy, is an Offlaner. To address that issue, the team decided that their official Offlaner skem would take up the Carry role and Rappy proceeded to play as an Offlaner like he usually does. With things seemingly in the right place, the team flew to Singapore.

Entering the Singapore Major, OB x Esports were seeded into the Group Stage thanks to their second-place finish in Dota Pro Circuit 2021 Season 1. Together with Fnatic and T1, the three teams are Southeast Asia’s only representatives in the event.

As the event commenced on March 27th, T1 had a fair share of their run in the Wild Card stage. Unfortunately, they failed to secure top-3 and had to pack their bags early, leaving only Fnatic and OB x Neon to represent the region.

Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining

Soon after, the Group Stage kicked off. OB x Neon was up against the world’s best teams around. Particularly, the Chinese giants of PSG.LGD and Vici Gaming, along with the up-and-coming South American team, Thunder.Predator, were the strongest contenders of the Group Stage.

As many had predicted, OB x Neon performed shakily on their first matchday, losing 2-0 in three different series, and managed to only tie a single match against Team Aster. Their start looked daunting and things were about to get even worse for the Filipino squad, as if they hadn’t faced enough challenges.

On March 30th, OB x Neon announced that their stand-in player, Rappy, was in close contact with someone who had COVID-19 prior to the event. Although Rappy tested negative in all four tests, the team decided to take the safe route and halt his activity with the rest of the team.

While performing poorly in the Group Stage, OB x Neon had to not only find a substitute for their initial substitute but also adapt to the new player, whoever it may be. With time ticking rapidly, the team scrambled to find a new substitute.

Skem was tasked by the team’s manager to find a substitute as quickly as possible, given that they were only hours away from the next Group Stage match. Skem rang up the Singaporean player Deth, who he might have got in contact with during his time with Complexity Gaming.

The story of how they tried to contact Deth was nothing but a clutch, as highlighted in an article by ONE Esports. “To be honest, it was all a blur to me. First I was asleep, so the team couldn’t contact me. So skem reached out to my girlfriend, but my girlfriend was also asleep,” said Deth. “Skem continued frantically calling my girlfriend up until she woke up, then she repeatedly called me until I woke up too.”

Now that a substitute player is secured, what the team is left with is the problem of adapting to the new lineup — not to mention their tight Group Stage progress. Surprisingly, the shiny new addition of Deth to OB x Neon’s roster proved effective, if not better than their previous lineup.

On their second matchday, skem and his team were able to tie two different series: one against Thunder.Predator, and the other against Alliance. Moreover, they were able to deliver a huge upset against Team Liquid, who they absolutely stomped in the match that followed.

Thanks to their victory against Liquid, OB x Neon clinched a seventh-place finish in the Group Stage. They were only a position away from getting eliminated altogether from the Major event. What initially seemed like adversity, turned out to be a silver lining for OB x Neon.

“What an instant classic of a game!”

Skem and his boys managed to fit their way into the Lower Bracket of the Playoffs stage where they faced their Southeast Asian rival, Fnatic. As the two fought bravely to remain as Southeast Asia’s last representative, it was the Filipino squad who had the upper hand. More importantly, OB x Neon’s Position 2 player Yopaj soon received international spotlight given his outstanding performance.

OB x Neon’s next opponent is the beast of Vici Gaming. The odds were totally against the Filipino team judging from how well Vici Gaming performed in the Group Stage. Noticeably, the two teams greatly competed for Puck, a hero that became one of the strongest Midlaners in the 7.28c patch.

Vici secured Puck in game one, where the hero paved way for their first win. Thereafter, the hero fell to the hands of Yopaj and proved to be as deadly as ever. In the two games that followed, Yopaj and his squad rolled over the multi-major winners and quickly rose to popularity. With a top-6 finish under their belt, OB x Neon certainly was no joke.

Continuing their super thrilling Major run, OB x Neon was up against their “final boss” or more casually known as Team Secret. Team Secret is famous for their high-intensity matches, especially for their consistency throughout different games. If OB x Neon made it through, they stand a chance to make history by defeating Team Secret.

Game one, simply put, was Secret’s free-to-roam playground. With a Bristleback and Keeper of the Light duet, Secret utterly crushed OB x Neon in the first game, despite Yopaj securing a Puck pick.

Game two, however, turned the stakes around. OB x Neon opted for an agile yet sustainable pick consisting of heroes such as Batrider, Leshrac, Gyrocopter, Tusk, and Oracle. This draft works by essentially sweeping the enemy team in a blitz skirmish as quickly as possible.

Batrider initiates a team fight with his Flaming Lasso, Leshrac chain-stuns with Split Earth, Tusk follows up with a Walrus Punch, all while Gyrocopter casually hits like a raid-boss. The sustainability acts as a backup/abort mission, thanks to Oracle’s False Promise, Tusk’s Snowball, and Leshrac’s Guardian Greaves.

That said, in just under 27 minutes, OB x Neon took game two, flipping the tables around and upsetting many. Most thought that Secret, being the beast that they’re known for, was going to 2-0 the Filipino squad, but OB x Neon stood strong.

The final determining game, as many had put it, was nothing but historical. It’s too complex of a match to describe in words, and I strongly urge readers to witness the game instead. However, to sum it all up, it was easily Yopaj’s career highlight, regardless of OB x Neon’s penultimate loss.

The last final moments of the game showed how the tiniest of details could flip a game’s outcome — essentially the beauty of Dota 2. After a back-and-forth skirmish between the two teams, Secret came out as the winning team. As the caster Gabriel “Lyrical” Cruz tweeted, it was “an instant classic of a game!”.

OB Esports x Neon’s Brief Team Profile

OB x Neon went home as 5th-6th-place finishers of the tournament. Although they didn’t win the Major event, it is clear that the Filipino powerhouse is to be respected in the tournaments to come. Seeing all these plays got me thinking, who are these guys anyway?

The Neon Esports organization has been around since 2017, making their first international stint by participating in The International 2017 Open Qualifier. Out of all the present players, it is PlayHard who had been with the team for the longest time, joining Neon’s TI8 Open Qualifier roster.

It was only starting late 2019 when the team started getting noticed in the novice Southeast Asian scene. Amidst the 2020 pandemic, the team began to climb up in the professional scene, and arguably their best Southeast Asian performance was during DPC 2021 Season 1. That means their earlier Singapore Major run was the first time they made it to the international spotlight.

The players alone have been in the professional scene for quite a long time, except for Natsumi- and Yopaj. Skem, PlayHard, and Jaunuel had played in different local and international teams like Mineski, Arcanys Gaming, Sterling Global Dragons, Geek Fam, and many others. The three probably had played together multiple times in different phases of their career and different teams.

On the flip side, Natsumi- and Yopaj only started playing competitively in 2019. The 19-year-old boys kicked off their esports career when they were only 17. In fact, before joining OB x Neon, Natsumi- was part of the Filipino Dota 2 team Adroit who won first place in the 30th Southeast Asian Games.

Yopaj, conversely, had a rather laid-back career in his earliest competitive esports journey. The now-famous Midlaner had an underwhelming experience during his time in Execration and played under the Indonesian organization The Prime for a while back. In September 2019, he joined the ranks of OB x Neon and the rest became history.

As of the moment of writing, OB x Neon is currently participating in Season 2 of DPC 2021, this time with Natsumi- back on board. Thus far, Yopaj has picked Puck twice and won both games against BOOM Esports. In their match against TNC Predator, where Armel picked Puck in all three games, OB x Neon lost 1-2.

Only three weeks into the event, it is still unclear whether OB x Neon could deliver the same result in the next leg of professional Dota 2. What remains is a mystery for most, but what’s certain is that the Filipino squad of OB x Neon should not be taken lightly.

Cover Image by Twitter @NeonEsportsPH and ONE Esports.

Dota 2’s first offline Valve Major event of 2021 has just come to an end, crowing Invictus Gaming as the Grand Champions. Throughout the event, a multitude of upsets and surprises filled the matches, and it is this special characteristic of Dota 2 matches that keep the viewers returning.

Further, given that this is the first event to include teams from different regions, the tournament’s META was nothing but a surprise for most people. Once the respective regions’ META was brought together, they orchestrated purely entertaining Dota matches that fans have longed for ever since.

In particular, there was a team that caught everyone’s attention, Thunder Predator. This underdog squad from South America surprised everyone due to how unique and skillful their playstyle was during this event. Not everybody was even familiar with their lineup, let alone knowing what strategies are under their sleeves.

In this article, we shall first view a brief history of the Thunder Predator roster, analyze what’s so special about their draft and how they blended such a risky draft with their aggressive and iconic playstyle.

South American Veterans

Although Thunder Predator rarely received mainstream media spotlight, the organization itself has been established since 2017, initially consisting of South America’s oldest Dota 2 players. In its latest form, the lineup also includes players who have been in the scene for about the same time as when the organization was first established.

Out of the five players, Frank, MoOz, and Wu, only started their competitive year starting 2017 by joining the likes of team Gorillaz-Pride and the more popular Infamous.Black. On the other hand, the two remaining players Mnz and LeoStyle- have been playing professionally since 2015, joining teams as old as Team Unknown and Digital Chaos.SA — if that rings any bell.

Moreover, what most didn’t know was the fact that Mnz used to play under the name of Kotaro Hayama, who is amongst South America’s oldest Dota 2 players around. So at first glance, this team had a ton of experience under their belt and this event happened to be the stage for them to unleash their might.

Coming into the ONE Esports Singapore Major 2021, most viewers were considerably doubtful, for a sensible reason. That is, South America’s Playoffs representative team, beastcoast, had just withdrawn from the Major due to COVID-19 infections. Naturally, fans were bitter as beastcoast was seen as the strongest best from their region.

As a result, Thunder Predator had massive shoes to fill, if they were to succeed their rivals beastcoast. Keep in mind that Thunder Predator only received a Group Stage seed, meaning that they would need to perform better than other teams if they were to redeem the Upper Bracket playoffs slot that beastcoast should’ve had. Nonetheless, Thunder Predator entered the event like mad wolves, shocking almost everybody watching.

Aggressive and Agile Draft

Watching Thunder Predator play in the Group Stage and later in the Playoffs was nothing but thrilling. The way they time their tempo and momentum during team fights was nothing less but beautiful, like a well-choreographed performance. It reminded me a lot of the way that the former Wings Gaming or perhaps TI8 OG liked to play, highly aggressive yet very timing-based approaches.

At the same time, they did so while still attending to the latest META, as their picks were just like any other teams’. Among their most-used heroes were Earth Spirit, Oracle, Death Prophet, Pangolier, Phoenix, and Tusk. These heroes were mixed-and-matched with other heroes and defined a major part of their drafting style.

If you noticed, these heroes are the type of heroes who could go nuts if you want to. You can dive pretty far into the enemy territories given how agile they are. Earth Spirit’s Rolling Boulder, Tusk’s Snowball, Phoenix’s Icarus Dive, Pangolier’s Rolling Thunder, are few examples of those kinds of abilities.

These skills are risky, as they could easily backfire when performed incorrectly. However, users of these skills should also not be overly scared and should be willing to dive deep, as long as they have the remaining of their team covering their backs. And Thunder Predator did just that. Many times heroes like Earth Spirit or Tusk initiates a skirmish, and the remaining team comes prepared to help out.

In an interview with Yahoo Esports Southeast Asia, MoOz himself expressed how crazy his team’s playstyle is, “we are actually kind of crazy. We just want to be as aggressive as we can. So, we make super aggressive calls and that’s how we like to play, and that’s how we think we are going to put pressure on the enemy teams. So, we are very loud and very Peruvian. So, you can imagine.”

Watching the way Thunder Predator players handle skirmishes is literally a five-man kiting-action. Many times some of them over-extended their steps, but the remaining four stepped in and might as well turn the tables around. Like a pack of wolves, every one of them keeps all members intact and as safe as possible, but never fearful of engaging in team fights.

It is this formula that kept Thunder Predator alive during the Group Stage. In fact, they dominated almost every team in the pool, ending the Round-robin stage with a 5-2 match-win-loss. They won 2-0 against every team except Vici Gaming and OB Esports x Neon, where they tied the series 1-1.

That said, they received an Upper Bracket seed which could’ve been beastcoast’s. Nevertheless, they delivered a very satisfying result and many were surprised they could have reached such an outcome.

The Playoffs Run

Continuing their journey in the event, Thunder Predator faced Team Secret from the get-go in their very first Playoffs match. Being the experienced team that they are, Team Secret had a plan against these mad men’s playstyle.

In both matches, they banned Puck, which is Thunder Predator’s most-banned hero throughout the entire event. The hero was banned up to 10 times in total, given how deadly it could be if the META-favorite hero fell to the hands of LeoStyle-. They also banned Thunder Predator’s comfort picks like Morphling, Phoenix, and Death Prophet in between the two games.

Also, Team Secret managed to dampen the aggression pushed by Thunder Predator to the late-game, where Thunder Predator’s winning-key lies in: their early-game aggression. As such, Team Secret swept the series 2-0 and pushed Thunder Predator into the Lower Bracket.

In their first Lower Bracket match, they were paired against Team Aster, and this Chinese team is better known to be more disciplined and patient in their games. Indeed, Thunder Predator took advantage of this very fact and rolled through Aster in the entire series.

In both games, Thunder Predator drafted Tusk, Pangolier, and Phoenix. Again, these three heroes are amongst their most favorite and comfortable picks out of all. Their strategy is to use these heroes and play them as aggressively as possible while making space for their Cores who will later be responsible to close out the series in their favor.

Following that series, Thunder Predator was up against Virtus.pro, a roster with young and talented players who are just as bold as their South American rivals are. In the first game, it was Thunder Predator’s Cores who popped off and carried the entire game with heroes like Weaver and Windranger.

In the second game, however, Virtus.pro allowed Thunder Predator to not only pick Earth Spirit and Phoenix, but also Puck. They paired the three with Troll Warlord and Beastmaster, allowing for strong late-game and pushing capabilities. The game looked grim for Virtus.pro from the very beginning, and Thunder Predator ultimately stomped the series 2-0 and continued their run in the Major.

Final Boss: Invictus Gaming

Like their match against Secret, Thunder Predator had a slim chance when facing Invictus Gaming in the Lower Bracket Round 3. Invictus Gaming was amongst the heavy favorites of the tournament, and many expected them to win the Major altogether.

Nonetheless, Thunder Predator kickstarted the first game with a bang as they rolled through the Chinese in just under 30 minutes with heroes like Death Prophet and Juggernaut. A lot of fans were surprised to see them take the first game. Unfortunately, it was Invictus Gaming’s Emo in the second game who, conversely dominated the game with his Puck.

And in the third deciding match, Invictus Gaming had the upper hand since the drafting phase. They banned Puck and Death Prophet and proceeded by picking a Phoenix of their own. With an even more aggressive hero like Storm Spirit and Troll Warlord, Invictus Gaming cornered Thunder Predator into a draft that didn’t belong to their playstyle.

Unfortunately for the South Americans, their 2021 Major run concluded with a close 1-2 loss against Invictus Gaming, who would later be crowned Champions of the event.

Closing Remarks

Seeing Thunder Predator play is seeing Dota in its full potential. With the right set of heroes and the appropriate style of gameplay, it could very well keep viewers on the edge of their seats. It shall be interesting to see how Thunder Predator would fair in the next season of the Dota Pro Circuit and what other surprises we shall witness in the matches that follow.

Featured Image by Thunder Predator.

When the public thinks of esports, they used to understand it merely as a bunch of nerds playing their games intensely. It is only in recent years that the public perception has changed towards a more open mindset regarding what esports really is. However, what is more often discussed and attended to is how successful an esports athlete could be — with all the luxury of fame, wealth, and prestige.

Yet, not everybody understands the hardship and struggle that comes before all of those ideals. In fact, not everybody made it to the big stage. Some retired before ever lifting trophies, or had to leave because the game’s scene couldn’t survive the wave of modern esports titles. If anything, the decisions that an esports athlete makes during their career could crucially affect their longevity as a professional player.

Since stories like these are often untold, forgotten, or neglected, we must realize how esports is just like any other career: not everything will work out as we desire, and that making bold decisions is equally necessary.

Thinking of such a scenario made me recall a professional player whom I have had time to chat with back in 2017. At that time, Indonesia’s esports scene was still under heavy development, and that only a small portion of the general public understood what it’s all about. His name is Peter Tjahjadi, more commonly known by his in-game nickname, AirLiur.

Seeing AirLiur take a sharp turn in his esports career, in my opinion, is as reflective as the present Indonesian esports scene today. Most, if not all, the focus is placed on the top-selling games, while less popular titles are gradually fading away. This led to the phenomenon of professionals having to switch to a different esports title, even if it meant a hard reset on their career.

Multiple professional players, especially those coming from PC-games like Dota 2 and League of Legends did just that. A handful of them made a transition to mobile games like Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Arena of Valor, and recently League of Legends: Wild Rift.

Peter is indeed one of them. He made the switch from League of Legends to Mobile Legends and is currently part of Geek Fam Indonesia’s Mobile Legends Development League (MDL) roster. What makes Peter’s story intriguing is not only his quick adaptation to Mobile Legends’ competitive scene, but also the price he had to pay to make the switch.

Bige, Bigetron, and the LGS

Peter started his competitive journey back in around 2014/15, which was during the earliest days of League of Legends Indonesia. The original game kickstarted in 2009, but it took quite a while to reach the Indonesian competitive scene. Like many others, Peter began by joining small-scale tournaments with a couple of friends.

Amongst his earliest tournaments is the Teemo Cup – a monthly event in search of the best rookie League of Legends teams. In conjunction with the game’s new hype, the event organizers partnered with several internet cafes. In a roadshow-like fashion, League of Legends continued to popularize through these forms of events, attracting the earliest Indonesian communities.

Teemo Cup, back in the day, meant quite a lot for rookies or casual players alike. The event featured in-game currency as prizes, as well as a chance to participate in Glorious Arena. Glorious Arena provided a pathway for teams to participate in League of Legends Indonesia’s main league, the League of Legends Garuda Series, or LGS for short.

Afterward, AirLiur was recruited by his fellow future teammate, Teemolamon, forming a team called Bige. It was after a loss in the Glorious Arena when the two met Edwin Chia, also known as Starlest. They merged their respective teams, forming the foundation of Bigetron Esports.

Today’s Bigetron is known to not only be popular as ever, but they are also famed for having the strongest teams in all of esports. For instance, their PUBG Mobile team won PUBG Mobile World League 2020 – Season 0: East, and their newest division, League of Legends: Wild Rift roster, had just won SEA Icon Series 2021: Summer – Indonesia.

Back then, Bigetron’s League of Legends team, according to Peter, struggled in terms of team communication, although the roster composition had great individual skill sets of their own. The team had a fair share of participating in LGS Season 7 after making it through the Round Robin. Together with Teemolamon, Starlest, Venus, Tibold, and Qoui, Peter played as the team’s ADC during that season of LGS, leading to a 6th-place finish in the event.

Road to Asian Games 2018

Once the new season commenced, Peter found himself playing in a different team, known as Superamos. Superamos was the last-place finishers of the previous LGS season. In fact, they only made it to LGS 2017 Summer due to EVOS Esports deciding to not join the main event. Nonetheless, Peter’s addition into the team, together with his former teammate Venus, proved to be a crucial decision to Superamos’ upcoming performance.

In the Season Group Stage, Superamos climbed 3rd-place on the leaderboard tallying a 4-3 match result. Given their standings, Superamos received a Quarterfinals seed in the LGS 2018 Spring Playoffs. Unfortunately, their journey was quickly put to a halt after immediately losing 1-3 to Phoenix Esports. Peter and his squad had to be content with their 5th-place finish in the main event.

Post-LGS, Peter joined the ranks of Headhunters, which is amongst Indonesia’s best League of Legends team. Headhunters had just finished 2nd in LGS 2018 Spring, but decided to revamp their roster with Peter joining the lineup as ADC. It is also this very Headhunters roster that made it to the Asian Games 2018 as Indonesia’s national League of Legends representatives.

Their subsidiary ADC, cruzher, was just selected to become the national League of Legends coach. As a result, the team received a Direct Invite to the event, where they faced off against Asia’s best League of Legends teams — including the giants of South Korea and China.

Despite their lengthy preparation, the Indonesian national team failed to secure a single match victory for the country. Seeded together in the same group as Chinese Taipei, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan, the Indonesian representatives went 0-6 throughout the event. Hence, the team didn’t only fail to advance into the Playoffs, but also went home as the last-place finishers in their very hometown where the Asian Games was held.

In hindsight, Peter thinks that his Asian Games experience was the “best thing that could have ever happened, it changed how people see me and esports.” The Indonesian government and the public’s view towards esports changed drastically ever since, with the scene receiving massive support and recognition.

Entering the Land of Dawn

Peter’s loss in the Asian Games surely has impacted him in the best ways possible. Despite the team’s 0-6 run, it left a lasting legacy in the realm of Indonesian esports. After about 4 years since I last chatted with him, I had a short interview with Peter once again to talk about his latest esports career. As usual, Peter is the humble professional player that I remember him to be.

Like mentioned earlier, Peter agrees with the idea that the Asian Games changed the local esports scene forever. “Now, those people who work in the esports field are no longer underestimated. Especially in Indonesia, where the scene was previously underestimated by the public,” Peter added.

However, the Indonesian League of Legends scene was slowly crawling into its stagnancy as the game stopped receiving direct support from the publisher and developer. Because of that, Peter was faced with a critical situation of either having to stick to the game he loves, or move to a different esports title altogether, and Peter picked the latter.

In 2020, Peter made the switch to Mobile Legends, the mobile esports title that is ever so popular in the youths of Indonesia. When asked what drove him to make such a decision, Peter answered, “It’s simple, I still want to be in the competitive world. I felt that at my age, which is still relatively young, I could still compete in games whether it was based on PC or mobile.”

Further, Peter never expected to see himself play Mobile Legends at such a competitive level, now that he is in the MDL. “At first I felt like I would be late if I only started to play Mobile Legends (in 2020), but because I had the opportunity to do so, I just gave it a go,” Peter explained.

Because of his prior experience playing League of Legends, a game with much greater complexity than Mobile Legends, Peter finds it easier to adapt to his new game, “I felt that I could adapt quickly and also implement some of the basic League of Legends in-game knowledge in Mobile Legends.”

According to Peter, “The basic MOBA elements are mostly the same. The most striking difference being the absence of a warding-system, so you have to be clever to ambush, while the rest remains similar.”

On the other hand, Peter finds a slight difference between playing League of Legends and Mobile Legends as a full-time professional. He felt that “Mobile Legends’ practice hours could be considered to be a bit more relaxed compared to League of Legends,” but in terms of the scene’s competitiveness, he thinks that “it’s more competitive here because there are so many competitors.”

“Improvement. I’m new to this game…”

As humble as Peter is in person, it’s fascinating to see how far he has taken his new competitive Mobile Legends journey. In only a couple of month’s time, he managed to join Aura Esports’ MDL Season 2 roster in July 2020. He’s regarded as one of the strongest players in the team, especially considering his former League of Legends competitive experience.

In Aura Esports, Peter presumed the role of the team captain and played as a Support this time around. With his team, Peter accumulated a 17-9 game-win-loss in the MDL Regular Season, securing their spot in the Playoffs. It was the premier match in the Playoffs, however, which put Peter’s MDL Season 2 run to an abrupt end.

Aura Esports was up against Siren Esports in the first match, where the two fought bravely to advance to the next match. It was Siren Esports, in the end, who had the upper hand and won 2-1 against Aura Esports. Siren Esports would continue to become the Playoffs champions later in the event.

With his journey in the MDL cut short, Peter and his team were only able to attain a 5th-8th-place finish throughout the tournament. After finishing 3rd in the Group Stage/Regular Season, it must’ve been a bitter pill to swallow such an outcome. Peter and his squad proceeded the next coming competitive season by leaving the Aura Esports organization.

To welcome the new competitive MDL Season 3, Peter and his fellow Aura teammate, Rupture, found themselves playing for Geek Fam Indonesia’s MDL division, Geek Fam Junior. As of the time of writing, MDL Season 3 had just concluded Week 4, and Geek Fam Junior has currently placed the top-8 team.

The Journey Onwards

When I asked Peter about the biggest challenges that he finds as a professional Mobile Legends player, he sharply answered, “Improvement. I’m still new to this game and I still have a lot to learn to become an even better player.”

While most MDL players are outspoken when it comes to playing in the MPL, Mobile Legend’s main league, Peter chooses to not overthink it and focus on improving himself instead, “I haven’t thought too far about it yet. No one knows what the future holds. What’s important for me is that I keep improving as a player.”

As for what lies beyond Peter’s current state and onwards, it seems all-too blur and uncertain to be predicted. But what’s certain is that a player like Peter is dedicated to improving himself by placing a greater emphasis on whatever opportunities are presented to him at this very moment.

Featured Image by Peter “AirLiur” Tjahjadi.