by Waylon Galvez
Games Today (Gariath Concepts Eastwood City, Libis, Quezon City)
1 p.m. – Cignal Ultra Warriors vs Suha-Execration Punishers (best-of-three)
6 p.m. – Loser of Match 1 vs PLDT-Smart Omega (best-of-three)
Games Tomorrow (Gariath Concepts Eastwood City, Libis, Quezon City)
2:30 p.m. – Winner of Match 1 vs Winner of Match 2 (best-of-five)
Suha-Execration Punishers showed their true worth and swept past the Cignal Ultra Warriors in the grand finals of The Nationals DOTA 2 second conference held recently at the Gariath Concepts Eastwood City in Libis, Quezon City.
Suha topped its group elims before capping its dominance with a 2-1 tiebreaker win over Cignal in the elimination round.
It was sweet revenge for the Punishers after absorbing a stunning 3-2 defeat during the championship stage of DOTA 2 first conference.
This time, they scored a convincing win in the best-of-five series.
The Warriors, who were no strangers to come-from-behind wins, like when they erased a 2-1 deficit to beat the Punishers in the first conference finale, and in the semifinal round of the second conference when they bounced back from a 1-0 deficit to beat the PLDT-Smart Omega in their best-of-three showdown.
However, the Punishers were too much for the Warriors in the final round.
Suha captured the top prize of P400,000 while the Warriors and Omega settled for P200,000 and P100,000, respectively.
Despite their improved records compared to last conference, both Happy Feet Emperors and Bren Epro failed to make the playoffs again.
As the two champions in the first two conferences of DOTA 2, Suha and Cignal will face again in today’s semifinals of the DOTA 2 Grand Finale, with PLDT as wild card entry.
The winning team in the best-of-three series will advance to the five-game championship stage, while the losing team will face PLDT in another three-game showdown to determine the last finalist.
The season finale will have a P600,000 prize pool of its own, broken down into P300,000 to the champion with the runner-up and second runner-up getting P200,000 and P100,000, respectively.
The Nationals is the country’s premier esports league, and the Dota 2 event is just one of the three games featured in the competition’s inaugural year. Next is the very popular Mobile Legends: Bang Bang set to begin in June, followed by Tekken 7 scheduled to start in August.
Follow The Nationals through its social media on Facebook (with live stream of games), Twitter, and Instagram at PHNationals, and on TV via 5Plus on ESPN5, and One Sports and eGG Network on Cignal TV.
