Korea’s MVP.Phoenix takes the first IeSF Asian Championships in Cebu City, Philippines

Korea prevailed in the first International eSports Federation (IeSF) Asian Championships in Cebu City, Philippines after three days of Dota 2 action. Korea’s MVP.Phoenix dominated the Philippines‘ MSI.EvoGT with a 2-1 win in a best-of-three grand finals. Both teams will be flying to Baku, Azerbaijan to compete in the 6th World eSports Championships on November 12 to 17.

Korea’s MVP.Phoenix’ steady improvement has been quite impressive given it has had just a year of competitive Dota 2 experience. The team recently finished second in The International 2014 (TI4) Asian qualifiers against more experienced teams in the region. Although it did not secure a place in the TI4 main event, it gained much-needed experience against top international teams in the biggest Dota 2 tournament of the year.

(See: Malaysia’s Arrow Gaming qualifies for The International 2014, Korea’s MVP Phoenix included in the Play-In Series)

However, even with its TI4 experience, IeSF 2014 was not a walk in the park for the rising Korean stars. According to team captain Park “March” Tae Won, the competition in the early part of the tournament was tougher than anticipated, and the team was forced to use strategies that were originally intended for further matches in the tournament.

“I know that Filipino Dota is good,” says March, “But if you guys play on LAN with zero ping, you guys are [capable of playing] much better.”

Going into the tournament, March said that the Filipino team that it was most wary about was Interactive Philippines (IAP) better known as team Execration, but it was Cebu’s own Arcanys that would surprise the competition later on. Playing in its own city, Arcanys was definitely the crowd favorite and March admitted that the roaring of the crowd added some pressure, making it quite a challenge for the Koreans to make a comeback when they were playing from behind. In fact, MVP.Phoenix lost to Arcanys in a best-of-one group stage match. The hometown heroes dominated the group stages with an undefeated streak, but later fell to MSI.EvoGT, and eventually finished third in the tournament.

MVP Phoenix took home the grand prize of $5,000 while MSI.EvoGT and Arcanys took home $3,000 and $2,000 respectively. Also in the tournament were Philippine teams Mineski, Nonstop.PH, Team Nube, Click N Search (CNS), Olympus Gods, Indonesian team The Prime, Malaysian team Orange, Thai team MiTH-Trust, and Mongolian team The Mongolz 6.

What else happened during the first IeSF Asian championship?