Far Eastern University's FEU Is Back wins the first SteelSeries-TNC Gaming Student's League

The Far Eastern University team took the crown for the very first SteelSeries-TNC Gaming Student’s League tournament for Warcraft 3 DotA (WC3 DotA) at the MSI Beat It! 2013 in SM City North Edsa, Quezon City, Philippines. Out of the 32 teams in the national elimination round, only four teams would eventually make it to the LAN finals — Falcons from Adamson University (AdU), Sapientia Aedificat from Saint Louis University (SLU), PUP Alliance from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), and FEU Is Back from the Far Eastern University (FEU). The LAN matches were hosted on the first day of the event and students flocked to support the teams representing their respective schools.

The deciding game: PUP Alliance vs. FEU Is Back

On the main stage, the deciding finals game for PUP Alliance vs. FEU Is Back was held towards the end of day one. FEU (Sentinel) drafted Lifestealer, Shadow Fiend, Jakiro, Nyx and Batrider while PUP (Scourge) had Drow Ranger, Silencer, Rubick, Dark Seer and Treant. Drow Ranger was free-farming the top lane occasionally with Rubick and Treant as Batrider headed to the jungle. Dark Seer also headed to the jungle after being confronted with the Lifestealer, Jakiro, and Nyx Assassin bottom trilane as Shadow Fiend and Silencer engaged in a battle for middle lane dominance.

PUP had the upper hand during the early game, getting important pick-offs that FEU couldn’t answer at the time. However, as the game pushed towards the mid-game, FEU started to respond with successful ganks of their own and eventually gained the advantage by winning a team fight that caught PUP’s heroes out of position in the bottom lane, which cost PUP their mid and bottom barracks. PUP did their best to defend their throne, but FEU held on to their advantage, which eventually won them the game.

FEU Is Back roster

• Hiroshi ‘rArA’ Iimura
• John Paul ‘Japoy’ Sebastian
• Jonathan ‘JokitoSegway’ Paragas
• Laivan ‘Lai’ Perez
• Mio Joshua ‘Mio’ Oberes

PUP Alliance roster

• Christopher ‘[A]Topher’ Rivera Arellano
• Don Carlo ‘C[A]rlo’ Manalo
• Douglas Joseph ‘ImbaDeej[A]y’ Astibe II
• Fumitaki ‘T[A]mi’ Boiser
• Ivan ‘Iv[A]n’ Dela Cruz

Meeting FEU’s rArA and Japoy

After the match, I was able to catch a few words from FEU’s captain Hiroshi “rArA” Iimura and mid-laner John Paul “Japoy” Sebastian. According to rArA, the current lineup wasn’t the original lineup they had during the qualifiers. According to TNC, players who are part of the Class-S Mineski Pro-Gaming League (MPGL) were not allowed to participate. It turned out that two players from their original line up were part of Class-S MPGL, which ended up with them having to replace two members. Strategizing before matches is done by the team and the early game calls are made by their captain rArA. Within the year, it is possible for us to see this team with the same lineup in other tournaments, but as far as student leagues go, this lineup will be changing next year, as their teammate Mio Joshua “Mio” Oberes will be graduating this year.

Are they going pro? They say they would go for it if given a chance. Unlike most cases, their families and friends support their desire to play competitively as long as they don’t neglect their studies.

More student leagues in the future?

Although this is the first season for the SteelSeries-TNC Gaming Student’s League, this is not the first collegiate tournament in the Philippines. One example would be the National Collegiate Cyber League (NCCL). Due to the different notions that people have about competitive gaming in the Philippines, having more inter-collegiate tournaments is a good step towards building a better scene not only for the student gamers, but also for the incoming and existing professional gamers. In the future, I hope student gamers can play in a scene or environment like those of intercollegiate basketball leagues. Although collegiate basketball and gaming have notable differences with regards to today’s public perception, the organizations and college institutions will hopefully work together to give student gamers a hand towards achieving their dream of going pro.

(Editing by Paul Bischoff and Steven Millward)