The School of Engineering and Architecture (SEA) Tigers reaped a 3-0 victory over the Natural Sciences and Mathematics (NSM) X School of Engineering (SOE) x Humanities and Letters (HumLet) Pegasus in the Dota 2 Palarong Atenista 2023: The Next Level DOTA 2 championship game.

The best-of-five bout between the SEA Tigers and the NSM x SOE x HumLet Pegasus kicked off with a faster-paced draft coming from the latter in the first game, securing first blood before the clock even started by running down the enemies’ carry in their side of the map via smoke. 

On the other hand, the SEA Tigers had a scaling draft that was more midgame-centric. The Pegasus smoothly maneuvered the early game by employing map control, where their heroes stuck together in a four-man unit, ganking other lanes and giving their carry Sven the space to farm. 

However, after a few overextensions, the game was break-even by midgame, with the Tigers starting to scale more, where they capitalized on the small mistakes and free kills of the other team. After several clashes by both teams, the Pegasus eventually succumbed to the overwhelming pressure dealt by the SEA Tigers, securing game one with a 47 to 25 score.

In game two, both teams had drafts that could potentially snowball if given the opportunity to have a good early game. Whereas the SEA Tigers took charge in the early game through map control and exerting pressure on Pegasus into the midgame.

By the 20-minute mark, the SEA Tigers were playing heavily on the opponent’s side of the map, picking off any stragglers farming in lane or supports trying to gain vision. Pegasus tried to answer this by fighting together with all their heroes, but they were unable to find any opportunities to make their way back into the game as the SEA Tigers won with a 40 to 20 score.

In game three, the draft of Pegasus relied heavily on the late-game heroes, while the Tigers relied on early-game heroes. The Tigers’ supports set a fast tempo for the match in the early game, with their heroes moving around the map during the laning phase. This strategy disrupted the Pegasus’ heroes as they had a hard time gaining farm and matching up with the tempo set by the Tigers. 

The Tigers were all over the place during the majority of the match, while the Pegasus could not find their footing and stuck together to retaliate. SEA Tigers dominated the game, ending with a 67 to 9 score and not letting a single tower fall to the enemy team during its entire duration.

In an exclusive interview with Atenews, the winning team’s captain, Josh William Pablo shared their preparations and the challenges faced during their game. 

“Honestly, there wasn’t any preparation before coming into all the games that we had to play because each of us were so busy with our academics.” 

When asked about their emotions following their victory in this year’s DOTA 2 tournament, Pablo expressed, “I feel happy in winning this year’s Palarong Atenista because me and my team met the expectations of people not just from our cluster, but from other clusters as well.”

“Me and my teammates have already played in the previous Palarong Atenista which gives us the edge in terms of chemistry compared to other teams and I think each of us have decent individual talents, which is why I am confident enough that team will be able to pull through especially when it comes to winning games despite the lack of practice.”

Pablo also said that in terms of strategies, there wasn’t much to specify about it since it was their trust in each other that boosted their play. 

“There wasn’t much of a strategy coming into all the games. We just had to pick what hero we wanted to play against the opposing team and trust each other especially in executing basic objectives and timings in the game which would eventually lead us to victory,” he said. 

A special mention of the team’s offlane member, Christian Paig, was made by the Captain as they were able to adjust to intense plays, “Especially with the help of an ex-Professional Dota player playing for our cluster, we were able to adjust to everything that is being thrown at us by the opposing team.”

The Dota 2 championship game was streamed via the SAMAHAN Palarong Atenista’s Facebook page last September 30.