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Can having top players from four different countries finally turn the team's luck?
The mysterious shroud surrounding Mineski-Dota's controversial roster was finally lifted yesterday as a subtle photo posted on their Facebook page revealed that former Team Faceless owner and captain iceiceice will be joining the team.
It has been more than a month since Mineski-Dota first sported their SEA player-ridden roster at the World Cyber Arena 2017 APAC Qualifier. The addition of Thailand's Anucha "Jabz" Jirawong, Malaysia's Kam Boon "NaNa" Seng, and a certain Lucifer who turned out to be Singapore's iceiceice, significantly helped the struggling banner to finally qualify for a LAN tournament.
The failure brought by the Europe+SEA hybrid roster during The International 2017 SEA Qualifiers followed this change in lineup. Their dominant qualification was the team's first success since its management shifted to Kenchi Yap.
However, how can a SEA team filled by a Filipino, Thai, Singaporean, and a couple of Malaysians change Mineski's tournament results and the way their fans see them?
Aside from the usual disappointment, betrayal was what the followers of Mineski-Dota felt since the storied organization dropped Raging Potato and the rest of their Filipino roster for Mushi and the CIS tandem of Andrey "Mag~" Chipenko and Egor ".Ark" Zhabotinskii.
Their fans never liked how "we will come back stronger" became their motto and the lack of Filipino players in their roster only made them harder to give support and cheers to.
Unfortunately, no matter how their followers loathe Mineski's move to opt out of Filipino players, recruit international ones, and stop representing Philippines, these are facts which we can't change. But Mineski-Dota not representing Philippines never meant that they will be representing Malaysia or any country dominant in their roster.
Mineski-Dota, for months now, has been representing Southeast Asia as a whole.
On paper, Mineski-Dota's SEA roster looks to be the most promising among its countless versions. Exclude a leader who was dubbed to be way past his prime and what their fans will get is a skilled team filled with overflowing in-game insights.
At the helm is Mushi, a veteran whose long-list of accomplishments can speak for what he can do. Following him are iceiceice, the captain of the infamous Team Faceless squad who reigned terror over SEA for quite some time, Ninjaboogie, who's an accomplished veteran himself, plus Jabz and NaNa, young SEA talents with international-calibre skill set.
Sure, their synergy is yet to be tested by the mighty SEA Kings in the form of TNC Pro Team and the international stages, but then TI7-bound Execration already got swept by this roster during the World Cyber Arena 2017 APAC Qualifier finals.
Time can only tell when the squad will finally come back stronger, but from the looks of it, now's a perfect time.
Hopefully :D