This past Wednesday the qualifiers from the Philippines GeST DotA 2 competition took place. Making it all the way to the final before losing to TnC 2-0 and narrowly missing out on a place in the main event; Mafia Gaming showed a lot of promise.

The fact that this was the first tournament they competed with their brand new lineup, I thought I’d grab a few words with their captain; Kevin ‘nivekzvek ‘ Andre Vera. Here is what he had to say about all things Philippines, DotA 2 and what the future holds for Mafia Gaming;

Hello, how did Mafia Gaming come to be a team, do you know each other personally?

We are close friends in real life, me, Packx, Neil and Nonoastig who didn’t play in GEST PH qualifier.  Mingtzi stood in for him, who is a close friend of our solo player javee. It was our first practice in the Philippine GeST Qualifier playing together with this current lineup so we are a very new team haha!

We have been playing together for four years though. Javee was  our enemy before but we have adopted him to fill up the last slot for DotA 2. He played for a rival team; tabaco way back in 2009 but we became friends after that.

Now introduce your team to use and the strengths found within each player?

Kevin ‘nivekzvek ‘ Andre Vera – captain of the team and the solo/mid player – best with heroes – TA, Puck, Rubick

Adrian ‘nonoastig’ Smith Llovido – 2nd in command  – Carry/Hard hitter for the team – best in exotic carry heroes.

Neil ‘neilgwapo’ Kevin Llovido & Mark ‘packx’ Joseph Pacres – our support/jungler  – they are the wards of the team – heroes like Veno, Tide and Kotl, the great thing about them is they are very strong at  helping us in team fights.

Jave ‘javeeeeeeee’ Yu  javeeeeeeee – our semi-carry/side laner we have the same type of hero but his specialty is Syllabear. He is also the exotic strategist in online practices.

Left to Right- Anjo (old teammate) – Kevin – Neil – Adrian(Nonoastig) – Mark(Packx)

Congratulations on such a long run in the tournament, it is unfortunate that you lost in the final but how would you describe your games before then?

Our first match was a default win over Neolution.PH. The next opponents were Breakfall; they could have won that game against us, if we didn’t manage to open 1 lane so it was close. Next was Crucio (top 8 qualifier in the upcoming PGF) – we went for a sven carry type against their mortred invoker ds and came out on top. The fastest game was in the semis vs AMbush I know that they’re a good team but I don’t know what happened to them, the score was 56-13. All teams have their own strategy. I think the reason we won these games is because our gameplay went smooth even if it was our first time playing together.

What would you say was your toughest match on route to the final?

Toughest match would have to of been against breakfall but I think all the teams performed well, the upper bracket had a lot of good teams also.

What was the preparation for your team for this competition, how often do you train together and did you discuss how to counter certain teams?

The preparation was playing in pubs, practicing the roles of each member. We train online for like 5-8 hours until we get sleepy most days and watch some VoD’s of top teams! TnC’s plays are hard to counter because they really know what to do in such picks.

The team came a bit unstuck in the final and lost 2-0 to TnC, talk me through this?

We are happy about the outcome of the game. During the drafting stage it’s good to see all of us are sharing about what to pick and that’s a good sign for us. In the 2nd game the pressure was on us and we’d changed roles in that game so we had to adjust again anyways it was an exciting game and a good learning curve for our team.

How would you rate the DotA 2 scene in the Philippines?

The DotA 2 scene here is starting to boom after this PGF I think a lot of teams will transfer to DotA 2.

 and the popularity of gaming as a whole?

Let’s make it short “STRONG!!!”

Do you have any major rivalries with any of the other teams in the Philippines?

None as of now but we always plays with TnC but we haven’t beat them yet? HAHA.

What is next for Mafia Gaming, are there any big ambitions for becoming the best team in the Philippines and are you in action this weekend at any events?

Yes we want to be the best, but there are no certain plans as of now. We plan to attend the Pinoy Gaming Festival and have just registered for the Asian GosuCup but I think we’re going to play in Pacific.PH DotA 2 Tournament. We will have to see the schedule of the games.

Any shoutouts you want to give to the community?

Okay first of all thank you for doing this interview. I would also like to thank Didoy of Drandz Gaming, Kuya Aris of Abis Game Sys., Leilanie, the Mafia Queen. I also would like to thank GDX of Mafia Gaming China Division, Team ILOVEMAFIA and to our LA Mr. Angelo Vargas Kuya Dan and a final shoutout to my teammates PACKX, AIDZ and to our Enigma User NeilGwapo also for JAVEEEE, and finally to the Mafia Gaming Community thank you for all your support and also to our fans.