Event Review: Asus ROG Masters Philippine Finals 2017

Zoraion
Zoraion
Aug 22, 2017 · 6 min read

Asus ROG Masters is a premiere global tournament hosted by Asus that looks to bring top-tier gaming teams in Dota 2 and CS:GO together to compete for a $250,000 prize pool for each title.

The Philippine Open Qualifiers started with a two-day online qualifier in June 2017 for CS:GO and in July 2017 for Dota 2 where the top 4 teams from that stage would advance to compete for a Php 200,000 prize pool in the grand finals that was held last August 19–20 in the Cyberzone of SM North EDSA’s Annex.

For Dota 2, the top 4 teams who managed to qualify for the LAN tournament were Happy Feet, Imperium Pro Team, Entity Gaming, and Execration.

The Top 4 Dota 2 Teams for the 2017 Philippine Finals. Image courtesy of Mineski Events Team. (https://www.facebook.com/mineskievents/)

Meanwhile for CS:GO, the top 4 teams who managed to shoot their way to the final gunfight were Mineski, WarGods, Fractals and Rekt E-Sports.

The Top 4 CS:GO Teams for the 2017 Philippine Finals. Image courtesy of Mineski Events Team. (https://www.facebook.com/mineskievents/)

Tournament Results

After beating out their competition, the two teams who stood on top in the end were Mineski for CS:GO, and Execration for Dota 2. These two teams will advance to the next round, the Regional Qualifiers!

The winner of the CS:GO Philippine final, Mineski CS:GO! Image courtesy of Mineski Events Team. (https://www.facebook.com/mineskievents/)
The winner of the Dota 2 Philippine final, Execration! Image courtesy of Mineski Events Team. (https://www.facebook.com/mineskievents/)

Now, before discussing the actual event any further I’d just like to note that due to suffering from some health issues, I wasn’t able to attend the first day of the event so I can’t make any comments regarding that day minus what was posted in social media. However, I did recover sufficiently to attend the second day and I’ll be basing the rest of my event review on that experience.

Event Venue and Layout

The venue of Asus ROG Masters’ Philippine Final this year was held in the Cyberzone of SM North EDSA’s Annex. While this isn’t the largest venue available for esports tournaments and events, it is a legendary one in my opinion because of the numerous gaming events that were held in this place over the years such as the Pinoy Gaming Festival, MSI Beat It, and Nvidia Gamer’s Day.

Probably the biggest advantage of hosting an event in this venue is the open nature of the place. Because it is situated within a mall, it has the potential to attract people just passing by the venue. Also, unlike events held in larger venues such as the World Trade Center or SMX Convention Center in Mall of Asia, restaurants and other stores are much closer for attendees who want to take a break to go eat or browse stores during the down times in the event before another segment.

The layout of the event was divided in two.

To start, there was a small area where attendees register for the event, try out and view Asus ROG products, and do some activities to fill out their attendee sheets for a chance to win freebies in the raffle.

Overhead photo of the registration and activity area.

Just beside it was a larger area dedicated for the LAN finals which included seats for the spectators, the stage, the gaming booths for the players, and the production area.

The stage and player booth area

I personally liked the layout of the Philippine finals this year. The placement of the registration and activity area, while small, was put in such a way that those who are busy in that area don’t interrupt or clutter the area dedicated to production, spectating, and the games. In comparison to the venue last year, SM North EDSA’s Skydome, going around the venue to focus on filling up the activity sheets for the freebies does not interrupt those dedicated to watching the games. In terms of layout I’d say that this year’s iteration is an improvement over the previous year’s.

Event Flow and Production Value

In terms of event flow and production value, based on my experience this year I would say that the Philippine finals showed notable improvement compared to the previous year’s iteration.

I arrived after lunch time on the second day, and the event ran smoothly throughout my stay. The crowd was organized and the bouncers had no problem keeping order, even after a roaring ovation for the arrival of the famous personality, Cong of CongTV.

CongTV having a chat with the most explosive casting duo in the Philippines, Lon and Dunoo of MineskiTV. Image courtesy of Mineski Events Team. (https://www.facebook.com/mineskievents/)

The production of the event which was handled by MineskiTV was good. In addition to making sure that this year wouldn’t be plagued by technical difficulties, I personally enjoyed their employing of a panel before any of the games started. It definitely added depth and a feel of professionalism that has become the norm in international tournaments such as Dota 2’s The International. The duty of the panels of each respective title was to provide backgrounds on the teams and analyses of their performances before and after the games, and I think the panel did their job well.

During periods where there were no games, however, there was barely any dead air either. From presentations of Asus and their partners’ latest products to giveaways to segments hosted by MineskiTV talents, there was almost always something going on to keep the attendees occupied if they weren’t busy doing the activities and filling out their sheets for the freebies. At around 5 in the afternoon, there was even a live performance by the famous Filipino band, Rivermaya. Like many of the attendees and personalities present in the event, I was thrilled.

Attendees were graced with a live performance by Rivermaya, one of the most popular Filipino bands. Image courtesy of Mineski Events Team. (https://www.facebook.com/mineskievents/)

Another intelligent decision by Asus was saving the best for last — which was to wait until the very end before raffling the grand prize, a brand new Asus ROG gaming laptop worth almost Php 70,000 to one lucky attendee. This gave incentive for people to stay until the event ended, provided that they were able to completely fill out their activity sheets for the raffle.

For those who couldn’t make it to the end though, but still managed to participate in Asus’ activities, they were still rewarded with loot depending on how many activities they were able to complete.

A look at the rewards that attendees would win from completing Asus’ activities. Image courtesy of ASUS Republic of Gamers. (https://www.facebook.com/asusrogph/)

Final Thoughts

Based on my experience, I would say that the 2017 Asus ROG Masters Philippine Final was a resounding success. The event showed commendable improvement over last year’s in pretty much every category from the layout of the venue to the way the segments were spaced out over the day.

The most notable improvement for me was that this year’s final was able to finish with very little overtime. The event was scheduled from the opening of mall hours up until 10:30pm, and award ceremony and raffles included, it did mange to finish more or less around that time.

This is again thanks to the efforts of Asus and MineskiTV in making sure the event ran with little to no technical difficulties. This definitely helped make sure the event finished on time so as to not hassle everyone involved in the event with an overly lengthy event.

Congratulations Asus on a successful event!


That’s it for the first of my event reviews, and I’ll try to review future events too. Thanks for reading!

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Zoraion

Written by

Zoraion

Zoraion is an esports journalist, analyst, streamer, and the esports historian of the League of Legends Philippines esports scene.

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