ninjaboogie rejoins Mineski Dota

Michael “ninjaboogie” Ross joins Mineski Dota as their sixth player. As the Filipino/American player comes on board, he will also switch to his original support role – forgoing his recent carry position. Ninjaboogie will be the main substitute for the team while Jessie Cristy “JessieVash” Cuyco will assume the coaching position.

Earlier today it was announced that Michael “ninjaboogie” Ross would be rejoining Mineski Dota and leaving Rave.

Upon his return, he will assume the support position – the role he was originally playing when he was part of Mineski in DotA. In addition he will not be part of the primary roster, but the main substitute.

Mineski further clarified:

MPGL allows 7-man roster. JessieVash will move to the 7th man position while NB will take the 6th man as our main sub. JessieVash IS OUR COACH.

Mark “Cast” Pilar had joined the team in January 2016 as the substitute and coach. However, on April 25 it was revealed that Cast would assume a place on the main roster, replacing ] Jessie Cristy “JessieVash” Cuyco who switched into the substitute role.

Michael “ninjaboogie” Ross

Michael “ninjaboogie” Ross originally played DotA and transferred to Dota 2 from Duskbin’s HoN division to be the captain of their new Dota 2 team. Since then he played for various SEA teams including Execration, Rave, and Mineski-X.

The half Filipino/half American player is perhaps most known for his time playing on Rave. He was part of the squad for one year -June 2014-2015 when the team was at it’s height and receiving much international attention.

Despite their strong performances in the SEA region and in international tournaments, Rave-Dota disbanded soon after they were eliminated, 0:2, by MVP.Phoenix in the Lower Bracket finals of the TI5 SEA qualifiers.

Ninjaboogie founded Banaaaanas in August and joined Mineski-X in January.

On February 19th Rave announced via Facebook the Rave reform. To many fans delight, the team included former members Michael “Ninjaboogie” Ross and and Ryo “Ryoyr” Hasegawa – however, the organization had not gained any significant or expected results.

Mineski Dota

Mineski at ESL One Manila

In the winter season leading up to the Shanghai Major, Mineski was consistently besting the SEA giants, Fnatic, for the qualifier spots in LANs. They were quickly rising to the top in the region and making an international name for themselves. Unable to lock up any major achievements, the Filipino team experienced some roster changes, welcoming Benhur “Ben” Lawis and Jun “Bok” Kanehara to the mix.

In an effort to grow the local scene and showcase regional talent, a local Filipino Dota 2 team was given their own set of qualifiers for ESL One Manila to determine one team to compete alongside some of the best Dota 2 teams in the world. Mineski was able to best their regional rivals, TnC Gaming, 3:1, in the best-of-five grand finals, seizing the place in the main event for the Philippines and eventually took seventh-eighth place finish in the main event.

They returned to the Mall of Asia, in front of a home crowd to compete in the Manila Major less than 2 months later. They ended with a disheartening 13-16th place and 6 – 10th place in the TI6 SEA regional qualifiers.