Team Romania qualifies for the WESG world finals in Shanghai

Team Romania Dota has qualified for the WESG global finals scheduled to be held in Shanghai, China, in January 2017. Romania was one of 20 teams representing 15 countries that qualified for the European LAN finals in Kiev, Ukraine. Only eight spots were available for the WESG global finals and the Romanians secured their place after a convincing 2:1 victory over the Dutch national team featuring WehSing “SingSing” Yuen and Alaan “SexyBamboe” Faraj. A total prize fund of $1.5 million is up for grabs at the Shanghai world finals.

Team Romania Dota has qualified for the WESG global finals scheduled to take place in Shanghai, China. Romania will be one of 24 national teams competing for a piece of the the $1.5 million prize pool.

Earlier in September, Team Romania Dota – featuring Alexandru “ComeWithMe” Crăciunescu, Armand “bOne7” Pittner, Ionuț “Ar1sE” Turtoi, Cosmin “Masakary” Nechifor, and Răzvan “iLLusionisT” Borceanu – seized their spot in the offline European finals in Kiev, Ukraine for the South-East Europe region. They cruised through the qualifier brackets without a single loss, sweeping through the all-Greek squad BroodMothers, 2:0, in the Grand Finals.

Romania was among the 15 countries that had qualified for the WESG European and CIS finals, alongside Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, UK, France, Spain, Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Serbia.

To make sure they would be in top shape for the event, the team recruited former Cloud 9 coach, Cristian “Ppasarel” Bănăseanu. The team underwent a week-long intensive training and bootcamp session, honing in on their skills and working out new strategies.

We have reached our objective: qualifying for Shanghai. I think Team Romania has shown glimpses of very good potential. We have learnt a lot from the Kiev experience, we’re aware of our faults – both individually and as a team – and we are excited to fix some small glitches and start training for Shanghai. We would like to thank our sponsors Genesis, Game Leap, PC Garage and DotaBlast.com for helping us set up a bootcamp. The practice we managed to squeeze in before leaving for Kiev made a big difference for the team! We would also like to thank all our fans for their incredible support. It helped us more than we can say.

– Cristian “Ppasarel” Bănăseanu, Team Romania’s coach

WESG European and CIS LAN finals

The WESG European and CIS finals took place at the Stereo Plaza in Kiev, Ukraine, between October 6th-9th. The top eight teams in Kiev secured spots at the world LAN finals, in Shanghai – with Team Romania as one of them.

The first group stage day was quiet for Team Romania Dota. They easily outplayed their opponents Paragon from Belarus in the one-match scheduled.

On the second day of the group stage, Team Romania had a strong showing and came in second place overall after defeating all of the teams in their group except for the star-studded local favorites – Team Ukraine (Resolut1on, Dendi, GeneRaL, ALWAYSWANNAFLY, ArtStyle).

Their success secured them a spot in the playoff stage of the WESG European and CIS finals but they weren’t out of the woods yet. The team was one of 12 to advance to the playoffs, but only eight teams would qualify for China. In order to book their tickets, they needed to take down their opponents in the first round of the playoffs.

Team Romania Dota squared off against bOne7’s Kaipi teammates WehSing “SingSing” Yuen and Alaan “SexyBamboe” Faraj, both part of the Dutch national team – Woof. In an intense three-game series, Woof secured the first win after almost an hour of play. The Romanians bounced back hard in the second game. In only 26 minutes, Romania overpowered and crushed Woof in a heavily one-sided game – forcing a deciding third match. Romania fought hard in the last game and managed to secure the victory and advance to China.

With emotions running high, the Romanians moved into the quarterfinals, where ComeWithMe faced off against his Prodota Gaming teammate – Linus “Kefka” Bleckert, who was leading the Swedish squad Horde along with former Alliance player Joakim “Akke” Akterhall. It was another long and intense battle with two of the games lasting about one hour. After an extremely close third game, the odds were in the Swedes’ favor and Horde moved ahead in the brackets, to take second place overall.

Team Romania Dota

Armand “bOne7” Pittner

For WESG, bOne7 assumed the carry role and captain position.

Armand “bOne7” Pittner started playing #Dota2 competitively in 2012, as part of a Norwegian organization called Gamersleague. He had his breakthrough in 2013, when he joined pieliedie and EternaLEnVy on Kaipi. The team was picked up by the Chinese organization Rattlesnake and renamed into Speed Gaming International. One year later, the team was acquired by Cloud 9. As part of the North American Esports organisation, bOne7 competed in two International championships, in 2014 and 2015, placing 5th-6th and 9th-12th. After The International 5, Cloud 9 disbanded and bOne7 decided to breath new life into the Kaipi brand. He is currently playing carry for Kaipi, alongside SingSing, SexyBamboe, TheCoon, and FLUFFNSTUFF.

Alexandru “ComeWithMe” Crăciunescu

As a founding member of Team Romania Dota, ComeWithMe assumed the support position.

Alexandru “ComeWithMe” Crăciunescu started playing DotA 1 eight years ago, when he was only 15 years old. He began his #Dota2 career on team Online Kingdom, in 2011. The same year, ComeWithMe became the first Romanian player to compete in the International championship. Throughout his lengthy career, he played for teams such as The Elder Gods (TeG), Kaipi, Team Dignitas, Darer, mousesports, Absolute Legends, QPAD Red Pandas, Super Strong Dinosaurs, hehe united, and Burden United. ComeWithMe is currently playing support for ProDota Gaming.

Ionuț “Ar1se” Turtoi

Ar1se assumed the mid position for Team Romania Dota.

Ionuț “Ar1se” Turtoi started his Dota 2 career in 2013, on team Kaipi. After a short stay in Super Strong Dinosaurs, he joined Team Cede Nullis (TCN). Between 2014-2016, he played for Basically Unknown, Monkey Freedom Fighters, and Burden United and was a stand-in for established teams such as Natus Vincere. Ar1se’s most recent team was Power Rangers. In his five months with the team, the famed “Magnus magician” has shown solid performances and a sense of newfound maturity, helping push PR to victory every so often.

Cosmin “Masakary” Nechifor

Masakary took up the offlaner role to represent Romania.

After playing DotA 1 for eight years, Cosmin “Masakary” Nechifor made his #Dota2 debut in 2014, on XPC International. Since then, he played for XPC, iNsuRgeNcy^, Balkan Bears, No Logic Gaming, Kaipi, and Docler Myrmidons. Cosmin works as a part-time microcontroller programmer, while he finishes his Electronics and Telecommunications studies.

Răzvan “Illusionist” Borceanu

Rounding out Team Romania Dota, iLLusionisT assumed the support role.

Răzvan “iLLusionisT” Borceanu started playing #Dota2 competitively in 2013, on Team Cede Nullis (TCN). He represented Romania at the IeSF World Championship in 2014, alongside w33, Zizou, KeyaNo, and Synergy. The Romanian squad walked away with a silver medal. iLLusionist also played for neXt!Please and Team Immortal. Răzvan is currently a member of XPC Romania.

Cristian “Ppasarel” Bănăseanu

Cristian “Ppasarel” Bănăseanu coached Team Romania for the World Electronic Sports Games (WESG).

A long time friend of Bone7 and a former DotA 1 player for The Elder Gods (TeG), Ppasarel coached Cloud 9 for The International 5. After being a core member of the PGL production crew for the past five years, Ppasarel decided to take a break and dedicate all his time to coaching Kaipi and Team Romania Dota.

WESG Global Finals

At the end of March, AliSports has announced the creation of a new event – WESG (World Electronic Sports Games), at a press conference held at the Shanghai Marriott Hotel City Center.

The new tournament will feature a total prize pool of $5.5 million prize pool across all disciplines. Both Dota 2 and CS:GO are set with prize pools of $1.5 million each.

The events began in April with various qualifiers, concluding with Global LAN finals in Shanghai, China, in December.

In addition, AliSports created an open platform for players to compete in and use; including user registrations, event publishing, player registration, tournament schedules, service integration, content distribution. Basically, all aspects of the tournament have been be integrated into their gaming platform.

AliSports

Alibaba Group is a Chinese public company operating in the field of e-commerce owns the portal Alibaba.com. It also supports the Sina Corp, which is the owner of the social network Weibo.

AliSports is a subsidiary of the organization dedicated to the promotion of sports in China. It also has a Chinese sports TV channel, and collaborates with many sports federations.