Pinoy gamer and student of Ateneo De Manila University (ADMU), Zedrik “Jeff” Dizon, managed to pull-off a shocker victory against the team captain of two-time world champion of DOTA 2’s biggest annual event, Johan “N0tail” Sundstein, at Red Bull’s R1v1r Runes Civil War event.
Red Bull R1v1r Runes Philippines 2020
Red Bull R1v1r Runes takes places on a custom map built in the Dota 2 environment and pits players in a fast-paced one-on-one mirror battle that rewards intuition and the ability to make quick decisions. The first player to achieve three kills or collects the first kill on an enemy tier one tower wins the match.
Filipino DOTA 2 players across the country from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao were gathered through a regional qualifier to compete in a series of 1v1 matches. Jeff entered the event through the Luzon Qualifier where he found himself struggling in the early stages of the event with his battle-focused gameplay. He then made the necessary adjustments after studying his opponents which led him to finding success with the use of a push strategy combined with the use of alternative and unorthodox item builds such as Meteor Hammer, which took him all the way to the finals. Jeff was crowned champion of this year’s Red Bull R1v1r Runes over 128 competitors after a month of intense competition, he took down De La Salle University’s Quanon 4-0 in the national finals thereby, earning his 1v1 with N0tail.
When asked about how was it like going up against one of the biggest names of the DOTA 2 pro scene in N0tail, Jeff said “it was quite overwhelming at first”, he added that “I was ready to 1v1 him but I wasn’t mentally prepared to be on a video call with him at the same time!”
The Filipino player admitted that he had jitters and nerves while being excited and starstruck at the same time. At the beginning of the match that he even forgot his rune setup in game 1. “It was quite surreal knowing that I was playing against a 2-time TI champion”, Jeff said.
The show match was done in a mid-only one versus one with both players using the same heroes. N0tail won game 1 with a 3-0 kill score sweep in the Juggernaut versus Juggernaut match. Jeff answered right back in the second game with a Windranger vs Windranger victory. The third and final match was an Unying vs Undying game which Jeff won to complete his come from behind victory with a 3-2 kill score.
Jeff laughingly said “By the time we got to Game 3, it was honestly just a meme because of the undying mirror match”. He further said, “I would say that at that point who was gonna win didn’t really matter since it seemed like we were both enjoying”.
Check out the video fo the 1v1 below.
