Mushi, ninjaboogie headline Team SMG's new Dota 2 roster
Singaporean organisation Team SMG (Still Moving Under Gunfire) on Saturday (2 January) announced their entry into the competitive Dota 2 scene with a roster led by Southeast Asian legend Chai "Mushi" Yee Fung.
Mushi will be joined by fellow Malaysian players Cheng "vtFαded" Jia Hao, Muhammad Ammar “neah666” Rasulli, and Tue "ah fu" Soon Chuan, with Filipino veteran Michael “ninjaboogie” Ross rounding out the team, the announcement said. The squad will also be coached by Team SMG co-founder Kenchi Yap.
Mushi is expected to take up the offlane position for the team, which means he has now played all roles professionally over the course of his career, while neah666 will be the carry. With vtFaded in the midlane, ah fu and ninjaboogie will likely be the support duo for the team.
Team SMG will be one of the eight teams fighting for the remaining four slots in the qualifiers for the Upper Division of the SEA regional league of the 2021 Dota Pro Circuit (DPC), which makes its return on 18 January.
“We aspire for the team to enter Dota’s largest annual tournament, The International 10 (TI10). We are aiming for the top,” said Team SMG co-founder and Singaporean star, JJ Lin.
Lin has notably been active in the Dota 2 scene since 2016, when he performed in a concert during the Shanghai Major and composed the music pack for TI6. The following year, he established Team SMG alongside Yap, a Dota 2 player-turned-coach.
Aside from their new Dota 2 roster, Team SMG have squads competing in PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) and Peacekeeper Elite in China, as well as PUBG Mobile and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) in Malaysia and Valorant in Singapore.
“I’ve always had an affinity for Dota 2. I think it’s safe to say that Dota was the game that got me into gaming seriously,” said Lin.
“[Having my own Dota 2 team is] like a dream come true to me. When I was just a boy, gaming in my room like any other kid, I’ve always told myself that I didn’t want to stop at just gaming. I wanted to bring that to the next level. I wished that it would become like a dream for me, I wished gaming could make a difference in the world, basically speaking.”
The qualifiers for the DPC’s SEA regional league will begin on 4 January. The first season of the league will take place over the course of six weeks from 18 January to 27 February.
For more esports news updates, visit https://yhoo.it/YahooEsportsSEA and check out Yahoo Esports Southeast Asia’s Facebook page.
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