After months of eliminations… countless teams eliminated… endless hours played… only eight teams remained standing to fight against each other in battles that can only be described as legendary! On the third day, of the Davao Cyber Expo 2007, excitement was high as Davao gamers participated and watched the quarterfinals, semifinals, and championship matches that determined who is the best DoTA All-Stars Team in Davao City.

To avoid the delays that happened in the previous days, the marshalls imposed a new rule on the matches. Each game was to be played only for 80 minutes, including technical difficulties. If a game is not completely finished after 80 minutes, the marshalls would utilize a point system to determine the winner. The points system followed by the DCG marshalls is as follows:

In the Bracket A quarterfinals, STQ2 used their Magina, Ezalor, Zeus, Faceless Void, and Tinker combo to win over Team Sick in a game that lasted 77 minutes. Meanwhile, famed TC Clan from Tagum City battered Team X2 also in under 80 minutes. In the Bracket B quarterfinals, STQ‘s newly unveiled combo that included Bane Hallow, Omni Knight and Ezalor was beaten by the Lich, Ursa, Skeleton King combo of the more weathered NoMets Team. 50ph‘s Rigwarl was too much to handle for DC Clan.

In the semifinals, TC Clan proved their mettle against STQ2 which was being touted as the dark horse of the tournament. Meanwhile, gamers had a very exciting time watching the 50ph display their skills against the NoMets Team. In the end, NoMets prevailed over 50ph. While they lost, 50ph earned the admiration of a lot of gamers and was even unofficially declared, by many gamers and spectators, as the “Most Improved Team.”

After countless hours of waiting, at around 7 pm, tension and excitement filled the air, as long time rivals TC Clan and NoMets Team faced off in one game (instead of one set of three games) . Most of the audience members favored TC Clan over NoMets and they were not shy in expressing their support. NoMets players and supporters remained calm but defiant in the moments before the game as they were clearly overpowered by the TC Clan supporters. Throughout the game, players and supporters engaged in trashtalking as heated words, and defiant looks were thrown from both sides. With more than 60 minutes of the game already played, NoMets ran out of opportunities to save, so they requested the head marshall to save using a TC Clan PC unit. Unfortunate circumstances led to one TC Clan player (Jakiro) to be dropped from the game. Not knowing that a human error occurred, NoMets proceeded to play the game, attacking aggressively on the TC heroes and base. On the other side, the TC players were shellshocked by the incident. After a few moments, the game was paused. For some reason, one PC unit on the NoMets’ side (Queen of Pain) was also dropped from the game.

Article 5, Section 3 of the DoTA Constitution adapted by for the Davao Cyber Games, authored by Rioren of the NoMets Team clearly states that

In the case of game errors or unintentional player disconnection after the ten (10) minute mark, they just have to load the latest saved game and continue the game from that point.

However, time constraints led the marshalls, organizers, players and team representatives to much debate and debacle that lasted what seemed like a lifetime to players and spectators alike. In the end, both sides were tensely forced to agree to continue the match, albeit with only 4 players on each side. Both teams did continue playing, but NoMets ended the match shortly after it was continued. Ding, Yuki, Jeztah, Burnz, Rioren and Jay of the NoMets Team emerged victorious over TC Clan.

The Champions: NoMets Team of BoyzTrek Jacinto:

Photos courtesy of Jeztah Ching. More pictures in the gallery.