Mushi still has it in him, secures Arlington for BOOM Esports

BOOM Esports end a clutch week over in Dota 2’s SEA Dota Pro Circuit, beating both T1 and Fnatic to secure their spot in Arlington. Chai “Mushi” Yee Fung the coach for BOOM becomes an idol, for many, after being instrumental in their earlier match of the week versus T1.

Between him and Rolen Andrei Gabriel “skem” Ong, BOOM had everything they needed to claim SEA’s top seed. Never had we once doubted Southeast Asia’s most celebrated veteran player.

BOOM to face ultimate boss now

After a dominating week, BOOM Esports punch their Arlington Major ticket, but they need to face one final opponent on their way there, the US Immigration Service. Getting Visas can be a real pain for some teams, and the SEA champs are well aware they might not make it to Arlington on time, given how tricky getting a visa can get.

They are also quote meme-ey about it, knowing that they did everything in their power to make it to the Major, and actually getting there is out of their hands.

A “Retired” pro player to the rescue

Mushi’s pro career days were over, undeniably, it ended back at the International 2016 (TI6) when Fnatic won fourth place. Since then, Mushi has had one too many roster movements until he landed his recent role with BOOM Esports, albeit a coach role. Mushi stands out as a wise coach, probably one of the best coaches in SEA, and having two BOOM players vouching for him is simply wholesome.

BOOM Esports’ CEO, Gary on recruiting Mushi as coach

Proving the haters wrong

The match vs T1 on the fifth week of DPC SEA Tour 3 was the opportunity that Mushi needed to prove the haters wrong. In fact, it probably came as no surprise, considering Mushi is the one responsible for most BOOM drafts to date. So, fitting himself into a comfortable hard support role wasn’t as challenging as we made it out to be. Nevertheless, watching Mushi play the greedy KOTL support, who went Force Staff and Pipe of Insight, was a strategic move to behold.

T1 had the bright idea to max out magic damage output while neglecting physical damage from opponents. It was a reaction to BOOM’s first-pick Mars, but Mushi understood the situation and bought Pipe himself. Hence, letting Mars opt for more important items, such as BKB to neglect all of T1’s magic damage output. While this game was clean, BOOM’s second match had slight challenges against T1’s magic damage strategy again.

Nevertheless, BOOM still won by a landslide, many thanks to Mushi’s Winter Wyvern. WW scales well into late-game territory against opponent carries that hit hard, notably T1’s Lifestealer. Forcing its strength against his own ally was a great initiation into a 5v4 teamfight, letting BOOM have the numbers advantage.

BOOM Esports’ DPC 2021-22 Journey

It didn’t take long for BOOM Esports to showcase what they are capable of. Sure, BOOM has a phenomenal line-up of players, but a good coach goes a long way. Especially when it comes to drafts and figuring out what the team should do best.

During DPC SEA Tour 1 Regional Finals, BOOM flexed their versatile hero pool by playing various heroes. For the most part, the strategies and pattern are relatively similar.Whether it’s an Enigma Blackhole or a mere hard support’s game-changing ultimate. These high-impact skills have long cooldowns but actually serve the greater good as a deterrent. Hence, we often can anticipate two scenarios from a BOOM’s match; a clean midgame that ends with a farmed carry or an overextended game, which may have resulted from a poor laning phase.

Regardless, BOOM had it all figured out on how they approach their opponents in the current fast-paced meta They beat Fnatic yesterday in two straight games to secure first. Winter Wyvern once again came in clutch in their composition, as they slugged out FNC in 95 minutes combined to their 13W4L record.