Malaysian Dota legend Chai “Mushi” Yee Fung has announced that he will be coaching Southeast Asian (SEA) team Mineski for The International 2019 (TI9).
Mushi is currently playing under Malaysia-based org Geek Fam, but he and his team bombed out of both the Open Qualifiers, failing to get to the SEA Regional Qualifier to TI in July. He announced his decision to coach Mineski for TI9 on his official Facebook page with just three days left before the event.
Mushi now joins a growing number of former players who have turned to coaching after not having achieved much success recently, with the likes of Jonathan “Loda” Berg (Alliance), Kurtis “Aui_2000” Ling (Newbee), and Park “March” Tae-won (Fnatic), among others, coaching teams competing at TI.
Mushi is one of the most accomplished players in the SEA scene, with a career that reached as far back as the days of the original DotA mod for Warcraft III. He notably led the Malaysian stack of Orange Esports to a third place finish in The International 2013 and was part of the China-SEA superteam-era of Team DK that finished fourth at The International 2014.
After a disappointing 9th-12th placement with Mineski at last year’s TI, Mushi departed the team to join Tigers in January alongside Russian Dota legend Danil “Dendi” Ishutin. Mushi left Tigers shortly afterwards to join the Chinese team Aster in February. He would depart the team two months later and move to Geek Fam.
Mushi will now be coaching a Mineski squad that barely qualified for TI9, after narrowly beating Team Jinesbrus led by March in the finals of the SEA Qualifier. Mineski is one of the three representatives of the SEA region, alongside Fnatic and TNC Predator.
TI9 will begin with the Group Stage, running from August 15 to 18, followed by the Main Event from August 20 to 25 at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai, China. The tournament will have a prize pool of over US$32 million — the biggest in all of esports — with almost US$15 million going to the winners.
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