Filipino star midlaner Abed “Abed” Yusop’s Evil Geniuses ended TNC’s WePlay AniMajor campaign, escaping with a tight 2-1 victory in the lower bracket playoffs, Friday night.
The loss puts TNC at risk of missing The International after making the last four editions since 2016.
With Kim “Gabbi” Villafuerte’s Luna the only scaling hero for TNC, the Filipinos, despite dragging the game for almost an hour, suffered a heartbreaking loss in Game Three as they could not withstand the American squad’s late-game prowess.
EG team captain Tal “Fly” Aizik’s Abaddon also played a pivotal role in the win, naturally negating the setting capabilities of Jun “Bok” Kanehara’s Magnus and Armel “Armel” Tabios’ Batrider.
Abed spearheaded the offense for EG with a game-high 12 kills along with 14 assists and just one death.
EG carry Artour “Arteezy” Babaev (Nature’s Prophet) supplied 10 kills and 13 assists against just three deaths while Fly dished out a game-high 20 assists laced with five deaths.
For TNC, Gabbi only had two kills, five deaths, and 11 assists but supplied the bulk of the team’s damage with 58,045 damage dealt.
Armel was held to just five kills, eight deaths, and eight assists in Game Three while captain Marvin “Boomy” Rushton chipped in five kills, four deaths, and nine assists in the loss.
TNC kick-started the series with an embarassing 3-36 loss to EG in just 29 minutes and three seconds with Arteezy putting up monster numbers of 15 kills and 11 assists without a death on his Nature’s Prophet.
The Filipinos then mounted a huge rally in Game Two with Armel’s Templar Assassin capping off the win with a Rampage.
TNC will settle for a seventh-eight place finish and will have to go through the regional qualifiers in order to reach TI 10.
The TI-bound Evil Geniuses, on the other hand, will face the loser between the PSG.LGD-Team Nigma match on the third round of the lower bracket.
