Carlo “Kuku” Palad’s T1 earned the chance to fight for the top spot after booting out OB Esports x Neon out of the Major race via a 2-1 reverse sweep in the Dota Pro Circuit 2021: Season Two-Southeast Asia upper division, Thursday night.
The win pits T1 against Filipino powerhouse TNC Predator in a best-of-one tiebreaker for the number one spot in the SEA upper division – the winner of the bout will get the outright ticket to the WePlay AniMajor playoffs while the loser will be relegated to the group stage.
OB.Neon looked like it was going for the sweep after a strong Centaur performance from Gabriel “Skem” Ong towed the Filipinos to a 19-11 Game One victory over the reigning kings of Southeast Asia.
However, Karl “Karl” Jayme proved to be a thorn to his fellow countrymen, leading T1 to a tight 34-28 victory on his Lina to send the series to a deciding Game Three.
T1 star carry Nuengara “23savage” Teeramahanon’s Lifestealer then took over in the winner-take-all bout, finishing with monster numbers of 13 kills and 17 assists against one death to keep the South Korean squad’s hope of ending the SEA upper division at the top spot alive.
On the other hand, OB.Neon, the team who shocked the Dota 2 world after a surprising fifth-sixth place finish in the ONE Esports Singapore Major, will fight its upper division life in a three-way tiebreaker against BOOM Esports and Smart Omega Esports.
Fnatic will face Filipino squad Execration for the third seed which hands a ticket in the AniMajor wild card.
The tiebreakers for the Major slots will be on May 22, Saturday.
