Neon Esports shackled Carlo “KuKu” Palad to take a 2-1 victory over T1 in the Dota Pro Circuit 2021: S1-Southeast Asia Upper Division tiebreaker, Saturday evening.
With the victory, the all-Filipino squad has secured the second seed – punching its ticket straight to the ONE Esports: Singapore Major group stage while T1 will have to fight for its group stage slot in the wild card phase.
After splitting the first two games, Neon Esports came out on top with a 38-6 Game Three stomp of the South Korea-based squad. The game lasted for 43 minutes and 37 seconds.
T1 executed a tri-lane at the top lane with Matthew “Whitemon” Filemon (Lion) and Kenny “Xepher” Deo (Phoenix) protecting Souliya “JaCkky” Khoomphetsavong’s Terrorblade in the early game. Neon Esports countered it by sending Ejay “PlayHard” Banquil (Lina) in to help Gabriel “skem” Ong (Wraith King), and Jaunuel “Jaunuel” Arcilla (Disruptor).
This left Kuku, who played the Legion Commander, all alone with John Anthony “Natsumi-” Vargas’ Razor, who constantly bullied him all throughout the laning phase of the match.
Karl “Karl” Jayme (Death Prophet) and JaCkky actually had a decent early game for T1, with JaCkky picking up his Manta Style as early as the 13-minute mark. But the fall of Kuku at the bottom lane proved to be too costly for T1 later on which ultimately resulted in the loss.
PlayHard put up 10 kills and 15 assists against one death to lead Neon Esports while Erin Jasper “Yopaj” Ferrer (Queen of Pain) supplied 10 kills, four deaths, and 11 assists. Natsumi- recorded a game-high 20 assists along with eight kills and three deaths.
JaCkky, on the other hand, had three kills, five deaths, and three assists for T1 while Karl ended up with three kills, six deaths, and two assists.
Kuku, who recorded a game-high 16 deaths in Game Two, suffered 10 deaths and three assists in the winner-take-all Game Three.
T1 rode JaCkky’s monster Monkey King in Game One to take match-point, but Yopaj’s Void Spirit was enough to tie the series at 1-all.
T1 will be joining Team Nigma, who has all-time Dota great Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi, in the wild card phase and will wait for two teams from China, one from Europe, and one from the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Neon Esports, on the other hand, will go up against Dota 2 powerhouse Natus Vincere, Alliance, Thunder Predator, and the no.2 seeds from China and North America.
The Singapore Major will open on Saturday, March 27.
