TNC Predator weathered the Game Three exploits of Karl “Karl” Baldovino to escape with a 2-1 victory over T1 in the Dota Pro Circuit 2021: S1 – Southeast Asia Upper Division, Saturday evening.
With the game reaching the 74-minute mark, Armel “Armel” Tabios (Ember Spirit), Kim “Gabbi” Villafuerte (Terrorblade), and Timothy “Tims” Randrup (Pangolier) caught Carlo “Kuku” Palad, who was wandering off the top lane without a buyback, off guard which resulted to a kill for the TNC midlaner.
With T1 down to four members already, Gabbi led a siege at the bottom lane to try and finish off the game. Souliya “JaCkky” Khoomphetsavong (Phantom Assassin) then jumped on Gabbi to secure the one-for-one trade. Unfortunately for T1, though, Gabbi had enough money on his bag for a buy back.
Armel then took care of JaCkky to trim T1’s roster to just three personnel. Karl (Pugna) tried to salvage their base after a kill on Tims, but it was not enough as TNC went on to seal the deal in 75 minutes and 32 seconds.
The 21-year-old midlaner spearheaded the Predators’ wire-to-wire victory with 13 kills and 11 assists against five deaths. Gabbi added seven kills, seven deaths, and nine assists in TNC’s tally to win MVP honors while Kim “Febby” Yong-min (Disruptor) put up a team-high 14 assists.
On the other hand, Karl finished with 13 kills and 14 assists against three deaths while fellow Filipino Kuku was limited to just a 2-6-14 kill-death-assist-tally.
TNC has forged a three-way logjam at the third spot with T1 and BOOM Esports with identical 2-2 records.
The Filipinos took the opening match by leaning on Gabbi’s monster Juggernaut performance which produced 22 kills and eight assists against two deaths. Karl then took the spotlight come Game Two, leading T1 to a lopsided win with his Ember Spirit to send the game to a Game Three.
TNC looks to break the tie come February 10, Wednesday while Karl and Kuku will go up against fellow Filipinos Execration on Saturday, February 13.
