Fnatic’s dominant form throughout Dota Pro Circuit 2021 SEA upper division has been rewarded. They’re the first Dota 2 team to qualify for the Singapore Major from the region after beating perennial rivals TNC Predator 2-1 in their final league series today.
TNC dominated the first game from start to finish, led by Gabbi’s Morphling. Constantly Morphing into his hard support Spirit Breaker once he farmed an Aghanim’s Scepter, Fnatic were unable to keep up with Gabbi’s upgraded Charge of Darkness. Fnatic’s problems were only exacerbated by their exceedingly greedy draft, which included an off lane Battle Fury Alchemist and a safe lane Phantom Lancer—and both were ultimately unable to do much in a quick loss.
TNC tried to repeat the combo once more in game two, but Fnatic learned quickly from their mistakes, opting for a much faster lineup with a Raven’s Lycan and Natthaphon “Masaros” Ouanphakdee’s Timbersaw. TNC had a brief comeback in the mid game off of Gabbi’s mastery of the Morphling but didn’t have enough solutions for Fnatic’s overwhelming push and teamfight.
Fnatic banned the Morphling in the third game after it had given them such a headache over the series and proceeded to put up their finest performance in the match. Raven’s Phantom Assassin was left particularly unaddressed as he quietly and quickly climbed up the net worth charts. TNC were preoccupied with Fnatic’s legion of space creators and their best effort wasn’t enough to stop Raven from eventually taking over the game and securing the series for his team.
Fnatic’s string of lackluster results leading up to the Regional League have been all but forgotten. Despite numerous roster changes during a messy online season, the roster seems to have put their growing pains behind them.
The final series of the SEA upper division between Neon Esports and T1 tomorrow at 5am CT is a pivotal one. While Fnatic have a guaranteed ticket to the Major with a 6-1 record, they’ll only guarantee first place and a direct seed into the Major playoffs if Neon lose and fall to 5-2. Neon and T1 will then need to play a tiebreaker to determine the second and third seeds.
If Neon win, that will trigger more tiebreakers throughout the league. Fnatic and Neon will play a best-of-one, where the losing team will need to play through the Major group stage. TNC and BOOM Esports, both at 4-3, will play T1 for a last chance at third place and qualification to the Major wild card.
