Image Courtesy: Fnatic
The first day of playoffs in the SEA regional qualifier resulted in Fnatic — a team that finished with 1265 DPC Points this season — beat both TNC Tigers and TNC Predator. With that, the team grabbed the first SEA qualifier slot for The International 8.
After their performance in the 1st phase, not many would have guessed that Fnatic would not drop a single game in the playoffs. But Fnatic showed that they came ready to play and crushed their competition, and they never once lost control of their fate cruising to a spot in The International 8.
Here’s a rundown of how things went down on Day 1 of the TI8 SEA Regional Qualifiers playoffs.
The day started off with a comprehensive beat down from TNC Predator as they completely took over both games, not giving Black^ and company an inch. Armel and Raven, in particular, were on fire as they destroyed the Entity Gaming lineup doling out the physical damage on their Lycan and Lina.
The 2nd game was, even more, one-sided as both cores took off once again, completely shutting down their opponents as soon as the laning phase came to a close. After a few minutes of a lull in the mid-game, a team-fight emerged in Entity’s jungle. Off of Kuku’s amazing shackleshot, TNC Predator easily shredded Entity Gaming. With their lead, TNC Predator grabbed the free Roshan at 27 min. Utilizing the Aegis, TNC Predator rushed down mid lane, easily closing out the game at 30 minutes.
Fnatic had an amazing start to game one. Getting two quick kills on the back of Universe’s Enigma and DJ’s Windranger in the first few minutes of the game. They continued to build on their lead by finding an incredible amount of farm on Abed’s Templar Assassin which they used to close out the 1st game in just 23 minutes.
Once again, Djardel Jicko B. "DJ" Mampusti ran rampant in game two on Sandking. After a great start on the offlane, DJ proceeded to use his advantage to affect the rest of map, roaming to the different lanes. DJ and Fnatic had complete control of this game; despite getting picked off a couple of times. After a quick Roshan, they closed out the game and moved on to the Winner Bracket Finals to face TNC Predator.
Once again, Djardel Jicko B. “DJ” Mampusti has left everyone speechless with his Windranger performance. He finished game one with a 13/6/17 KDA and was the crucial factor in Fnatic victory at the end of a 79 minutes long game. Fnatic’s overwhelming Teamfight with refresher orbs on Death Prophet, Monkey King, and Enigma was just too much for TNC Predator to overcome.
Game two went much faster, again with DJ on Windranger who didn’t concede a single kill to the opposite team and finished with al K/D/A of 9/0/6. The game looked close at first, but 15 minutes in Fnatic stepped on the gas and TNC Predator simply couldn't keep up.
"It was so easy" - Kurtis "AUI_2000" Loom
While Fnatic did look quite strong, we have to remember that this is just against fellow SEA teams. Playing against teams like Virtus.Pro, PSG.LGD and Team Liquid is an entirely different ask. But this is EternaLEnVy we are talking about, perhaps he will surprise us. Perhaps he will help his team punch above their weight once again. Perhaps we might have a Cinderella-story on our hands.
For the rest of the teams in the qualifier — Entity Gaming, TNC Tigers, and TNC Predator — the qualifiers continue tomorrow. The three teams will compete for the one remaining SEA spot in The International 8.