Cover Image courtesy: TNC Predator
Yesterday we reported that Marc "Raven" Fausto and Samson Solomon "Sam_H" Enojosa Hidalgo had left TNC Predator. Today TNC announced their two replacements: Michael "ninjaboogie" Ross and Khim "Gabbi" Villafuerte.
Between the two players, ninjaboogie has the most competitive experience, playing regularly in the SEA professional scene for the past five years. Gabbi, who is only 20-years-old, has not had as much time to carve out his name in the competitive space, and only began competing in 2016.
Ninjaboogie previous stint was at Mineski last season where he won the Dota 2 Asian Championship and ending up 5th in the DPC rankings. He was one of their star players and slowly became arguably the best Pos. 5 player in SEA. He will once again don the 5th position support role and will also captain the team.
Gabbi is one of the most talented, high potential SEA players. His skill is undeniably high but that has never been on a team that had a shot at competing internationally. His most successful stint so far was with Clutch Gamers where they qualified for 4 LAN events in a row. Whether he can emulate that success as the carry player of TNC remains to be seen.
The roster shuffle also sees Carlo "Kuku" Palad move away from the 5 position and back to a core role, tackling the offlane.
The primary cause behind all these departures is probably the roster’s consistent lack of results, despite housing some of The Philippines’ most established talents and prospects. After a 16th place finish in TI8, it was clear that the team lacked a strong captain to make the proper calls and decisions in-game.
With the addition of ninjaboogie things might begin to change in the aspect.
TNC Predator 2018/2019 DPC roster:
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Pos 1: Khim "Gabbi" Villafuerte
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Pos 2: Armel Paul "Armel" Tabios
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Pos 3: Carlo "Kuku" Palad
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Pos 4: Timothy "Tims" Randrup
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Pos 5: Michael "ninjaboogie" Ross
