TNC Predator kicks off TI9 with a 2-0 victory

The biggest tournament in esports history is finally underway and SEA’s biggest hope coming into this event: TNC Predator is already off to a fantastic start to the Group Stages. They kicked off their journey against Hometown favourites Keen Gaming with an impressive 2-0 victory.

TNC Predator vs Keen Gaming

Game 1: TNC Predator took a detour from their standard routine drafts, picking up an Arc Warden for Gabbi and a Mirana for Tims. Even though the Filipino team had a weak early game as a result, Armel’s Kunkka made some incredible plays to buy enough space for Gabbi to come online.

With Gabbi’s late-game farm, TNC Predator simply overwhelmed Keen Gaming with ease and went 1-0 up in this series.

Game 2: The 2nd game saw TNC Predator revert to one of their more aggressive styles with Gabbi handling a Slark and Kuku on an Earthshaker. Keen Gaming, on the other hand, resorted to an Alchemist lineup.

TNC managed to get off to a great start, once again. But crucial mistakes allowed Keen Gaming to gain control of the game and secure two barracks. Keen Gaming, however, got too kill-hungry and started diving fountain. TNC took full advantage of this mistake and made their way back into the game after a series of great Echo slam plays from Kuku.

Gabbi managed to secure an Aegis for himself and turned the game around, eventually forcing diebacks and ended the game.

In other news, Team Liquid suffered a shock 2-0 loss to Newbee. Team Secret and PSG.LGD recorded victories over Alliance and Chaos E.C. respectively.

Group B has also kicked off. At the time of writing, Fnatic managed to secure a 1-0 lead against Evil Geniuses in their opening game.