Cover-Credits:
BOOM Esports finally started to gain some momentum in the latest iteration of the Southeast Asia Dota Pro Circuit (SEA DPC) season following a second victory in the league against fellow relegation candidates Team SMG. Despite becoming a strong household name in the previous season, BOOM Esports has had a terrible DPC season with the organization being in heavy danger of being relegated into Division II with four consecutive losses.
However, a much-needed victory against Fnatic during week two of the tour saw BOOM Esports slowly beginning to regain confidence and faith before its important match against Team SMG.
BOOM Esports vs Team SMG: Match recap and highlights
Recap
Team SMG and BOOM Esports currently have one win each in the SEA DPC, however, both teams needed at least another win if either team wants to keep their hopes of avoiding relegation alive.
Game One
The early game went into the way of BOOM Esports, with Erin "Yopaj" Ferrer’s Tiny making great use of his hero’s abilities to pick off SMG’s heroes one by one during the laning phase while also allowing John "Natsumi-" Vargas to achieve his item timings for the mid-game phase.
However, a couple of disastrous teamfights saw BOOM Esports slowly losing its advantage to Team SMG as Yeik "MidOne" Nai Zheng’s Beastmaster constantly provided perfect teamfight opportunities for the rest of his teammates to take advantage of.
Despite BOOM Esports’ best efforts to defend their base, the team could not hold off Team SMG’s aggression as they were forced to tap out after 35 minutes, with Team SMG drawing first blood in the best of three.
Game Two
Looking to even out the series, BOOM Esports went all in on an aggressive draft featuring the trio of Ursa, Tiny and Death Prophet as their core heroes while Team SMG opted for a more all-rounded draft by giving Morphling and Storm Spirit to the duo of Lee "CDR" Jia He and Kam "Moon" Boon Seng.
While the early game was fairly quiet, the mid-game saw BOOM’s draft investment pay off as Natsumi- 's Ursa and Saieful "Fbz" Ilham’s Death Prophet were unstoppable. Additionally, BOOM Esports forced Team SMG to make careless mistakes during teamfights by constantly catching CDR’s Morphling off guard.
Game Two ended with BOOM Esports evening out the series, as they claimed the game after 35 minutes.
Game Three
With the series now becoming a best of one, both teams were looking to avoid careless mistakes that could cost either of them to be in heavy danger of being relegated to Division II. Team SMG retained the Magnus for MidOne while BOOM Esports went for an uncommon draft, picking up Arc Warden and Batrider for Natsumi- and Yopaj.
The first 25 minutes were a bloodbath, as both teams constantly fought to obtain an advantage while also taking objectives such as towers and Roshan. However, BOOM Esports ended up having the better outcome thanks to Fbz’s Nature’s Prophet and Natsumi- 's Arc Warden constantly applying split-pushing pressure.
While Team SMG were able to turn things around, a disastrous teamfight near the Dire jungle for SMG saw BOOM Esports taking full advantage of the situation by taking Roshan and the Game Three victory after 48 minutes.
Highlights
Here are some of the highlights from the series.
Following the match, BOOM Esports are currently sixth in the SEA DPC standings. However, the team is not out of the danger yet as there is a possibility of a two-way or even a three-way tiebreaker to avoid relegation should they lose their final series in the Winter Tour against Blacklist International on 27th January.
