Gabbi Comes Through in T1’s Hard Fought Victory Over Fnatic in Regional Finals

T1 emerged victorious over Fnatic in the first upper bracket round of the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) Southeast Asia (SEA) 2021-22 Regional Finals, playing with a stand-in safelaner, similar to what BOOM Esports did earlier today. T1 won the first game of the series rather easily, but the second and third games were characteristic of the late game style of play in which both teams are adept, and therefore they produced some top tier Dota 2. While Fnatic fought hard in the second game to take the win, T1 demonstrated a similar level of competitiveness in the third game to close out the series 2-1.

As the stand-in for the T1 squad, Kim "Gabbi" Villafuerte Santos was a stand out performer, particularly in the third game on his signature Phantom Assassin.

T1 vs Fnatic: Match Recap and Highlights

Recap

In game 1, both sides put forth relatively stable drafts, but Fnatic's draft lacked any reliable stuns and spells to initiate fights. Due to this, all of T1's cores were easily able to avoid any danger by using their spells and TPs when necessary. T1 continued to farm extremely efficiently on all of their cores and avoided any teamfights earlier in the game. Once they obtained the Aegis from Roshan, they took the enemy head-on, and through their superior abilities and execution, won the game in 40 minutes. Only 26 kills were recorded in the game.

Game 2 was a SEA Dota 2 bonanza - a long 60 minute plus game with tons of chaos. T1 got off to a better start, farming more effectively, and had a 3k lead at 16 minutes. Fnatic, however, didn't let T1's lead hit insurmountable levels and kept exchanging blows to keep the lead stagnant around 3-5k. With Raven's Medusa proving to be enormous, Fnatic finally took a 19k lead when it won a massive teamfight around the 54 minute mark. The result was Fnatic getting megacreeps and the game eventually ended in its favor in 65 minutes.

Game 3 saw another long and intense battle between the two teams. T1 once again was more efficient in utilizing the resources on the map and had an advantage even though both teams were able to constantly score important kills. Fnatic turned the tide with a decisive teamfight win in the 40th minute after Gabbi died for the first time in the game. Fnatic was able to take almost two sides of Barracks, but T1 reacted strongly through impeccable teamfight skills to secure the mega creeps, and walk away with the win in 53 minutes.

Highlights

Here are some highlights of the series.

T1 finally defeated Fnatic after having lost to it twice in Tour 1, once during regular play and once during the tiebreakers. Despite not dominating throughout, T1 outperformed Fnatic in the big moments today. Gabbi, who was struggling with Talon Esports in Division 2, also showed off his carry capabilities as a stand-in for T1 today.

In the upper bracket final, T1 will now face BOOM Esports, with the winner advancing to the grand final and also ensuring itself a portion of the prize money and DPC points. On the other hand, as a result of falling to the lower bracket, Fnatic will have to play Team SMG for tournament survival.