NINE Filipinos will see action at the ONE Esports Singapore Major, the Dota Pro Circuit’s first Major for the year. The series will begin Saturday, March 27.
The nine Filipino talents will join 17 of the best teams in the world for a piece of the $500,000 (around P24.3 million) prize pool. Also on the line are much-needed DPC points in order to qualify for this year's The International.
The ONE Esports Singapore Major is also the first offline DPC event since the pandemic started.
Karl Jayme and T1
Southeast Asian team T1, along with their Pinoy mid-laner Karl ‘karl’ Jayme, will start the Singapore Major at the new Wild Card stage. Coming in as the region’s third-placed team from the DPC SEA season 1, T1,will have to prove themselves against some of the best teams in the world as they vie for one of the top two spots to move on to the group stage.
Facing T1 in the wild card stage are Europe’s third and fourth-placed teams KuroKy’s Team Nigma, and EU rising star Team Liquid. Also included in the group are China’s third and fourth-placed teams Vici Gaming, and a new look PSG.LGD.
Rounding out the list is the CIS region’s third-seeded team AS Monaco Gambit filled with CIS veterans.
T1 will also play the major with their Pinoy offlaner Carlos ‘Kuku’ Palad, who is sidelined because of health issues. Replacing Kuku is Korean offlaner Lee ‘Forev’ Sang-don
Neon Esports
The lone all Filipino team in the Major, Neon Esports is hoping that their winning momentum in the DPC Season 1 could help them get out of the group stage and to the playoffs.
Neon Esports (composed of Erin ‘Yopaj’ Ferrer, Prieme ‘PlayHard’ Maque, Andrei ‘skem’ Ong, Jaunuel ‘Jaunuel’ Arcilla) will be playing without their carry John Anthony ‘Natsumi-‘ Vargas, who was unable to join his team to Singapore due to health issues. Standing-in for Neon is their long time player, Rafael ‘Rapy’ Sicat Palo, who will play the fourth position while team captain ‘Skem’ will play as the team’s carry.
Joining Neon in the group stage are the second-seeded teams from the regional competition: Quincy Crew from North America, Aster from China, Alliance from Europe, Navi from the CIS region, and Thunder Predator from South America. Aside from the six, the top two teams from the wild card stage will move on to join the group stage.
The top two teams from group stage join the tournament’s upper bracket along with the playoff-bound teams. The bottom two teams are eliminated from the tournament
DJ, Raven and Fnatic
Fnatic, lead by the Pinoy duo of Djardel ‘Dj’ Mampusti and Marc ‘Raven’ Fausto, came out as the SEA region’s best team, winning Season 1 of the DPC SEA tournament. The win has assured Fnatic a playoff spot in the coming major and an automatic 9th to 12th place finish even without playing.
Joining Fnatic as playoffs teams are the region’s top-seeded team: Europe’s Team Secret (who are the tournament favorites), China’s Invictus Gaming, the CIS region’s Virtus Pro who only lose a single game in their region, and North America’s Evil Geniuses. South America’s first seed Beastcoast was also placed in the playoff group, but backed out of the major due to the pandemic. As of writing, no replacement has been announced.
Abed and Evil Geniuses
The last Pinoy in the tournament will be representing not the SEA region, but North America. Abed ‘Abed’ Azel Yusop, has been dominating the mid-lane in the NA region ever since he was signed by EG in the post-TI9 roster shuffle.
The Pinoy prodigy helped lead EG in securing the top seed in NA following a difficult tie-breaker for first between EG, Quincy Crew, and Team Undying.
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