TNC relegated to lower bracket, forges rematch vs OG

MANILA, Philippines – Tournament favorites LGD Forever Young (LFY) proved to be too much for Philippine-based TNC Pro Team as the Filipino DOTA 2 athletes fell to the lower bracket of The International 7 on Wednesday morning (Manila time) at the Key Arena in Seattle.

TNC Pro team failed to live up to their reputation as “Chinese team killers” after they were swept in their best-of-three series, instead setting up a rematch against OG. Top-seeded LFY, meanwhile, advanced to the Top 6 of the annual tournament presented by Valve.

Day 2 standings

The Filipinos are hoping to repeat their performance exactly a year ago when they scored a huge upset, sweeping and eliminating the powerhouse squad from Europe.  

Their victory over OG in The International 6 made a massive impact in the professional scene as they placed the Philippines on the DOTA 2 map.

READ: Pinoy gamers oust Team OG, guaranteed P23.5M in DOTA 2 tiff

In spite of coming from the upper bracket, TNC Pro Team is still considered the underdog against OG, which has won four of five DOTA 2 Major tournaments since 2015; their latest was just this April in Kiev, Ukraine.

This year’s tournament prize pool of $24 million is the biggest in esports history, with the grand champions getting around $10 million or an estimated P500 million.

Marc Polo “Raven” Luis Fausto, Carlo “Kuku” Palad, Samson Solomon “Sam_H” Enojosa Hidalgo, Timothy “Tims” Randrup and Canadian Theeban “1437” Siva will fight to stave off elimination.

TNC Pro Team is the last squad standing from Southeast Asia after the early exit of another Philippine-based team, Execration, in the first round and Team Fnatic of Malaysia during the group stage.