headline image courtesy of Thunder Predator
Group stage matches at ONE Esports Singapore Major are on the menu starting this Monday and the competition is looking spicy after huge upsets were drawn in the opening series.
Thunder Predator, the only South American representative at Singapore Major after beastcoast had to withdraw, entered the spotlight in Singapore right from their first series in the group stage. Although TP made it to the Major as SA seed #2, not many were ready to put them at the top of the rankings, which makes their debut in Singapore even more surprising.
Their first series was held against Team Liquid, who seemed completely blindsided by their adversaries’ hyper aggressive game plan. Both teams looked to ensure line-ups that will allow them to take objective fast. However, while Liquid went all in with that strategy by picking Lycan, Death Prophet, Tiny and Abaddon, TP ensured a hard carry that would also allow them to be more menacing in the team fights. Their Terrorblade-Oracle combo dominated Liquid and forced the Europeans to switch tactics going into the next game of the series, while Thunder Predator felt confident to execute more of the same tactic, just a different hero line-up. Team Liquid ended up losing 0-2 to Thunder Predator, but what is more surprising is the fact that Europe seed #2 at the Major, Alliance shared the same fate.
With Alliance showing an Alchemist in the first picking round of the first game, Thunder Predator ensured lane dominating heroes to mess with his farm and the push timings and took full control of the game on the back of a carry Ursa successfully joining the fights from early stage.
Forcing fights and showing up with all heroes seems to be what TP enjoy the most as they managed to outmanoeuvre Alliance in the second game as well, that time around with Anti-Mage and Enigma always ready to surprise the enemy.
While it’s still fairly early in the group stage, Thunder Predator’s clean 2-0 victories over two teams coming from what is regarded as the strongest region are definitely intriguing.
Across day one schedule, Thunder Predator will also play against Team Aster and Quincy Crew, so stay tuned for more Dota 2 action and don’t forget to head over to our tournament coverage hub HERE to get up to date with all that’s happening at ONE Esports Singapore Major
