Filipino pros Carlo "Kuku" Palad and Abed "Abed" Yusop's ragtag team Among Us settled for a runner-up finish against Thailand's Motivate.Trust in the Dota Summit 13 Online: Southeast Asia.
Among Us suffered a 0-3 sweep to Motivate in the best-of-five grand finals of the 10-team, $100,000-tournament late Sunday night.
Kuku, Abed, Indonesian carry Muhammad "inYourdreaM" Rizky and soft support Kenny "Xepher" Deo and Korean hard support Park "March" Tae-won bagged the second prize of $22,000 (over P1 million).
Among Us swept Indonesian powerhouse Boom Esports, 2-0, in the lower bracket finals behind the monstrous Troll Warlord of inYourdreaM in Game 1 with an 11-1-8 kill-death-assist record and Batrider of Abed in Game 2 with a 16-2-14 statline.
Kuku and the gang, however, were not able to sustain the momentum against the highly-cohesive Motivate side that also denied them the BTS Pro Series 3 title back in September.
Composed of carry Souliya "JaCkky" Khoomphetsavong, midlaner Poomipat "Fearless" Trisiripranit, offlaner Natthapon "Masaros" Ouanphakdee, soft support Worawit "Q" Mekchai and veteran hard support Anurat "boombell" Praianun, Motivate raked in the $42,000 (over P2 million) winner's prize.
Meanwhile, Filipino powerhouse TNC Predator bannered by the trio of Armel "Armel" Tabios, Timothy "Tims" Randrup and Kim "Gabbi" Villafuerte landed on fourth place and received $9,000 (P432,000).
PH teams Adroit Esports and Neon Esports finished at 5th-6th for a $4,500 (P216,000) prize while Cignal Ultra Warriors settled for 7th-8th with Vietnamese team 496 Gaming for $2,500 (P120,000).