Neon Esports leaned on John Anthony "Natsumi-" Vargas' Wraith King in the deciding game to pull off a 2-1 stunner over TNC Predator and snatch the solo lead in the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC)-Southeast Asia upper division at the conclusion of the second week on Saturday night.
Ace carry Natsumi- hit the perfect timing to lead Neon in team fights, securing his Radiance first before powering the league's dark horse to a thrilling 31-22 victory in 37 minutes in Game 3.
With the upset win, the black and yellow squad climbed to the top of the eight-team standings with three wins in as many series, ahead of Fnatic (2-0) and Execration (1-1).
Only the top three teams will advance to the first Dota 2 Major after the six-week Regional League while the bottom two teams will be relegated to the lower division.
Neon drew first blood in the anticipated series but TNC forced an equalizer behind the monstrous Morphling of 11k MMR carry Kim "Gabbi" Villafuerte.
Natsumi's WK went ham in the decisive game, finishing with eight kills and 14 assists against a lone death.
Midlaner Jasper "Yopaj" Ferrer's Gyrocopter contributed an 11-5-10 kill-death-assist record while offlaner Ejay "PlayHard" Banquil chipped in eight kills and 17 assists against two deaths on top of a brainy play.
TNC failed to sustain the momentum from its bounce-back 2-0 win over Vice Esports as it dropped to No. 6 with a 1-2 slate.
In the other upper division match, the Carlo "Kuku" Palad and Karl "Karl" Jayme-led T1 came through with a nail-biting mega creeps comeback in Game 3 to take a 2-1 victory over 496 Gaming of Vietnam.
T1 moved to a tie at No. 4 with Indonesia's BOOM Esports on an identical 1-1 tally (2-3 game record).
Over at the lower division, Smart Omega and Cignal Ultra forged a three-way tie with Army Geniuses at the top spot as they all ended the second week with similar 2-0 records.