Veteran offlaner Daryl "iceiceice" Koh Pei Xiang was absolutely not a fan of TNC Predator's decision to let go of fellow seasoned position-3 player Damien "kpii" Chok.
TNC parted ways with the Australian TI7 runner-up kpii along with South Korean captain-support Kim "Febby" Yong Min last Wednesday, March 3, almost a week after its botched bid to qualify for the Singapore Major.
"TNC actually kicked kpii. Why would they kick kpii? TNC is stupid man," iceiceice said with a laugh during his Twitch stream two days after the announcement of TNC.
"There's no other way to put it. I mean (it’s) not my team. I have no idea what the internal stuff are but why would you even kick kpii man?" added the 30-year-old Singaporean journeyman, who now plays for North American giant Evil Geniuses together with Filipino mid laner Abed "Abed" Yusop.
"I don't know about Febby, but I think kicking kpii is definitely a huge mistake."
Kpii and Febby were constantly dealing with ping issues during the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC)-Southeast Asia Upper Division as they were playing from their respective homes.
The two could not join the Filipino trio of carry Kim "Gabbi" Santos, mid laner Armel Paul "Armel" Tabios and position-4 support Timothy "Tims" Randrup in the bootcamp due to pandemic-related travel restrictions.
But iceiceice said that connection problems are not enough to release a good player especially amid the pandemic.
"Ping issues? It's COVID though. I mean we are in the middle of a pandemic. I feel like sometimes, teams should just make do with what they have."
Iceiceice also said he already knew the replacements for kpii as well as Febby, which turned out to be SEA Games gold winners Jun "Bok" Kanehara and Marvin "Boomy" Rushton as TNC opted to go all-Filipino again heading to the next DPC season for a shot at the second Major this year.
Still, the renowned pro from SEA who made it to the TI eight times was not convinced.
"You kick kpii for like a bad player? That is the worst. Maybe he is not bad, maybe I'm wrong with how good or bad the guy is, but I'm pretty sure that kpii is good. I am a big kpii fan dude."
Iceiceice also claimed that the move of TNC to remove ex-captain Park "March" Tae Won was its "worst mistake". March, who helped the squad win the Chengdu Major and ESL One Hamburg, was released in September 2020.
Is iceiceice right? We could only wait until the next DPC season.