Filipino teams Smart Omega and OB x Neon Esports kept their spots in the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC)-Southeast Asia Upper Division after beating Boom Esports of Indonesia in a drawn-out tiebreaker on Saturday, May 22.
Tied at the 5th-7th places with identical 3-4 records at the end of the regular regional league, the three teams needed to battle it out in a series of best-of-one tiebreakers to determine the two teams staying in the Upper Division and the other one getting relegated to the Lower Division.
Omega outlasted Boom in a 61-minute game behind Justine "Tino" Grimaldo's Arc Warden (10-1-12 kill-death-assist) to open the hostilities before the Indonesians bounced back against OB.NEon.
However, Neon stayed alive and forced another round of tiebreakers after taking down Omega on the back of John Anhony "Natsumi-" Vargas' monstrous Wraith King (15-0-8).
It was Mc Nicholson "Mac" Villanuava on his Ember Spirit (21-2-21) who ignited Omega's 49-15 demolition of Boom in 54 minutes at the start of Round 2.
Natsumi on Morphling (12-0-8) and captain-offlaner Andrei "Skem" Ong (also known as "ctm") on Broodmother (8-0-16) made sure that the ONE Esports Singapore Major top six finisher get its revenge against Boom and remain in the Upper Division by spearheading the 31-15 win in 32 minutes.
Neon and Omega will still slug it out with TNC Predator, T1, Execration and Fnatic in the SEA Upper Division next DPC season after the $40 million The International 10.
Neon finished fifth overall and got 50 DPC points to hike its total to 650 and stay on the hunt for a direct invite to the TI10 slated in Sweden in August.
Boom was relegated to the Lower Division along with Mongolia's Lilgun.