One big play punctuated T1's 2-1 defeat to CIS online king Virtus.pro in the upper bracket finals of the ESL One Summer 2021 early Sunday, June 20 (PH time).
T1 kept its chances to make a comeback in the deciding Game 3 behind Kenny "Xepher" Deo's Winter Wyvern with Aghanim's Scepter and Nuengnara "23savage" Teeramahanon's Terrorblade in the late game, but Dmitry "DM" Dorokhin on his Tidehunter came through with the series-clinching play.
With VP going under a Smoke of Deceit and wards planted on T1's base, DM caught 23savage as well as captain Carlo "Kuku" Palad's Sand King with a double Ravage before Danil "gpk" Skutin's Viper and Egor "Nightfall" Grigorenko's Phantom Lancer collapsed on the TB who died back.
Xepher, Kuku, Karl "Karl" Jayme on Windranger and Matthew "Whitemon" Filemon on Lion did their all to stave off VP's GG push but to no avail as the CIS squad closed out the game in nearly 52 minutes.
T1 actually won Game 1 on the back of Xepher's Nyx Assassin but VP forced a decider with a dominant victory in Game 2.
With the loss, Kuku and his crew slid to the best-of-three lower bracket finals to take on Alliance which swept Sumail "SumaiL" Hassan and the two-time The International champion OG to advance.
The regional winners in Dota Pro Circuit Season 2 from Southeast Asia and Europe will battle it out later at 8 p.m. for the right to duel VP in the succeeding best-of-five grand finals.
Regardless of the result, T1, the third-place finisher in the recently-concluded WePlay AniMajor, is already assured of another third-place finish here in the ESL One Summer that comes with a $45,000 (P2.1 million) prize.