TNC Predator needed to overcome the hard-fighting Boom Esports, 2-1, to arrange a rematch against Fnatic for the lone The International 10 (TI10) spot at stake in the Southeast Asia Qualifier on Saturday, July 3.
Armel "Armel" Tabios' Puck whipped up a perfectly-placed Dream Coil to hold the opposing Mars that allowed Kim "Gabbi" Villafuerte's Luna and the rest of TNC to deal their damage for a team wipe in the 60th minute of Game 3.
Two minutes later, the Filipinos' buybacks paid off as they once again deleted all five Indonesians at the river area. Having exhausted all its buybacks, Boom called GG as TNC took the 63-minute victory with a 46-27 kill score.
Gabbi and the gang set up a grudge rematch versus Fnatic in the best-of-five grand finals later on, with the winner joining Carlo "Kuku" Palad's T1 as SEA representatives in TI10 which features the biggest prize pool in esports history at $40 million (almost P2 billion).
TNC is raring to get its revenge against the Polo "Raven" Fausto and Djardel "Dj" Mampusti-led Fnatic, which beat them 2-0 in the upper bracket finals on Friday night.
The all-Filipino squad displayed a perfect execution of its chain disables from Gabbi's Dragon Knight, Timothy "Tims" Randrup's Mirana and Jun "Bok" Kanehara's Brewmaster to render Boom's Abbadon and Axe useless in team fights back in Game 1.
Armel's Templar Assassin dished out the ripping burst damage while captain Marvin "Boomy" Rushton's Phoenix was there to provide the sustain as the Filipinos' total team effort resulted in a 28-10 stomping of the Indonesians in 45 minutes.
Boom forced a do-or-die tussle after Randy "Dreamocel" Sapoetra's Terrorblade and Rafli "Mikoto" Rahman's Invoker fueled their 42-minute win in Game 2 only to fall short in the clincher.