By REYNALD MAGALLON
A win for Abed “Abed” Yusop’s Evil Geniuses, a loss for Carlo “Kuku” Palad’s T1 and a draw for Djardel “DJ” Mampusti’s Fnatic highlighted the roller coaster debuts of Filipino players in the Dota 2’s The International in Bucharest, Romania on Thursday, October 7.
EG secured two points with a sweep of Team Aster while Fnatic scored its first point in the tournament after a draw against Vici Gaming. T1, meanwhile, was winless in the two-game series after getting swept by Invictus Gaming to start its TI10 campaign.
The Abed-led EG made quick work of Aster to book their first sweep in the TI10. Abed on his Ember Spirit led the charge for his crew scoring an almost perfect game of 11 kills and 11 assists against a single death in Game 1.
It was an all-game brilliance for EG in the series opener as it took a dominating 20-11 victory in 30 minutes of play.
Team Aster put up an early game resistance in Game 2 but EG showed no let up as it leaned on Abed’s Void Spirit and Artour “Arteezy” Babaev’s Razor to turn things around for the North American team. Abed capped his stellar series with a 7-3-14 score line while Arteezy added an 8-2-8 KDA.
On the other hand, Kuku’s T1 failed to score a point as it got swept, 2-0, by Invictus Gaming in its opening game in TI10.
The Korean team dropped Game 1 to a Jin “Flyfly” Zhiyi-led IG which took the first point of the series in a dominant 20-12 victory. The Chinese squad had its free reigns in the jungle in Game 1, allowing Flyfly’s Morphling to snowball and dominate T1 in the series opener.
Flyfly had a perfect TI10 debut with a 10-0-6 KDA while Zhou “Emo” Yi on his Lina contributed with a 7-1-9 KDA.
Nuengnara “23savage” Teeramahanon on his Gyrocopter paced T1 with six kills and four assists against five deaths in Game 1.
T1 put up a huge retaliation in Game 2 and took a commanding 22-7 lead at the 24-minute mark. IG, however, came back after a clutch contest for the Roshan take which also allowed the Chinese squad to kill two heroes on the T1's side.
That turned things around to IG's favor to end the series in a tied 26-26 score in the comeback win.
Emo led IG this time with a 9-2-10 KDA while Karl “Karl” Jayme on his Storm Spirit bounced back from a quiet Game 1, with a 10-2-13 KDA.
Meanwhile, Fnatic struggled in their first game, bowing to Vici Gaming in a 27-12 score in Game 1.
Raven “Raven” Fausto was the lone bright spot for Fnatic in the series opener with an 8-4-2 KDA on his Tiny. His efforts, however, weren’t enough as Vici Gaming banked on the stellar play from Yang “Poyoyo” Shaohan’s Spectre who finished an 11-1-13 KDA and Zeng "Ori" Jiaoyang’s Shadow Fiend who added an 8-2-3 KDA.
Fnatic, though, didn’t let an early lead go to waste in Game 2. It made the clutch plays in the late game to douse a fiery comeback attempt from Vici Gaming to force a 1-1 split in their series. Ng Kee “Chyuan” Chyuan led his team with a 16-5-13 KDA on the Storm Spirit while Raven provided the support on his Luna with 10-3-12 KDA to take a 38-23 victory in Game 2.