Kim “Gabbi” Villafuerte is set to join forces with fellow Filipino Dota 2 stars Carlo “Kuku” Palad and Karl “Karl” Jayme at T1 when they take on the best of the Southeast Asian region in the DPC SEA Winter Tour Finals, the team announced on Tuesday. Feb. 8.
Gabbi, who last played with Talon Esports in the DPC SEA Division II, will be playing as stand-in for Nuengnara “23Savage” Teeramahanon who was relegated to the team’s inactive roster.
“Kim 'Gabbi' Santos will be joining the DOTA 2 team as the stand-in for the upcoming Regional Finals as Nuengnara '23savage' Teeramahanon is moved to the inactive roster. '23savage' will be on loan to MG.Trust for the upcoming competition: BTS Pro Series 10: Southeast Asia,” said T1 in its announcement.
Gabbi was released by Talon, along with Tal “Fly” Azik last month after a forgettable campaign last season that saw the squad fail to reach expectation and only finish at the fifth place of the DPC SEA lower division.
T1, on the other hand, lost grip of the top spot in the latter part of the DPC SEA Winter Tour Division I after absorbing crucial loses to Fnatic in its final assignment in the regular season and in the tie-breaker for the second to fourth spots. T1 ended up third in the final standings.
With Gabbi’s addition, T1 has bolstered its squad for the looming clash against the four best teams of the DPC SEA region led by the top seeded team Boom Esports.
Gabbi and T1 will test their mettle against Team SMG while Boom will open its campaign against Fnatic in upper bracket of the DPC SEA Finals on Friday, Feb. 11.