Kim “Gabbi” Villafuerte shone in the deciding Game 3 as T1 completed its redemption against Fnatic, 2-1, in the upper bracket of DPC SEA Regional Finals on Friday, Feb. 11.
T1 exacted revenge to Fnatic – the same team that beat them in their crucial encounters in the regular season and in the tiebreaker that dropped T1 to third place in the DPC SEA Winter Tour standing.
Gabbi, who is playing stand-in for Nuengnara "23savage" Teeramahanon, played a huge part in the match as he powered T1 in its victories in Games 1 and 3.
He unleashed a 4-1-4 KDA on the Lifestealer in the series opener before saving his best game in the series clincher with an 11-1-12 showing on the Phantom Assassin. Even in the Game 2 defeat, Gabbi also showed up with a 7-2-12 score line on the Wraith King.
T1 scored the first point of the series with a dominant 19-7 win in Game 1 which ran for 40 minutes. Carlo “Kuku” Palad set the pace with a 4-0-9 KDA on the Kunkka while Karl “Karl” Jayme also put up an unblemished line of 9-0-7 in the Queen of Pain.
Fnatic retaliated with a tight 25-25 win in Game 2 behind the effort of Marco Polo Luis “Raven” Fausto who put up a perfect 6-0-8 line on his Medusa.
After trailing for the most part of Game 2, Fnatic used a clash at the 52-minute mark where it successfully picked off two heroes on the side of T1 to turn things around. The no.2 team in the SEA DPC Winter Tour then prevailed in a huge team fight at the 63-minute mark, completely wiping out T1 heroes to force the decider.
That was when Gabbi then took over for his new squad as he orchestrated the attack for the side of T1. Gabbi and company seized control right off the gates and never relinquished it as they punished Fnatic in every clash.
A lengthy clash at the 49-minute mark proved to be the deciding factor as it took out four heroes to the side of Fnatic. T1 scored a 28-21 decision in Game 3 to bag the series and advance to the upper bracket against Boom Esports.
Fnatic, meanwhile, will be battling for its tournament life when it takes on Team SMG in the lower bracket.