OB Esports x Neon slayed Southeast Asian giant T1 with a stunning 2-1 reverse sweep to finally barge into the win column in the resumption of the SEA DPC Winter Tour Division I on Wednesday, Jan. 5.

Fresh off a title run in the Huya Dota 2 Winter Invitational during the DPC break, OB.Neon rediscovered its winning form to deal T1 its first loss in the tournament while also breaking its own three-game dry spell in the process.

Jinn “Palos” Lamatao sustained his fiery form that won him the MVP plum in the Huya Winter Invitational with a steady 14-2-6 and 9-1-10 performances on his Morphling in the two games to power the reverse sweep.

OB.Neon endured a 26-4 beatdown at the hands of T1 led by an impeccable 10-0-5 score line of Karl “Karl” Jayme on the Lina. Palos however carried the squad on his back in the second game to score a 29-17 retaliation and force a decider Game 3.

Palos continued to roll from that point as the Filipino joined hands with Indonesian teammate Tri Daya “Mamang Daya” Pamungkas in Game 3 to pull off the momentous upset.

Mamang Daya topscored in the decider with an 11-2-11 stat line on the Tinker to help his squad take a 27-18 Game 3 win.

Meanwhile, Team SMG led by Filipino Ryan Jay “Raging Potato” Qui opened up the new year with a dominant sweep of PH-based team Execration.

Raging Potato was solid in the two-game stretch with a 6-2-18 and 8-3-12 showing on the Beastmaster and Broodmother while providing ample support to Yeik Nai “MidOne” Zheng’s 10-0-11 Terrorblade and 10-2-11 Razor.

It was a wire-to-wire win for Team SMG as it destroyed EXE 33-16 in Game 1 before finishing the all-Filipino quintet off with a 32-21 Game 2 win.

Team SMG overtook T1 for the second spot of the standing with a 3-2 record while the latter fell to a 2-1 win-loss slate. Execration remains at the fourth spot with a 2-2 record while OB.Neon now boasts a 1-3 standing after notching its first win although still in the bottom two.