TNC Predator vs BOOM Esports: TNC to approach elimination from the elite division

South-East Asia's first DPC league of the 2021/22 season will continue on Saturday, January 08. TNC Predator and BOOM Esports will meet in the first match for the elite division.

DPC SEA 2021/22 Tour 1: Division I is an online Dota 2 tournament from December 01, 2021, to January 22, 2022. The top eight teams from the SEA region will battle it out for $205,000. On top of the cash prizes, the teams will also fight for three entries to the majors and the crucial DPC points needed to qualify for T11.

It's surprising to see TNC Predator at the bottom of the standings in their home Asian home region. 0-4 is exactly the scoreline the lads have. They need to start winning for only one or at most two defeats away from relegation.

The first week of the DPC league gave us two matches at once with the once-great TNC Predator. Now that time has passed, a renewed young squad is trying to build something sane in their game. Everything is bad so far. The team lost to their opponents from Motivate.Trust Gaming (0:2) and T1 (0:2), but the loss to a TI10 playoff participant is still forgivable, but MTG is far from the top.

Before the New Year, TNC also lost their third and fourth matches, and the guys were undermined by Fnatic (0-2) and Execration (0-2), which makes their situation in the fight for survival in the elite even tougher.

The failure of the legendary TNC Predator to qualify for this past TI10 was a tragedy for the organization, which decided to disband the entire past squad and recruit new players, who will enter the server under that brand for the first time just for the DPC league. Team TNC won the last pre-covid major in 2019, but that success did not count towards qualifying for TI10, and the play over the past two DPC leagues by this squad left a lot to be desired. The underestimation of the online era and the increased, within-region competition was fatal, but that is now in the past. The new lineup, not new and most importantly high goals and the first DPC league of the new season will be a real test of strength for these guys, for I am sure they have a couple of aces up their sleeve, not for nothing they have not played various online tournaments in their region. Now to the new lineup.

YoungGod is TNC's new carry. A Filipino player who can't boast the practice of playing in strong teams, much less the results.

Yowe is a Filipino mid who has proven himself in Execration. His previous team was a bronze medalist in the second DPC league in SEA and prevented TNC from reaching the majors. Notably, Yowe missed out on the majors, having been kicked out of the Philippine team in the summer.

X1aOyU is a Malaysian three who has been trying his hand at China for a long time. He played in the IG and Vici systems, mostly in youth squads, occasionally joining the base. Before signing with TNC himself, he tried his hand at another Filipino team, Neon.

PlayHard is a Filipino four who worked wonders in Asia for Neon during the first DPC league and Singapore majors.

Febby is a Korean player who is no stranger to TNC. Firstly he has played for this team, and secondly, he has been coaching them recently. Now he's sat in position five and will oversee the formation of his new team from the game.

A fifth win will secure BOOM Esports a 99%, at least 100% replay for one of the slots in the first international competition of 2022.

BOOM is off to a great start in the new DPC cycle. The win over OB.Neon (2-0) was playable, but the opponent was not a major contender. Fnatic was the first serious test for the new BOOM roster, which the Filipinos passed incredibly well, shutting down the formidable tag with an easy 2-0 win.

Team SMG (2-0) and Motivate.Trust Gaming (2-0) were defeated next. BOOM has not lost a map in the DPC Winter Split so far, an outstanding result for this team.

The BOOM Esports team promoted only the Indonesian squad all last season. While the Indonesians still finished the first DPC league more or less normally, they failed the second and even lost a slot in the elite of the Asian region. But the boys will start the new DPC cycle in the elite, thanks to the exclusion for match-fixing of Omega Esports.

The organization has dropped the Indonesian side. The past's failure could not have positively affected all the former BOOM players. They are now a Filipino team whose players have performed well throughout the off-season, even winning their ninth BTS season in SEA.

The only one who has represented this team indefinitely is Indonesian Fbz, who has played in the third position in this team since 2017. The new faces of BOOM Esports are just the ex-neons who wowed the world with their play in the Singapore majors: Yopaj and skem. Tino came from the banned Omega and Tims - from TNC.

This squad is approaching the new season in great form, and I predict that one of the slots in the majors is for them.

On the first map, we see handicap 2 (-15.5); the odds for this are 1.90.

The total kills on the first map will be over 44.5; the odds are 1.83.