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Southeast Asia Regional Finals Dota 2
Dota 22 years agoAndreea "divushka" Esanu

Regional Finals preview: The Southeast Asia spectacle

Two days keep us apart from the culminating point of the Dota Pro Circuit first act, also called the Spring Tour.

Unfortunately, the Spring Tour won’t end with a Major, as it was planned. The Spring canceled Major was replaced with six Regional Finals that feature the top four squads from each region competing for the lion’s share of $100,000 and additional DPC points.

Regional Finals format

  • Top 4 teams of the Regional Leagues
  • Double-elimination bracket
  • BO3 series, BO5 Grand Final

Regional Finals prize pool distribution

  • 1st place: $50,000 & 250 DPC Points
  • 2nd place: $25,000 & 130 DPC Points
  •  3rd place: $15,000
  • 4th place: $10, 000

Southeast Asia competitors

BOOM Esports
Fnatic
T1
Team SMG

From the four teams qualified for the Regional Finals, SMG has the most to profit from the new format. If the Major would have gone through, they would have had to watch it from home as Southeast Asia has just three slots up for grabs, while they finished fourth in the regional league.

However, with the Regional Finals welcoming the top four teams, this is their chance to stir the pot in the region. SMG reached Division 1 by promotion in the previous DPC year. They are one of the very few teams from Southeast Asia that kept their roster intact for more than a couple of months. While T1 and BOOM Esports just announced stand-ins for the final stretch of the Winter Tour, SMG might surprise once again and reach the grand finals where the stakes are DPC points.

During the six-week league they dropped just two series, one to T1 and one to BOOM Esports and forced Fnatic and T1 to a three-way tiebreaker for the second place. Despite taking the lead with objective oriented drafts through the league play, SMG opted to play a little bit safer, with late game scenarios secured and that lost both BO1 games in the tiebreaker, which eventually pushed them to fourth place overall in the league.

Nonetheless, both Yeik "MidOne" Nai Zheng and Kam "Moon" Boon Seng are seasoned SEA veterans, who can make a difference for their team this coming weekend. They both tend to play fast paced heroes this patch, often complementing each other in the objective oriented strategy their team likes to run.

Both of them have a long history with Fnatic, who this season is one of their adversaries and unfortunately didn’t have the easiest of their times recently.

Fnatic struggled to find synergy within their roster prior to TI 10 and in the post event big shuffle, and they tinkered with their line-up once more. Anucha "Jabz" Jirawong and Djardel Jicko B. "DJ" Mampusti changed roles yet again, the former being an offlaner now and the latter going back to position 4.

In all of the roster madness, one player remained the constant for Fnatic over the last few years.  Marc Polo Luis "Raven" Fausto manages to carry the team regardless of the patch, playing either greedy or extremely selfless, depending on what the team needs. His Luna, Terrorblade, Morphling or Phantom Assassin are notorious and will always find a place in Fnatic’s drafts, regardless of the meta. This season he boasts 100% win rates on Luna and Wraith King, which are also his most played heroes in the DPC league.

With about a month at their disposal between the league ending and the Regional Finals start point, if Fnatic put in the work, they should be the clear favorites in the SEA region. Especially since both T1 and BOOM Esports are coming with stand-in carry players.

BOOM are the seasonal league winners, in more than one aspect. They should have started from Division 2 this DPC year, but due to OMEGA Smart players getting banned from all Valve sanctioned events for match-fixing at the beginning of the year, the Indonesian organization was allowed to retain its Division 1 spot despite their relegation in the previous season.

They started the season with almost an entire new roster, with only their mid laner Saieful "Fbz" Ilham remaining from the old line-up, and went on simply annihilating all opposition during the league play. They stayed undefeated in the league for a full month. Their first and single loss was registered on week 5 against T1, but although they looked stellar for the whole season, they still went for a roster change ahead of the Regional Finals. No details or reasoning behind the decision to place Justine Ryan Evangelista "Tino" Grimaldo on inactive status were given by BOOM.

While BOOM’s announcement took the fans by surprise, T1’s roster change was teased, leaked and rumors about their new addition were vented on social media platforms for a couple of weeks before it actually happened.

Most fans were ready to welcome the double TI winner Anathan "ana" Pham to T1’s safe lane, but the official announcement introduced Kim "Gabbi" Villafuerte joining as a stand-in for the Regional Finals.

Much like BOOM Esports, T1 did not go into details regarding their decision of replacing Nuengnara "23savage" Teeramahanon. It remains to be seen this coming weekend what the new additions can bring to both T1 and BOOM Esports and if it was the right decision or if it will come to haunt them in the Regional Finals.

Southeast Asia opening matches are scheduled to take place tomorrow, February 11 starting at 07:00 CET/14:00 local time with BOOM EsportsvsTeam SMG followed by FnaticvsT1.

Author
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Andreea "divushka" EsanuI can resist anything but temptations... Follow me @DivDota

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