BOOM Esports are Southeast Asia Regional Finals Champions

Winter Tour, the first season of the 2022 Dota Pro Circuit is done and dusted for the Southeast Asia competitors.

BOOM Esports completed one of the most dominant and at the same time interesting seasonal run by taking not only first place in the SEA regional league but also by emerging champions of the Regional Finals. It’s a result that was absolutely impossible to even imagine days before the DPC was slated to start. BOOM were supposed to start this year’s DPC from Division 2 because of their relegation in the previous year.

However, they were allowed to retain their Division 1 spot despite relegation, after OMEGA Esports players got caught match-fixing and got banned from any Valve sanctioned tournament.

With an almost full new roster, finalized in the post TI10 shuffle, BOOM entered the new DPC year determined to make the best of this opportunity and delivered countless upsets to establish themselves the top team in their region.

To spice things up, even more, two days before the Regional Finals, they also announced a slight roster change. They moved their carry, Justine Ryan Evangelista "Tino" Grimaldo to inactive status and took Motivate.Trust Gaming’s Souliya “JaCkky” Khoomphetsavong to stand-in.

However, the sudden roster change didn’t negatively impact them at all. BOOM reached the grand finals through upper bracket matches, taking down Team SMG and T1. The latter bounced back from the lower bracket finals, but when pitted for the second time against BOOM, they didn’t manage to change the outcome.

T1vsBOOM Esports

T1 started the best-of-five grand final act going all-in on burst damage. They opened the draft with Lion and Lina, followed by Phantom Assassin, Nyx Assassin and Viper, which triggered a more reactive draft from BOOM. The latter looked to counter T1’s skirmish and burst damage output in team fight with a Kunnka, Faceless Void, Legion Commander trio core and Vengeful Spirit for extra saves. Despite having to play a much slower draft, BOOM managed to hit all their big ultimates timing perfectly and totally annihilated T1’s strategy to end the game with a crushing 30 to 5 kill score.

In the second game, T1 were given even fewer kills. Three were the total deaths on the BOOM Esports side, who once again picked a mid lane Kunkka for Erin Jasper "Yopaj" Ferrer and had a perfect transition from lanning to mid stage of the game.

Nonetheless, T1 were able to make a comeback in game three with a Templar Assassin that made the difference past the 30 minute mark. A team fight in BOOM’s dire jungle at the 34 minute mark ended with a double Rampage for the TA and marked the winning point for T1.

Unfortunately, heading into the fourth game of the series, T1’s mid laner Karl "Karl" Matthew Baldovino lost internet connection and after an extended wait, his team had to play with Mc Nicholson "Mac/Lelouch-" Villanueva from Polaris Esports standing in. Forced to adapt on the fly, T1 lost the battle in the end and finished the Regional final in second place after a 1-3 defeat.

For BOOM Esports, the Winter Tour ends with a total of 450 DPC points, after receiving a penalty for using a stand-in for the Regional Finals.