BTS Pro Series Season 4: Southeast Asia is finally over and the winner is a team we haven’t seen winning anything important since September. TNC Predator had a difficult year and only managed to win two tournaments in 2020. However, the fact that they beat the likes of Fnatic, T1, and Team Dog at this event suggests that they’ve finally found their winning formula. Going into 2021, we can expect Tims’ squad to be a serious challenger in the regional qualifiers for Dota Pro Circuit events.
BTS Pro Series Season 4: Southeast Asia Review
BTS Pro Series Season 4: SEA started with a round-robin in which the 8 participants had the opportunity to play a Bo2 match against each of their opponents. And 4 of the 8 teams proved to be extremely close to each other in strength. The top 2 teams, TNC Predator and T1, lost 0 matches out of 7. The next two teams, Fnatic and Team Dog, only lost one match.
Given this situation, it wasn’t obvious at all who was going to win. And many people suspected that Team Dog had the highest odds of success, simply because they had Abed and iceiceice. And as it turned out, they weren’t wrong. Except TNC made a spectacular comeback in the Grand Final and ultimately stole their trophy.
Playoffs
As a result of what happened in the Group Stage, TNC Predator, Fnatic, T1, and Team Dog started in the Upper Bracket of the Playoffs of BTS Pro Series Season 4: Southeast Asia. The other 4 teams started in the Lower Bracket.
TNC Predator won their match against Fnatic while Team Dog defeated T1. In the Upper Bracket Final, Team Dog showed superior skill and won again. The two teams met again in the Grand Final, after TNC Predator defeated T1 in two highly disputed games that lasted 52 and 42 minutes.
Grand Final
The Grand Final began with a victory for TNC. Their Morphling pick got overpowered very quickly and Team Dog couldn’t do anything against it. It was all over in just 28 minutes.
In games 2 and 3 , Team Dog abused a very effective slow-based strategy, with heroes like Undying, Viper, and Queen of Pain. TNC’s drafts were not adapted to deal with Dog’s and both games ended with a victory for Abed’s team.
Then came games 4 and 5, in which TNC picked Mirana and played it to perfection, employing her ultimate to always surprise their opponent and cause critical damage.
Photo credit: Valve