The first Major of the new Dota 2 DPC Season is finally over and standing on top is none other than TNC Predator. While dominating most of the tournament, TNC had to drop down to the Lower Bracket before ultimately showing that it was the better team. The win gives TNC a $300,00 share of the prize pool as well as the more important 4,850 DPC Points. To put into perspective on how big a deal this win was, during the 2018-2019 Season the bottom six teams who received an invitation to TI9 had less than 3,000 DPC points.
Group Stage
In the Group Stage, TNC was grouped with the Fighting Pandas, EHOME, and Team Unknown. It was TNC all the way as the team beat Team Unknown in the Opening Match 2-0 and then swept EHOME as well in the Winner's Match. This gave TNC the top spot in the group and a sure slot in the Upper Bracket.
Playoffs
In the Upper Bracket, TNC played against Alliance in the first match. Alliance took the first game in the gruelling contest, but the next two were all TNC. The next match was versus J.Storm and this time TNC again swept its opponent 2-0.This led to an Upper Bracket Finals against Vici Gaming. The Chinese team also showed their mettle by sweeping TNC, dropping TNC to the Lower Bracket.
Here TNC faced off against Invictus Gaming, who had slowly worked its way up the Lower Bracket after being defeated by Evil Geniuses in the first round of the Playoffs. TNC would not be denied a shot at the championship, as it beat out IG 2-0 in games lasting just about 30 minutes.
This meant a rematch with VG in the Grand Finals.
Grand Finals
With VG's most recent victory coming just a few hours before, there was the expectation that they would do the same again. To everyone's surprise however, TNC showed just how hungry they were for the win.
The first game was a disaster for VG as TNC out-drafted, out-matched, and clearly outplayed them. TNC's Kim "Gabbi" Villafuerte on Chaos Knight had seven kills with Armel Paul "Armel" Tabios on Outworld Devourer raking in seven kills as well. On VG's side? They had a total of six team kills. In the second game, TNC went for their Morphling and Earthshaker combo. This resulted in Gabbi on Morphling getting a total of 17 kills with Timothy "Tims" Randrup on Earthshaker contributing with 21 assists. That gave TNC the 2-0 lead.
VG did not go down without a fight and found a way to answer TNC's draft in the third game. TNC went for the Chen + Alchemist combo plus Ursa. This didn't faze VG, as they methodically took down TNC.
With that, TNC again went for their trusted Morphling + Earthshaker combo. This was a surprise that VG didn't try to prevent. However, VG banked on Zeng "Ori" Jiaoyang on Templar Assassin. Initially, VG had the upper hand, getting a lead of almost 30k. The Morphling + Earthshaker combo proved to be too much, and despite trying their best to hold on, TNC would not be denied.
What's Next?
TNC has so far managed to surprise the Dota 2 community with their performance. Before the Chengdu Major, TNC had won the ESL One Hamburg just a month before. So what's next for TNC? The second major is the DreamLeague Season 13, which is scheduled for January of next year. With most of the top-tier Dota 2 teams likely to make an appearance, TNC may have its work cut out. Before all that, TNC sits at the top of this season's rankings, and given their performance, may not go down as easy.
