TNC Predator fall to Virtus Pro at the EPICENTER Major

After an amazing run at the EPICENTER Major, TNC Predator were finally stopped in their tracks against one of the most dominant teams this season, Virtus Pro.

This was the first Dota Pro Circuit event that TNC qualified for since the Chongqing Major in January, where they were eliminated in a tie for ninth and then seemingly disappeared from the competitive scene.

They didn’t literally disappear, but they did hit an extremely rough patch in their season and failed to qualify for any Major events. In fact, they couldn’t even make it into a Minor, being bested by Mineski and Warriors Gaming in those qualifiers.

Once the hardships began, TNC dropped their captain Michael “ninjaboogie” Ross Jr. and brought in Nico “eyyou” Barcelon as a stand-in. Their results didn’t improve drastically, but they were playing at a more competitive level again. Eventually, they signed eyyou on a full-time basis and made him the new captain of their squad.

After good placements at both ESL One Mumbai and Birmingham, the team was ready to compete in their first Major in nearly six months. Being sorted into the fan named Group of Death at EPICENTER was a tough draw for TNC, but they surprised everyone by winning some games and taking the top seed. They went 4-1 in a field of LGD Gaming, Ninjas in Pyjamas, and OG to win Group D and make it into the upper bracket.

From there, TNC beat Royal Never Give Up before losing to Vici Gaming and being knocked into the lower bracket. They ended up sweeping LGD in a rematch to set up a confrontation with VP in the fifth round of the playoffs.

VP struggled early at the event but managed to turn things around. They came out aggressive against TNC and didn’t really look phased by anything since they took a dominant win in game one.

Roman “RAMZES666” Kushnarev was absolutely stellar, tearing through TNC with his Weaver. He managed to secure 14 kills and assists each without dying a single time even when he was a focal point of the offense.

VP completely shut out Timothy “Tims” Randrup and eyyou and set the stage for game two to be a similarly easy win. But TNC didn’t let that happen. Instead, they flipped things around and held a significant game as the lanes progressed.

Unfortunately for the Southeast Asian squad, VP drafted well for a late-game scenario while their own lineup focused more on an early push strategy. That lead slowly trickled away until things were dead even and it came down to key plays during fights.

It really came down to TNC just not being able to keep up with VP in the damage department. RAMZES666 and Vladimir “Noone” Minenko combined for 90,000 hero damage on their own, which was just shy of what TNC put out as a whole between their five players.

That Gyrocopter and Storm Spirit combo broke down whatever TNC had left and helped VP finish the 2-0 sweep that guarantees them a top three finish.

Despite their loss, TNC did secure a spot at The International 2019 as the ninth-ranked team in the world and showed that they’ll be ready to compete in Shanghai this August.

VP will play Team Liquid in the lower bracket finals at 4:30am CT on June 30 to see which team will move on and face Vici in the grand finals of the last Major of the season.