SkyVille breeze through first leg of TNC Cup 2017

01:53 PM March 28, 2017

Over a hundred teams from all over the Philippines battled it out for a chance at glory and gold at the TNC Cup 2017. TheNet.Com Pro Team hosted its first tournament for the year which saw amateur teams from 20 TNC branches fight for a spot at the Grand Finals. Once the dust settled, four teams secured their spot to fight it out at High Grounds Café in Quezon City; Skyville from TNC Tarlac, LBay from TNC Biñan, So Lucky from TNC P. Noval, and SteelWolves.Empire from TNC USLS, Bacolod.

The finals were held on Saturday, March 25, 2017 at the High Grounds Café powered by TNC Cyber Café at Scout Rallos, Quezon City. High Grounds Café houses the most premier gaming café in the Philippines, boasting top-of-the-line gaming PCs, and offers delicious food to fuel you while you game. This is the first of four legs of the The TNC Cup 2017, with the second one expected to start around June.

A Dominating Performance

Pampanga-based Skyville dominated the scene, not dropping a single game throughout the tournament. With their strong chemistry and intelligent drafts, they built leads in the early game to slowly choke out their opponents.

The first game of the day was between Skyville and LBay. LBay managed to get two early kills but Skyville had a better scaling composition. With ample crowd control and clutch Rubick Spell Steals, Skyville managed to take down LBay in 23 minutes with a 19-4 advantage in kills. This would set the tone for the rest of the day’s games, as Skyville would have an average game time of 27:22. Skyville then moved on to the Winner’s Bracket, along with So Lucky, who won their first game against SteelWolves.Empire. Their game happened simultaneously with Skyville’s and LBay’s. In a post-game interview one of the Skyville players said their game plan was focused on “Objectives lang. Tamang timpla lang.”

The first match in the winner’s bracket was a Best Of 3 match between Skyville and So Lucky. Game 1 saw amazing individual performances from Rubick who had a Triple Kill in the early game which helped them to snowball the game, and Viper who had a Rampage at the end of the game. Game 1 also ended in 23 minutes. So Lucky tried to bounce back in Game 2 as they picked away the Rubick and the Vengeful Spirit. They rounded off their composition with high damage dealers in Shadow Fiend and Axe and a versatile support in Abaddon. At the 5-minute mark both teams were at 2 kills each, and neither team pulled a large enough lead. By the mid game however, Skyville’s Templar Assassin got Triple Kills in two huge team fights and that snowballed them to victory, and got them the 2-0 win.

The next game was between SteelWolves.Empire and So Lucky. So Lucky’s Meepo led in Net Worth almost all throughout the game but it wasn’t enough to win the game as SteelWolves got the win, and the spot in the final round against Skyville.

The final round was also a Best of 3. In game 1 the tone was pretty much the same as the whole tournament, with Skyville racking up big leads in the early game with their calculated aggressive playstyle, getting 3 early kills. In Game 2 SteelWolves tried to math Skyville’s aggression, getting an early 3-1 lead in kills. But Skyville’s Alchemist and Juggernaut were left alone to farm, being up almost 3k in Net Worth. Skyville ended the game in 26:37, getting them another 2-0, and winning the Championship.

A Peek at the Future

Coming from a humble background themselves, TNC wanted to host a tournament featuring amateur teams to give them a platform to showcase their talents and open doors for them in the professional gaming industry. The tournament kicked off in February 4 and lasted a month, where gamer hopefuls qualified in their respective branches. The second phase started immediately after, where the top teams in each branch faced each other in group stages. TNC then flew all the teams to the capital to play in the Finals in what has been touted as the first gaming arena in the country. The TNC Cup 2017 would not have been possible without High Grounds Café, TNC eSports, TNC Cyber Café, Palit, GIGABYTE, ViewPaker and ADATA.