Ohaiyo on Their Second Qualifier Win Over MVP: “Happy the Team Is Playing Well and Is Able to Keep Our Winning Streak in SEA.”
Continuing their now 8-match win-streak in Southeast Asia (SEA), Fnatic Dota bested their rivals, MVP Phoenix, 3-1, to claim the ESL ONE Frankfurt SEA qualifier. Their ticket to Frankfurt marks the third straight LAN qualifier win for Fnatic since the Dota 2 Winter Major in Shanghai.
Fnatic Dota’s continued supremacy atop a pile of LAN qualifier finals is nothing new to fans of SEA Dota 2. The team has punched tickets to the ESL ONE Manila finals this April 22-24, the EPICENTER LAN Finals in Moscow in May and now the ESL ONE Frankfurt final on June 18-19.
The team’s red hot momentum kick-started in March, where the team rattled off 24 straight match wins to a mind-boggling 92% win-rate. April looks to have done little to slow down the primarily Malaysian team as their victory over MVP puts them on 8 straight matches won.
While MVP Phoenix placed higher at the Shanghai Majors (besting and knocking out Fnatic in on the way to a 3rd-4th place finish) and won the Dota Pit 4 LAN Finals weeks later, it was Fnatic who surged their way to top of the SEA standings by robbing their Korean rivals of two LAN Final qualifiers events.
At the EPICENTER Moscow LAN qualifier, Fnatic swept MVP, 3-0, thoroughly outpacing their opponents thanks to their triple-carry line-up of Yeik Zheng “Miduan” Nai, Chong Xin “Ohaiyo” Khoo and Djardel Jicko “Dj” Mampusti.
ESL ONE Frankfurt’s qualifier finals saw MVP try to regain lost ground against Fnatic, initially tying the series 1-1. In their games, both teams relied on metagame power-picks in Enchantress, Invoker and Bounty Hunter. Doom was a highly contested pick for both teams as each squad had used the high-impact support pick in past outings against each other.
All four matches were bloody, high-kill affairs, not atypical to the SEA Dota 2 metagame. In the end, it was the more battle-hardened Fnatic who prevailed.
Said Fnatic Dota offlaner Ohaiyo said about his team’s recent victories:
“We are very happy to have won the qualifier. ESL One Frankfurt last year was a great event if not the best I’ve been to, and we are happy to be able to participate again.”
“I am also personally very happy the team is playing well and is able to keep our winning streak in SEA tournaments,” said Ohaiyo. “Hopefully we will be able to keep this up in the grand final of SEA Kappa tomorrow and the upcoming LAN finals.”
After withdrawing from the WePlay tournament in mid-March and the subsequent leave of absence by captain, Chai Yee “Mushi” Fung, fans speculated that the team would dive. SEA Dota 2 veteran Wai Pern “Net” Lim’s transition into safelane carry drew flak from audiences as he had been a player known more for his support play.
However, Mushi’s absence, together with the addition of Adam “343” Shah, has seemingly ignited the Fnatic Dota train. While the team would still succumb to the blood-lust inherent in the DNA of all SEA-region organizations, their rise to power has been marked with consistent results and an impressive demonstration of their range.
READ: Finding Mushi: How Fnatic Found Themselves in the Wake of Mushi’s Absence
While Fnatic did not meet MVP Phoenix on the road to victories in other SEA-region tournaments (namely BTS SEA #4 and ESL ONE Manila), the question of who is the better team is — for the moment — answered.
Banner photo by Eric Khor
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