MANILA – Filipino DOTA 2 team Neon Esports pulled off a scintillating run in the ONE Esports Singapore Major and finished in joint fifth place.
Despite its struggles in the group stages, Neon, consisting of hard carry player and captain Andrei Ong, midlaner Erin Ferrer, support players Jaunuel Arcilla and Prieme Maque, and stand-in offlaner Yang Hu Weng of Singapore, came alive in the lower bracket playoffs and came just close to making the podium.
Getting a direct invite, Neon could not find its rhythm in the group stages but still barely made the playoffs with a 5-9 record in terms of games played.
In the knockout stages, Neon ousted Southeast Asian rival Fnatic, 2-1, in the first round and Chinese squad Vici Gaming also with a similar 2-1 scoreline in the second round.
Both Fnatic and Vici were relegated to the lower bracket after losing in their upper bracket quarterfinal matches.
Neon’s Cinderella story ended on Saturday after losing to Team Secret in the third round, 1-2.
Despite this, Neon will take home USD25,000 (around PHP1.2 million) and 300 DOTA Pro Circuit (DPC) points along with Peruvian squad Thunder Predator.
Up next for Neon is the Asia-Pacific Predator League grand finals starting on Tuesday.
“We’ve been looking forward to joining this tournament since December 2019,” said Neon’s chief executive officer Robert Campbell.
On the other hand, Team Manager Carl Talungan said their participation in the Singapore Major will be their edge entering the Predator League finals.
Meanwhile, Filipino fans still have another reason to watch the Singapore Major until the end as Filipino carry player Abed Yusop is now in the finals.
Yusop and the rest of American side Evil Geniuses (EG) are now just one step away from the USd200,000 (around PHP9.7 million) top prize after beating Chinese team LGD, 2-1, in the upper bracket finals also on Saturday.
EG will now have to wait if they will take on LGD again in the best-of-five championship series or they will take on a different opponent instead.
LGD was relegated to the lower bracket finals, where they will face Invictus Gaming on Sunday with the winner facing EG for all the marbles later in the day.
