TNC Predator has been knockout of the LA Major – the third major of the season after a poor performance at the ESL One Los Angeles Major qualifiers, which sees them running out of the playoff spot.
TNC, which is the champions of the first Major in the 2019-20 Dota Pro Circuit, are still struggling to regain their championship form after the Outlanders update.
Having yet to take throughout a year, mathematically, it’s looking likely that they will miss the third major of the season.
What could have led to the collapse of the team? Other teams have been taking breaks from at least a tournament in a year, but TNC had not followed that custom. The team’s performance is thought to be down to fatigue. They might be forced not to participate from the tournament willingly, unlike Secret, OG, and PSG.LGD or, more recently, Vici Gaming THAT had missed some qualifiers to recharge their batteries.
Having not missed a single qualifier, TNC is on top of the DPC table with 5,300 points. This could help them to still qualify for the major, but they have to go through a long route. They will now have to go through the StarLadder ImbaTV Minor. Winning the event will give them automatic tickets to the City of Angels.
Although, they are mathematically out, with a series left to play against Reality Rift.
Meanwhile, IO Dota 2, a recently formed stack led by Chai “Mushi” Yee Fung and Galvin “Meracle” Kang, has won five games, and they are occupying the second seed in Group A.
With this terrible performance, pundits have predicted that TNC is not guaranteed to make it even to the qualifiers. For them to qualify for the minor qualifiers, they will have to beat Reality Rift. If they failed to, they would have to play a best-of-three with the fourth-placed team from Group B to decide who heads to the Minor qualifier. In the event of a draw, the tiebreakers’ rule will be deployed.
TNC had an excellent start to the season, with two straight championships wins in ESL One Hamburg 2019 and the MDL Chengdu Major.
Their performance of late has been nothing to write home about after their two trophies.
Written by: Oladipupo Mojeed
