TNC Predator release kpii and Febby after missing Singapore Major
Filipino organisation TNC Predator announced on Wednesday (3 March) that they have parted ways with offlaner Damien "Kpii" Chok and captain Kim "Febby" Yong-Min after the team failed to qualify for the upcoming ONE Esports Singapore Major.
In the announcement on TNC's official Facebook page, the team thanked Kpii and Febby for "sharing their unrivaled professional skills" throughout their time together and described their departures as a "move towards greater heights".
"Through our wins and losses, Kpii and Febby displayed great potential and offered us a plethora of different strategies that made our team shine. Their help in bringing the team closer to the aegis of champions will forever be engraved in the history of our team, TNC Predator. Our roster with them is the best so far," said TNC.
Kpii first joined TNC in September 2019 alongside Park "March" Tae-won, immediately making their mark with the team by helping them win back-to-back titles at ESL One Hamburg 2019 in October and the MDL Chengdu Major, the first Major of the 2019-2020 Dota Pro Circuit (DPC), in November.
Meanwhile, Febby first joined TNC as their coach in mid-January last year.
Despite their blazing start to the 2019-2020 DPC, TNC started to fall off as the season progressed. They finished in eighth place at DreamLeague Season 13: The Leipzig Major but failed to qualify for the ESL One Los Angeles Major before the circuit was cancelled by the coronavirus pandemic.
As the Dota 2 competitive scene shifted to online regional competitions, TNC continued to have mixed up-and-down showings, which ultimately prompted March's departure from the team in September.
Febby moved away from his position as coach and joined TNC's lineup in December, helping the team end 2020 with a big win at BTS Pro Series: SEA Season 4. With TNC's success after Febby took over as the captain, he officially joined the team's lineup ahead of the start of the 2021 DPC.
TNC were heavy favourites to secure one of the three Major slots for Southeast Asia. However, the team narrowly missed out on a ticket to Singapore after they finished the regional league in fourth place, which ultimately led to them parting ways with Kpii and Febby.
"Although this is the time we move in our own pace towards the Aegis, our friendship never stops and we hope that in the future, we meet again with Kpii and Febby in the battlefield," TNC said.
With the departures of their two foreign players, TNC could be looking to return to fielding an all-Filipino roster and continue building around their talented trio of Kim "Gabbi" Villafuerte, Armel Paul "Armel" Tabios, and Timothy "Tims" Randrup.
Since TNC won't be participating in the Singapore Major, which is scheduled from 27 March to 4 April, their return to DPC competition will be in the second season of the 2021 DPC in mid-April.
In addition, DPC rules state that teams who make roster changes in the middle of the circuit will have the amount of DPC points they earned prior to the roster change reduced, with the reduction depending on the number of players removed from the team.
DPC points determine whether a team will receive a direct invite to The International (TI) at the end of the circuit.
In the case of TNC, they have received a 27.75% reduction on the 100 DPC points they received for finishing fourth in the Southeast Asian regional league. They now have 72.25 DPC points, good for 21st in the entire circuit thus far.
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