Motivate.Trust Gaming shocks everyone by winning BTS Pro Series Season 3: SEA

Out of all the teams that participated in the Beyond the Summit Pro Series Season 3: Southeast Asia online tournament, Motivate.Trust Gaming (MTG) was one of the last squads you’d expect to make it all the way to the grand finals.

But the dedicated players from Thailand were eager to show how much they’ve improved their game. After being dropped to the lower bracket by the all-star lineup of Among Us, Motivate.Trust demolished all teams in their path and even got their revenge against Among Us in the lower bracket final.

And during the final series of the tournament against BOOM Esports, they proved to everyone they’re capable of defeating any team in the region after they thoroughly outplayed their Indonesian counterparts in a 3-0 clean sweep.

And here’s how they did it:

Game One — Excellent drafting

At the start of the match, BOOM hoped to throw Motivate.Trust off their game by drafting Riki and Storm Spirit as their last two hero picks. And in response, MTG decided to go with an Anti-Mage for their team captain and hard carry player Souliya “Jackky” Khoomphetsavong.

After an even laning stage, MTG made moves around the map while Jackky was focused on getting the advantage for the late game stage and continued farming on his Anti-Mage. But despite not having their hard carry in the team fights, MTG’s combined their hero abilities perfectly to stunlock BOOM’s lineup.

By using Elder Titan’s Echo Stomp together with Phoenix’s Supernova, BOOM couldn’t escape Poomipat “Fearless” Trisiripanit’s Void Spirit and Natthaphon “Masaros” Ouanphakdee’s Timbersaw.

And once the game hit the 35-minute mark, Jackky’s Anti-Mage took control of Game 1’s remaining team fight after banking a 10,000 gold lead against Rafli “Mikoto” Rahman’s Storm Spirit.

Game Two — Stellar performances from their support players

In the second game of the series, MTG’s two support players Worawit “Q” Mekchai and Anurat “boombell” Praianun made high-impact plays for their team.

Whenever BOOM tried to make a play on MTG’s core heroes, Q was ready to counter or reposition the enemy heroes with his Tiny. And with boombell in the backlines, MTG was able to take prolonged team fights against BOOM. Randy “Dreamocel” Sapoetra on the Phantom Lancer tried to focus the enemy Oracle, but it only gave MTG the opening they needed to take him down.

Saieful “Fbz” Ilham did land an impressive counter-initiation Ravage against MTG that got BOOM back into the game.

But once both teams reached the late game phase, MTG just had a better lineup that could make initiation plays that pulled BOOM’s heroes away from each other.

Game Three — High level team fight execution

BOOM tried to get back into the series by playing safer and allowing MTG to make mistakes, and at the 16-minute mark they capitalized on a midlane push that gave the Indonesian team a 7-2 team kill advantage.

But MTG would eventually prove they are the better team when it comes to team fighting. BOOM chased down Jackky and took away his Aegis of the Immortal advantage, but they spent most of their abilities and depleted their mana pools. This gave MTG the green light to chase down BOOM all the way to the entrance of the Dire base.

MTG also knew when to disengage and when to commit to team fights. With BOOM’s lack of AOE stuns, MTG wasn’t afraid to jump right in and focus down the Dire team’s core heroes. But they knew they shouldn’t take a fight while Dreamocel and Mikoto had their Black King Bars activated. Once they were spent, MTG knew they had the superior team fight lineup and destroyed BOOM during the remaining team fights.

Knowing that they had complete control of the final game, MTG went straight into the Dire base and focused down BOOM’s throne to win the tournament.

The Beyond the Summit Pro Series Season 3: Southeast Asia tournament is Motivate.Trust Gaming’s second tournament win of 2020 — with the first event being the ESL Thailand Championship 2020. They get to take home US$21,000 and move up as true Dota 2 contenders in Southeast Asia.