Day 2 of the ONE Esports Dota 2 SEA League Group Stage featured a thrilling battle between two Filipino squads: Execration and Team Adroit. 

Game two of the series, in particular, stood out and saw qualifier squad XctN upsetting its Filipino rivals, thanks to Jinn Marrey “Palos” Lamatao’s stellar Morphling performance.

XctN’s support heroes quickly became easy targets for Palos after he acquired his Ethereal Blade. This gave XctN a clear team fight advantage as the rest of Adroit’s heroes struggled to join fights from the backline.

Meanwhile, Marvin “yaha” Canlasyaha’s Mirana helped XctN set up core kills with his Eul’s Scepter and Sacred Arrow combo. Once yaha had isolated an enemy core hero, this forced Adroit to take inopportune team fights. And this allowed Palos’ Morphling to deal huge amounts of damage.

A few minutes later, Palos became a bit overeager chasing after heroes to burst down, and this gave Adoit the opening it needed to take down XctN’s primary source of damage. Meanwhile, Mc Nicholson “Mac” Villanueva’s Tiny used his own Ethereal Blade that increased his Avalanche and Toss combo, removing Palos’ Morphling from the team fight.

XctN earned its first win of the tournament with the game two victory over Adroit, giving the team a 1-3 record at the end of Day 2. Meanwhile, Adroit sit at 2-2.

READ MORE: ONE Esports Dota 2 SEA League Day 1: T1 start strong