The BTS Pro Series Season 12 is plausibly the most consistent tournament series and sustains the Southeast Asia and Americas scene.
While the prize pool is not as fancy as the majors, prominent teams do participate as practice against their regional rivals. As such, it’s the BTS Pro Series Season 12 Quarterfinals showcasing the top teams in their respective regions.
Four duels in both regions kick things off today.
Fnatic vs Execration
Although Fnatic holds itself at a more privileged standing as the International 11 (TI11) direct invite, their recent group stage performance wasn’t reassuring. Fnatic drew the series versus one too many competitors, such as BOOM Esports, Hokori, Team SMG, and even Execration.
If anything, Execration looked more formidable, considering they gave both BOOM and Hokori a run for their money. Execration essentially stuck to the basics of a foolproof team fight, heavy lockdowns revolving Faceless Void’s Chronosphere, and even relied on Enigma’s Blackhole. When executed well, would prove to be detrimental to their opponents even in the late game since no amount of late game scaling can survive getting stuck in any ultimate.
Fnatic and Execration drew their series during their group stage encounter. However, Fnatic, as the top seed in the group means that they are the favorites. Regardless, Execration has proven itself to be a strong opponent with experience dealing with powerhouses, such as Fnatic.
BOOM Esports vs Team SMG
Arguably two of the most high-profile teams in SEA, BOOM needs no introduction as the staple SEA candidate to participate in most majors last DPC 2022 season. On the other hand, SMG was supposed to be up and coming powerhouse to qualify for TI11 via the regional qualifier.
However, due to some management mishap, SMG did not even qualify as a participant for the regional qualifier. Nevertheless, SMG still boasts a promising line-up, especially with its latest addition, Daryl “iceiceice” Koh.
SMG and BOOM tied their group stage match earlier, however, BOOM seemed underwhelming if we must call out on the powerhouse. BOOM seemingly chose a draft that is overly safe, as if they were anticipating aggressive opponents. The multiple instances of saving mechanisms are great but can be a double-edged sword. As such, BOOM’s power creep will not be as effective as an opponent with full-fledged combos.
Ravens vs 5RATFORCESTAFF
Over at Americas side of BTS Pro Series S12, the competition may not be as appealing as its SEA counterpart. However, the spotlight now shines on the Ravens, which just became top seeds in the group stage.
The emerging SA squad first debuted in Tour 2, and eventually scored themselves top seed in Tour 3 Division 2. This means we can expect the new team to play in their first Division 1 bracket next DPC season.
With that in mind, their recent performance in BTS Pro Series S12 just strengthens everyone’s expectations that Ravens could be a NoPing successor in the making. NoPing esports’ former roster, now under Thunder Awaken, established themselves as staples in majors after just one year of active career.
Anyways, what makes Ravens stand out was their unorthodox drafts, such as Visage. The less popular pick was able to overcome 5RATFORCESTAFF’s meta picks, Faceless Void. But 5RATFORCESTAFF did manage to even the series by picking Naga Siren, a natural Visage counter. As both teams go for their rematch in quarterfinals, let’s see what Ravens has to put on the table.
SG esports vs The Cut
SG esports is certainly a familiar name among South American players but is by no means an outstanding team. After all, they barely survive demotion from Division 1 bracket from the last Tour.
Anyways, SG esports swept the floor vs The Cut during their last encounter. Couple that with The Cut’s poor synergy of drafted heroes and underwhelming execution made it very easy for SG esports to overwhelm them within midgame period.
That concludes the BTS Pro Series S12 Quarterfinal rounds from both SEA and Americas. Particularly, SEA does have more interesting match-ups, which gives us a glimpse into the expectations of SEA candidates at TI11.
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