Steven R. April 14, 2019
Thunder Predator has long been the king of its regional Dota 2 tournaments, and it maintaind that reputation in the Mekansm League.
The Peruvian team cruised through the tournament to take the first-place prize of $3,500. It did so by defeating Kingao+4, an impromptu team built around Chaos Esports Club player Danylo "Kingrd" Nascimento in the grand finals.
That grand finals kicked off with an excellent showing from Leonardo "LeoStyle-" Sifuentes. The mid laner looked great on Medusa, taking advantage of an eyebrow-raising mid Monkey King pick by Kingao+4 and converting it into a massive early gold lead. A similarly strong showing from carry Juan "Atun" Ochoa on Morphling allowed the team to run away early and take the 25-minute win.
Kingao+4 got revenge in the second game by getting a big performance out of its core players, but the team was denied any kind of momentum in game three. In a 56-minute slugfest where the lead changed hands 10 times, Thunder Predator took control of the series off a 30-kill Phantom Assassin game from Atun. That swung the momentum firmly in the team’s favor, and it capitalized on it in game four by closing the series out 3-1.
Thunder Predator has quietly been one of the strongest teams in South America this season. Though it hasn’t been able to consistently qualify for majors in the way rival Chaos has, Thunder Predator has won a number of smaller events including the BTS Spring Cup: Americas and joinDOTA Turbo Masters Americas.
The team is still on the lookout for that big tournament that will propel it to the next level, but if it stays in this form, Thunder Predator’s time may soon come.