After a dual T1 comeback at The International 2022, ana and Topson have fallen out of contention at the Last Chance Qualifier.
T1 has lost The International 2022 Last Chance Qualifier, and that means no third Aegis for Topias “Topson” Taavitsainen or Anathan “ana” Pham. This early defeat cements that no player will earn a third Aegis of Champions at TI11. It also follows a very high-profile roster switch made just weeks before the regional qualifier. By losing at the LCQ, T1 will take home zero earnings from the $13.5 million event.
T1 was a fan favorite heading into the regional qualifiers for The International 2022 but earned a spot at the Last Chance Qualifier with a third-place finish. The team then became a popular battle pass prediction for the LCQ. T1 performed slightly worse than expected with a 5-5 game record, but that still earned an upper-bracket start.
After defeating Group B top seed Natus Vincere, T1 fell victim to a confident 2-0 from Team Secret. The ensuing lower bracket series against Vici Gaming was incredibly tight, but a string of flashy team fights bent the game in Vici’s favor. The Chinese team’s Morphling Visage strategy melted towers, heroes, and Roshan alike to a 29-minute victory. On the way out, Vici carry Yang “Erika” Shaohan offered a rude goodbye to T1 captain Carlo “Kuku” Palad.
This disappointing finish follows T1’s controversial roster change before the regional qualifiers. Carry Kim “Gabbi” Santos and mid-laner Karl “Karl” Baldovino were abruptly kicked to make room for OG’s double-TI champion cores. The move excited some fans while angering others, but it ultimately resulted in a trip to Singapore and nothing more.
After T1 loss at The International LCQ, will ana and Topson stay?
Based on previous statements from ana, it’s reasonable to expect that both players will likely leave the T1 roster after The International 2022.
In a previous interview with the media outlet Jaxon, ana stated that playing in the Dota Pro Circuit regular season is worthless when players can qualify for The International at the end of the year and make more money.
“Yeah, what’s the point of playing useless DPC when you can just spend a fraction of time on qualifiers, if it works, great, and if not then it doesn’t matter,” said ana.
Based on this statement, it’s likely that ana will break off from the T1 roster sometime after The International. When TI12 rolls around, he may return to seek out another qualifier team. As for Topson, he has recently doubled down on content creation with more active social media platforms. Both players definitely have the money to comfortably retire, winning a combined $11.7 million from The Internationals 8 and 9.
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