The Dota Pro Circuit Winter Tour 2023 Division 1 has concluded and it’s definitely been a shocking season opener with many heavyweight names bowing out in a surprising fashion. Southeast Asia is no exception.
Lauded as one of the regions with the toughest DPC competition, the major names that were expected to dominate have faltered during the tournament. But while the losers are busy with the angry mobs (and memes) all over social media, few have garnered praise due to their outstanding individual performances, including Fnatic one and only: Djardiel “DJ” Mampusti.
Hardcore Fnatic fans everywhere hold his name in high regard. After all, DJ has been an important member of the Fnatic Dota 2 team since 2017. Many viewers and fellow pros rank him among the world’s top support players.
Over the years, DJ has helped Fnatic to compete in numerous major competitions, including the Majors and The International. Though he’s yet to achieve what he wanted, he showed his grit and consistency in every game.
Consistency, however, has not been the case for Fnatic. They were on a roller-coaster ride throughout the 2022 competitive season in SEA. Even so, DJ and his team still managed to land themselves at the top three in DPC SEA 2022 and a ticket to The International 11.
But going into 2023, their future looks even bleaker compared to what they’ve had in 2022. Especially with the departure of their two mainstay players – Marc Polo “Raven” Fausto and captain Anucha “Jabz” Jirawong – who left after the conclusion of TI 11 in October 2022.
To compensate for their loss, Kim “Gabbi” Santos (formerly of T1) and Damien “kpii” Chok (formerly of Talon) were added to the team. But the past week’s results clearly showed that these two still couldn’t figure it out as a team. As the rest of the team were struggling, DJ was the only one who really stood out from the pack.
And it’s clearly not an exaggeration. His team might be hopeless, but DJ was able to put up some good fight against his opponents.
DJ has been the talk of the town when Fnatic faced Talon in the last week of DPC SEA Div 1 few days ago. Playing Tiny for game 1 and Tusk for game 2, he stepped up and racked some incredible assists as he put Talon on the floor with 2-0 victory. Unfortunately, it was his last and only victory in this winter tour.
Is it time for DJ to make a move?
With one win and six losses, Fnatic are officially relegated to division 2 for the first time in their DPC SEA history.
Fans were outraged by this outcome. Many agreed that Gabbi was the one to blame and hoped he would be benched soon. At the same time, many DPC viewers have expressed their sympathies to DJ.
Others implored him to quit Fnatic and put his talents elsewhere. Some fans even half-jokingly mentioned teams such as SMG or Boom Esports to pick him up for the upcoming tour.
Several fellow pros have expressed empathy for DJ’s plight this season as well. One of them is Yazied “Yapzor” Jaradat, former player of Team Secret, who thought that DJ is Fnatic’s MVP for Winter Tour 2023. In addition, he criticized Fnatic’s tendency of throwing games.
It may not be a stretch to say that DJ will easily improve the situation in other teams. With his capabilities and experiences, he could easily have played on any major SEA team or even outside of SEA. Given his history with Fnatic and their hardcore fans, however, it seems likely that he will stay for another season in the Philippines. But considering his age and the increasing pressure from the media, God knows how long he could resist the temptation to go outside of his comfort place.
