Fnatic’s performance at the ONE Esports Singapore Major had fans wondering what happened to the best team from the Southeast Asian region?

After their quick exit from the Major, Fnatic announced that they’d moved Natthaphon “Masaros” Ouanphakdee to their inactive roster.

In Fnatic’s official statement, Masaros shared, “Moving forward, I will play with my former Thai teammates.” Masaros is talking about his former Motivate.Trust Gaming teammates with who he won the BTS Pro Series SEA Season 3 and DOTA Summit 13 SEA Online.

Fnatic, Masaros, ONE Esports Singapore Major
Credit: ONE Esports

With a void left in Fnatic’s offlane position, a possible replacement could be OB.Neon’s savior Yang “Deth” Wu Heng who joined the team at the eleventh hour when they were in desperate need of a stand-in player.

With Fnatic already set to play in the second DPC SEA season, we’ve narrowed down three reasons why Deth is the best replacement for Masaros.

3. Deth’s amazing Singapore Major performance

Deth helped OB.Neon achieves a 60% win rate in the 23 games he played during the Major, He also recorded a 4.67/3.4/11.93 KDA average rating. And, according to Dota Buff, this was one of Deth’s most consistent tournament performances in his career based on his own personal stats.

Masaros had a decent Singapore Major run with a 3.2/4.8/8.6 KDA in the five games Fnatic played in the Major. But, his overall performance in terms of last hits, along with gold and experience per minute was not as good as Deth’s.

Fnatic and Masaros finished in 9th-12th place, while OB.Neon and Deth shocked everyone with their fifth-sixth place finish at the Singapore Major.

2. Deth is currently a free agent

After OB.Neon’s upset win over Vici Gaming in the lower bracket, Jaunuel “Jaunuel” Arcilla told ONE Esports that the Filipino squad is not looking to sign players outside of the Philippines. While they appreciate his quick response to joining the team as a stand-in, OB.Neon wants to keep its all Filipino roster.

1. There aren’t a lot of top tier offlaners in the SEA region

If we look at the current pool of offlane players in the Southeast Asian region, there are only a handful of players who can go up against international talent. In fact, the main reason why Fnatic signed Masaros was because they lost Daryl “iceiceice’ Koh to Evil Geniuses — the runner-up team in the Singapore Major.

Another team that needed a stand-in for the Major was T1 after Carlo “Kuku” Palad was deemed unwell to travel. T1 brought in Lee “Forev” Sang-don as their stand-in, but it was evident that they really needed Kuku’s offlane presence and leadership after the team was eliminated from the Wild Card.

Deth has shown he’s able to compete against the best teams in the world during the Major, and that he is able to adjust to high pressure situations

While the pairing of Fnatic and Deth makes sense now, nothing is official yet; both parties haven’t made an official announcement. Fnatic and OB.Neon will, however, continue playing in the second DPC season, which will span from April 13 to May 23. 

READ MORE: The 5 most insane moments from the Singapore Major All-Star Match