RSG PH has garnered impressive wins this season after beating world champions Bren Esports and putting the brakes on the runaway Onic PH.
They had a chance to live up to their “kingslayer” moniker with their matchup against the number one seeded (and still unbeaten) Blacklist International.
This was also the chance for Joshwell Christian “Iy4knu” Manaog to prove that he could outperform his former teammate and mentor, Johnmar “OhMyV33nus” Villaluna.
But in the end, Blacklist proved to be the more dominant team with a convincing sweep over the so-called Kingslayers, with both games falling in the codebreakers’ favor with landslide victories.
If the previous matchups saw teams ban majority of OhMyV33nus’ hero pool, this series saw RSG deny Wise’s options in Game 1. Wise’s signature heroes like Aldous, Brody, and Yi Sun-shin were never even given the greenlight to enter the Land of Dawn.
But while RSG thought they could capitalize on Wise’s Bruno, this never materialized as they were completely overwhelmed by Blacklist’s mobility.
Both OhMyV33nus and Kiel Calvin “OHEB” Soriano were able to deploy their signature heroes, Mathilda and Harith, which allowed them to move around the map and dictate every lane, alongside Salic “Hadji” Imam’s Rafaela.
With their initial plans backfiring, RSG opted to ban Blacklist’s key heroes like Harith, Mathilda, and Aldous in Game 2, but this approach likewise failed as the defending champs once again swept through the entire map with their aggressive gameplan.
This time, OhMyV33nus was able to utilize the healing prowess of his Estes, which created opportunities for Edward “EDWARD” Jay Dapadap to tower dive.
RSG potentially found a hole in Blacklist’s gameplan as Jonard Cedrix “Demonkite” Caranto was able to secure a kill on OhMyV33nus in the 11th minute. But his death in the 13th minute, turned the tides and provided the codebreakers with the final push.
With their victory over RSG, Blacklist remains unbeaten this season. Ironically, OhMyV33nus hinted that he might actually want to see his team lose during the post-game interview.
“Personally gusto ko ng matalo para makita namin as early as now kung anong kailangang i-adjust,” said the codebreaker’s captain and shotcaller.
ECHO bounces back with a dominant display over TNC
After suffering from a series of losses and a benched Christian “Rafflesia” Fajura (due to COVID-19), ECHO managed to redeem themselves by prevailing over TNC with a 2-0 sweep.
Similar to the other series, ECHO completely dismantled TNC from the beginning. Both games saw TNC struggle to deal with early objective pushes from their rivals which was also evident in their previous match against Onic PH.
TNC was able to secure important kills in Game 2, but this came at a cost as they fell victim to Frederic Benedict “Bennyqt” Gonzales’ split pushing game.
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