WHILE MANY saw Falcon Esports as the dark horse of this tournament after their surprise dismantling of Indonesian and MLBB powerhouse Onic Indonesia, the Burmese squad was left humbled by the Filipino champs, RSG Philippines.
The series was a close grit-and-grind battle between the two teams, but the Raiders managed to calm the storm as they dismantled their foes in a 2-1 series win. RSG PH keep their upper bracket hopes alive, while Falcon will have to grind their way in the lower bracket.
Falcon overcommits in Game 1
Caisam “Wolf” Nopueto said it best during the pre-match analysis: Falcon Esports’ biggest weakness is their EXP laner Hein “yellowflash” Min Khant.
Given this flaw, Falcon heavily invested in protecting their toplane. They selected the Thamuz to counter Nathanael “Nathzz” Estrologo’s Esmeralda and they went ultra-aggressive in limiting his momentum.
However, the Myanmar squad suffered as they overcommitted a lot of resources in destroying Nathzz and Jonard Cedrix “Demonkite” Caranto.
With Falcon’s Grock and Selena combo, they were able to weaken these two, without them knowing that RSG had already laid out their countermeasures.
Dylan “Light” Catipon’s clutch Heartguards were crucial in saving weakened members, plus the barrage from Arvie “Aqua” Antonio and Eman “EMANN” Sangco served as a surprise for RSG.
From the 10th minute onwards, Falcon struggled to deal with RSG’s disciplined playstyle, forcing them to concede Game 1.
Silent but deadly as Falcon storms back
Desperate to secure a win against the Raiders, Falcon went for the cheesy Johnson + Kadita or KJ combo in Game 2, but their matches against Onic PH in Season 9 have proven that RSG is the master of stopping that dreaded combo.
And from the beginning the dynamic duo tried to make plays, but RSG’s positioning completely thwarted them.
Falcon tried to charge towards RSG, hitting Nathzz and Light, only for them to encounter a counterattacking play from Demonkite, Aqua, and EMANN.
Everything was going downhill for Falcon. But at the latter stages of the game, Falcon was able to find a loophole. Instead of Johnson and Kadita, they removed the latter and shifted to Beatrix.
At the 19th minute, the Myanmar reps charged towards EMANN and deleted him with the Beatrix and shotgun damage.
Slowly, Falcon came back to the game, thanks to the heroics of their Beatrix user, Silent. His back-and-forth and timed movements surprised the Raiders.
In the end, his damage outburst combined with Kenneth “Kenn” Hein’s Lord steal in the 28th minute shifted the momentum in favor of Falcon, giving them their come-from-behind Game 2 win.
Conceal Plays salvage RSG’s series win
Seeing their collapse in Game 2 due to Silent’s Beatrix, RSG selected the hero for their draft. This forced Falcon to select Irithiel to counter the Beatrix.
Initially, RSG suffered from the damage reduction brought by the Irithiel but they managed to calm the storm at the latter stages of the game.
Conceal plays allowed RSG to secure key pickoffs and they ultimately pushed the Burmese squad with EMANN and Light’s heroics, leading to a Game 3 win.
RSG PH will face either their sibling rival RSG SG or Orange Esports in the next round.
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