WITH SIBOL's Dota 2 roster winning the upper bracket finals against Laos, the Philippines came into the finals with huge momentum.
After all, the IESF rulebook states that the winner of the upper bracket final match would have an automatic 1-0 lead in the grand finals.
While the Philippines could capitalize on this advantage, it was Indonesia who managed to win the finale in a 3-2 series, all thanks to their chain stunning Mirana combos and objective taking antics.
How Indonesia won?
In the first game (or Game 2 according to the rulebook), Indonesia managed to overwhelm the Philippines with a series of chain stun combos.
Indonesia had multiple options to eliminate one key threat from the Filipinos. They could use Tri "Jhocam" Kuncoro's Grimstroke with his Silence and Ink Swell to combine with Matthew "Whitemon" Filemon's Mirana arrow, ultimately immobilizing a Sibol member.
And they had other alternatives as Randy "Dreamocel" Sapoetra's Slark could pounce on one target that would lead to a Mirana arrow.
It seemed Sibol was destined to lose when their BKBs started popping up, but the glimmer of hope for the Filipinos quickly faded.
Similar to Sibol, Indonesia already prepared their BKBs, and they also prepared their counterattack led by Jhocam's ultimate, which led to Indonesia's Game 2 win.
The disciplined prowess of Indonesia carried on in Game 3, capitalizing on the long Metamorphosis cooldown onEljohn “Akashi” Andales's Terrorblade. However, the Philippines was able to adapt which led to Sibol securing the 2-1 advantage and a potential gold medal finish.
Objective-centric approach
But the remaining two games saw the Philippines collapse against Indonesia's tower-pushing antics.
With Dreamocel's Phantom Lancer and Syaid "womy" Reski's Beastmaster, Indonesia melted the towers while the Filipino lineup failed to muster wave-clearing options against the PL.
Then in the final game of the series, Dreamocel's Lone Druid provided the pushing prowess.
While Sibol was able to fight back thanks to Joel “jwl” Pagkatotohanan's Mars and Akashi's Sniper, these were eventually thwarted as the game progressed.
With Jhocam's Marci and Rafli "Mikoto" Rahman's Ember Spirit charging towards the Sniper, Sibol was heavily exposed.
In the end, it was Indonesia who got the gold medal, while the Philippines secured the silver medal in the IESF World Championship 2022.
While this is sad news for Filipino esports fans, there is still hope as Blacklist Sibol will try their best to push for a gold medal finish in the MLBB scene.
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph