ONCE AGAIN MYANMAR serves as a major threat in the world championship stage, where M2 saw the prowess of the Burmese Ghouls in the grand finale vs. Bren Esports, while M4 saw Falcon Esports took flight, in which they nearly gave RRQ Hoshi a run for their money.
And speaking about the Soaring Falcons, they're now back in the world stage in M6, where they defeated the most threatening teams in the tournament in Aurora and Selangor Red Giants, while opening the doors for North America's BloodThirstyKings to start packing.
Given the results, Frince "Super Frince" Ramirez was left with high praises for the team, saying: "Tingin ko yung Falcon, top tier team din e kasi tinatalo nila yung mga strong teams sa Swiss stage kaya mag-e-expect ako ng magandang laban sa kanila."
Then in their knockout stage opener, the Burmese squad sent Singapore's NIP Flash to the lower bracket. So what makes them a threat? Here's what NIP Flash's head coach, Joseph "Zarate" Yeo, revealed in an exclusive with SPIN.ph.
One of the most flexible teams in the tournament
"I personally believe that they're the dark horse in this tournament because they're very flexible in terms of picks, draft, basically they can play anything. Definitely they're a threat to Tier One teams that people think are going to win M6," started the NIP flash head coach.
Their vast hero pool can be attributed to one player, their EXP laner, Arkar "Royal Milk" Pyae.
In Game 1, eyebrows were raised when the Falcons selected Phoveus at the early stages of the draft, and this ultimately impressed Zarate.
"I think Royal Milk stood out in my opinion. He didn't give a....about them picking the Phoeveus when we haven't shown anything yet."
Then came the second game, where he flexed a random Cici pick. In the end, he smothered the Singaporean squad.
"On his 2nd game, he is flexible enough to pick a Cici and he shows his wide hero pool, understanding of the game, and he also did his job well of going to the backlines to find the correct targets."
But there are other notable players to watch out, such as their midlaner Yar "Px7" Mon and their roamer Yehtet "KidX" Sithu.
"They have to be wary of their roam and the mage because they like those hero picks a lot, so I believe that if other teams when facing them, they'll prepare well against the Tigreal and stuff."
Then when looking back at their loss vs. the Burmese squad, Coach Zarate admitted that his team wasn't able to perform at their peak.
"Honestly I don't think they played well today. It's more of that we weren't able to put out our best performance. We played like dogsh*t, we were bad. Credit that they won but I still don't think that they played really well today," he reflected.
With their victory over NIP Flash, Falcon Esports will face the defending MPL PH Champions, Fnatic ONIC Philippines.
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