Sibol secures bronze after dominating the do-or-die match against Vietnam
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The Philippine delegate for the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang discipline in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games has secured at least a bronze medal for the country after a dominant showing in the best-of-three bout against Vietnam, 2-0, at the tournament’s lower bracket semi-finals earlier tonight.
Angle Kyle ”Pheww” Arcangel, Jeniel ”Haze” Bata-anon, Allan ”Lusty” Castromayor Jr., Kenneth Jiane ”Kenji” Villa, Karl Gabriel ”KarlTzy” Nepomuceno, Carlito ”Ribo” Ribo Jr., and Jason Rafael ”Jay” Torculas kicked off their campaign in the biennial multi-sport meet with a pretty decent scoreline. They obliterated Laos before stealing one game off of Indonesia, whose roster is composed of a combination between EVOS Legends, the team that won the first-ever M1 World Championship 2019, as well as ONIC Esports, the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Southeast Asia Cup 2019 grand champions. To cap off the round-robin group stages, Sibol managed to snag a much-needed match from the two-game series against Thailand to earn their spot in the playoffs with a 4-2 win-loss record that translates to five points.
Vietnam seemed to have failed to pose a challenge against their quest for a gold medal despite finishing the group stages with one point higher than the Filipino team. Though Quang Nguyen Dinh, Hong Thanh Nguyen, Minh Hieu Nguyen, Van Minh Pham, and Van Truong Pham, were able to keep the second game close. The turning point of the match came in the form of a crucial pick off by Pheww’s Granger against Dinh’s pesky Harith. This opened an opportunity for Sibol to take the Lord and finally finish the series.
The Philippines’ victory earned them another do-or-die matchup against Malaysia for a slot in the grand finals. Malaysia was booted down the lower bracket by Indonesia during the upper bracket finals meeting. The last two medal games for the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang discipline will take place live on December 8, 2019 at the Filoil Flying V Arena in San Juan City, Philippines.
Meanwhile, one of the Philippines’ StarCraft II bet, Caviar ”Enderr” Acampado have secured a grand final slot earlier today after outlasting Vietnam’s Tran ”MeomaikA” Hong Phuc in a best-of-five Zerg mirror match at the upper bracket finals. The decorated Filipino athlete will face Singapore’s Protoss player, Thomas ”Blysk” Kopankiewicz, who managed to complete a four-series lower bracket run, in a best-of-seven series for a shot at a gold medal on December 10, 2019.
The third day of the 2019 SEA Games will resume tomorrow, December 7, 2019, with the group stages for the Arena of Valor and Dota 2 disciplines.
Live broadcast of the 2019 SEA Games’ esports events is available on GG Network – TV5’s official Facebook page and the official Twitch channel of Razer, the official esports partner of the biennial sporting event.
