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| Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur Hunters (KLH) shows sportmanship amongst its counterparts as they shook hands to Philippines' Mineski, where they dispatched them in their best-of-5 Semifinal date. |
By Ozzy Alaba
MANILA -- After several chances being wasted in the grip of their hands, the Malaysians have finally broken the curse.
Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur Hunters (KLH) ultimately ended their streak of failures as they dispatched the Philippine kings Mineski (MSK), 3-1 in their best-of-5 semifinal date to lock in their ticket to the 2018 Garena Premier League (GPL) Finals for the first time at the Bangkok International Trade & Exhibition Center eSports Studio on Saturday (Philippine time).
KLH, who painstakingly had to suffer almost seven years of failing to qualify to the GPL Finals made those failed attempts worth the wait as the six-man all-Malaysian squad flashed their most dominant performance in the entire tournament so far, constantly dumping MSK's carries in the entire series, which propelled them to the current historic feat for the organization.
Despite playing currently as a Support and subbing back to a carry position, a role which he played since the start of his career, KLH's temporary AD Carry Poon Kook Sin (OzoraVeki) showed no signs of rustiness in carrying with his Caitlyn and Varus and stepped up when mattered the most as he spearheaded his team's onslaught, garnering a combined game-high 48 Kill-Death-Assist (KDA) Ratio (17/1/31 KDA) in their three wins in the four-game run.
Resident mid laner Chan Roong Han (ArrHedge) also displayed his ever-consistent performance once again, proving to be a thorn on the opposition through his Vladimir, Cassiopeia and Swain, which let him lead the Malaysian squad in overall kills with 23, accentuating his flawless 8/0/2 KDA on Vladimir in the curtain-raiser.
KLH's Thai temporary reinforcement Soragit Buranathanasin (Whatthejes), veteran jungler Eric Sia (QaspieL) and top laner Adrian Lee (Shiro) also stepped up proficiently, exemplifying its strength with its tanky picks, which make them lead the team in the assists department with a whopping 90 merged assists, and co-lead the kill participation side with a combined 52.38 percent (OzoraVeki leads with 87.27 percent).
MSK, meanwhile, could have the chance of stealing the spotlight as they dumped their adversaries in Game 2, only allowing one kill against 11 of theirs, but the six-man Filipino representatives weren't able to channel the gained momentum as KLH suppressed it through Chan and Poon's constant pokes and Lee's immense side pressure, thus forcing them to call GG for almost 4 hours of nerve-wracking action.
MSK's Korean AD Carry Bae Yong-jun, as usual, paced his team, submitting a decent showing through his combined 2.5 KDA Ratio (13/10/12 KDA), highlighting his perfect 10/0/4 KDA on Ezreal in Game 2, their lone win in the series, alongside with substitute mid laner James Karl Santos (Hamezz) who concluded the run with a 5/3/3 KDA (2.67 KDA Ratio).
With the win, KLH will face the winner in the last Semifinal match between Thailand's Ascension Gaming (ASC) and Singapore's Sovereign (SVR) in the best-of-5 Finals on Sunday while MSK will fight the loser of the said series in the Third Place Match on the same day.
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