QUEZON CITY -- And the boys in black and gray reign supreme once again.
Mineski (MSK) successfully secured the first Philippine ticket to the Globe Conquerors Manila - Main Event after repulsing ArkAngel (ARK)'s gallant stand via sweep, 3-0 in their best-of-5 Upper Bracket Finals brawl at Ayala Malls - Cloverleaf in Balintawak, Saturday afternoon.
Mineski (MSK) successfully secured the first Philippine ticket to the Globe Conquerors Manila - Main Event after repulsing ArkAngel (ARK)'s gallant stand via sweep, 3-0 in their best-of-5 Upper Bracket Finals brawl at Ayala Malls - Cloverleaf in Balintawak, Saturday afternoon.
MSK, who first escaped a near-elimination to TNC Pro Team (TNC), 2-1 in the second round before going into the current match, didn't let complacency devour their nerves as they capitalized on their early and mid-game bloodthirst, which caught ARK off-guard, ultimately to their shocking takeover.
This was evident early in the series. where MSK's bot laner Bae (Gari) Yong-jun racked up a total of 11 kills with his surprise smited Mordekaiser pick, which supported mid laner Eric Allen (Exosen) Gubatan's Zoe, which demolished the entire ARK squad, thus sealing the 1-0 series lead via a 19-minute, 16,000 gold advantage victory.
The bloodshed continued in the second game, but only this time, ARK got the upper hand in 70% of the whole game as they snowballed their top laner Cedrik (Ivalice) Santos and jungler Nickelson (Nickstah) Yanga hard, but this wasn't enough as they collapsed entirely in the 38th minute after being aced, with Gubatan showing off his hard-carry skills with the unconventional Kled, sending them into match point.
With the opposition being crumbled in their loss via comeback, MSK continued to pummel them and never looked back ever since.
From their standard mid-game assault, they reverted their strategy, centering mostly in the 15th minute mark powerspike onwards, and the risk taken was paid off as Gubatan, who played Rumble in the mid lane, alongside with jungler Kwon (Jjun) Jun-seok put up a takedown show, with the latter scoring 11 kills with his Taliyah pick, which put the series to an end.
For ARK, their best chances of winning came in Game 2, where they controlled the early and mid game through shutting down Kwon and top laner Jon Lance (Kaigu) Hernandez in the first few minutes, but they were finally decimated in the waning moments of the said game through the ace, causing their downfall.
With the win, MSK joins GPL 2018 runner-up Kuala Lumpur Hunters (KLH) in the list of the official Main Event attendees and will bag ₱100,000 on the process. ARK, meanwhile, will face Emperor Esports (EMP), who took down Team Red (RED) via sweep, 2-0, in the Lower Bracket Finals.