ECHO closes on Blacklist's win streak record with reverse sweep of TNC

Photo from MPL Philippines

by Drew Malihan

MAKATI - ECHO inches closer to breaking more records as they came back from a game down to defeat TNC Pro Team in Week 5 of the MPL Philippines Season 12 regular season on Saturday.

It was a much closer affair this time between the two sides, with ECHO dominating the Phoenix Army in the second week, 2-0, with Sanford "Sanford" Vinuya leading a pod of orcas in the win.

The Phoenix Army grabbed a morale-boosting game win with a 25-minute Game 1 performance with John Vincent "Innocent" Banal getting the MVP nod with an eight kills and four assists with the Brody, while King Cyric "K1NGKONG" Perez getting the better of Karl Gabriel "KarlTzy" Nepomuceno with all four lords and two of three turtles going to TNC's side.

KarlTzy, despite having his signature Lancelot, found hard time getting his buffs, getting only a 1/6/5 KDA with Ben "Benthings" Maglaque's Hilda pick haunting him throughout the entire game.

However, the prized jungler came back on a high note in the second game as he led the Orcas to a dominant second game, 22 kills to TNC's 12, with his Fredrinn registering five kills and 13 assists, only falling twice, and getting all major objectives throughout the 19-minute match.

Benedict "Bennyqt" Gonzales and Alston "Sanji" Pabico were also big in the second game, combining for eight kills and 25 assists with the Beatrix and Valentina, while Innocent's Brody registered 4/4/3 KDA in a losing effort.

ECHO did not look back in the rubber match, annihilating the Phoenix Army with a 21-3 outing despite having a much closer gold margin between the two sides, with again KarlTzy getting the MVP nod with three kills and game-leading 15 assists to seal the deal.

The San-San duo combined for six more kills and 24 more dimes without falling once in 15 minutes, while limiting K1NGKONG and Benthings' effect on the map.

With the win, ECHO poised themselves to 11-0 win-loss record, tying Blacklist International's Season 7 unbeaten run while gathering a total of 29 points, while TNC grabbed a solitary point while sinking further to 1-9 and six points total.

The Phoenix Army will have another shot at redemption as they will try to pull down Smart Omega on Sunday, with ECHO battling RSG on the same day with the unbeaten streak record on the line.

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