ECHO ends RSG PH's M5 dreams, moves to LB finals

Photo from MPL Philippines / Richard Esguerra

by Drew Malihan

QUEZON CITY - Defending champions ECHO arrested their four-game losing skid with a 3-1 beatdown of RSG Philippines in the win-or-go-home match in the MPL Philippines Season 12 playoffs Friday.

It was a heartbreaking loss for the Raiders, who were eliminated by the same ECHO squad for three consecutive seasons, while ECHO take a crucial win over the same team that broken their 11-game win streak.

The Orcas grabbed the first game as Karl "KarlTzy" Nepomuceno grabbed the MVP nod with a stellar Akai performance, getting three kills and seven assists in 22 minutes of play, including all three turtles and two of three lords.

Alston "Sanji" Pabico's Novaria also had a good game with 4/2/7 KDA, while Dylan "Light" Catipon's Mathilda led the Raiders with him involved in all 15 kills but was not good enough as Eman "EMANN" Sangco and Nathanael "Nathzz" Estrologo combined for eight of 13 total deaths for RSG PH.

ECHO continued on their momentum in the second game as Sanji's Pharsa tallied five kills and five assists in 14 minutes, while Benedict "Bennyqt" Gonzales' Wanwan registered three kills and assisted two.

EMANN's Beatrix grabbed the lone kill for RSG PH assisted by Arvie "Aqua" Antonio's Angela, while Light and Nathzz combined for seven of 11 deaths.

Nathzz made up for the past game with an MVP performance in the third game to extend RSG PH's lifeline with 3/1/4 KDA on his Benedetta, while Aqua's 3/0/9 on the Faramis contributed to all of Raiders' kills.

It was Sanji who was the prime target for the Raiders who only scored one against four deatgs, while KarlTzy's heroics on his signature Lancelot went to naught as he only secured one lord and no turtles in the entire 14 minutes.

But ECHO ended RSG's last hopes in almost 24 minutes of gameplay in Game 4 with Sanji's Lylia getting five kills and nine assist, while Sanford "Sanford" Vinuya tallied three kills and 10 assists with the Yu Zhong.

KarlTzy's 4/1/8 performance on the Martis now went on full effect as they were able to grab three lords compared to RSG's one while counterpart John Darry "Irrad" Tuazon's Fredrinn only managed one apiece.

ECHO will meet Blacklist International for the fourth time this season, but this time in another win-or-go-home lower bracket matchup, with the winner to grab the last M5 spot and will face AP.Bren in the Grand Finals.

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