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| RRQ Kaito "salutes" their opponents after blemishing Smart Omega Neos' perfect run. Screen capture from YouTube |
MANILA—Smart Omega Neos' bid to complete a perfect season in the MDL Philippines Season 4 came to a crushing end as RRQ Kaito ousted them in the semifinals on Saturday night via a 2-0 sweep.
Kelvin Chen put on a show for RRQ Kaito in Game 1 as his Nolan went 5-0-3 even as he dominated veteran John Paul Salonga in the battle of jungle players.
Picking Nolan with the last pick of the draft caught Smart Omega Neos off-guard as Chen, taking advantage of Game 1's slow pace, farmed enough to get his needed items to rip his opponents apart, especially Salonga, who struggled using the new hero Suyou.
With more offense picking up in Game 2, Cy Torres' Natan stole the only Lord of the game and later headlined a wipeout of Smart Omega Neos with a triple kill in the deciding team fight even as Carl "Minguin" Gallantes scored a double kill with his Aurora as RRQ Kaito wasted no time in razing the middle lane turret and Smart Omega Neos' base to complete the sweep.
It was a bitter end to Smart Omega Neos' dream season after sweeping the elimination round to earn a bye up to the semis and needing only two more wins to become only the second club to finish the season undefeated after RRQ Kaito did so in Season 3 earlier this year.
However, Smart Omega Neos suffered its first loss of the season at the worst possible time as the club was eliminated from championship contention by RRQ Kaito, whose title defense is still alive.
Smart Omega Neos' defeat assures that RRQ Kaito will remain the only team in a Games and Amusements Board-sanctioned play-for-pay league to complete a perfect season.
RRQ Kaito, who beat Martial Mayhem, 2-1, in the quarterfinals earlier Saturday to set a semis date with Smart Omega Neos, can complete the calendar year grand slam if they beat newcomer Lazy Esports in the best-of-seven grand finals on Sunday night.
Lazy, which also clinched an outright semifinal spot as the second seed, ended Team Liquid Academy Philippines' Cinderella run with a 2-1 semis win.
Liquid Academy had to take the long road to make it deep to the playoffs, but they dominated Blacklist Academy and TNC-Rough World Era in the first two rounds only that Lazy set the roadblock for them.
The RRQ Kaito-Lazy showdown for all the marbles marks the first time that none of the MPL Philippines teams' affiliates made the MDL PH finals.
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