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| For the first time ever, AP Bren will miss the MPL Philippines playoffs. MPL Philippines |
MANILA--Onic Philippines deprived AP Bren of its last chance to make the MPL Philippines playoffs after a 2-0 sweep of their second round meeting on Sunday night at the Green Sun Hotel Ballroom in Makati.
Onic PH, also needing a win to boost its chances of finishing inside the Top 2 at the end of the regular season, dominated AP Bren in Game 1 thanks to its patented early game brilliance.
Needing at least to win one game in their best-of-three tie to keep their playoff hopes alive, AP Bren had a solid chance to steal Game 2 with a strong early game.
However, AP Bren could not sustain the momentum, and Onic PH quickly turned things around to complete the sweep.
Onic PH moved up to 9-3, one match behind Team Liquid Philippines for second place and two behind Aurora, which beat TNC earlier in the night, for first place.
A possibility of a three-way tie at 11-3 at the end of the regular season looms, and the tiebreakers could be heavily influenced by the result of the Liquid PH-Aurora match on Saturday night.
Aurora placed one foot on the playoff first round bye with a 2-1 squeaker against TNC in the curtain-raiser.
A Lord steal by Edward Dapadap's Esmeralda in the deciding game turned things around for Aurora as they slowed down TNC's late game development.
Kenneth "Yue" Tadeo then made great use of his ultimate skill as Yve, as the damage was enough to steal the evolved Lord, paving the way for Dominic "Domengkite" Del Mundo to sneak his Karrie into the TNC base to set up the endgame moment.
Aurora ended Week 7 at 11-1, one game clear of first place against Liquid PH, while TNC, which already locked in the fifth seed in the playoffs, dropped to 5-8.
Meanwhile, AP Bren, which fell to 1-11, missed out on the playoffs for the first time since they joined MPL PH in Season 2.
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