 |
| Team Liquid Philippines survived a historic night from Miguel "Sionnn" Alcantara to beat gritty Twisted Minds Philippines. Richard Esguerra |
LOS BAÑOS—Team Liquid Philippines bucked off a historic night from Miguel "Sionnn" Alcantara and escaped past Twisted Minds Philippines, 2-1, in the nightcap of the MPL Philippines Season 16 Sunday matches at the Green Sun Hotel Ballroom in Makati.
Alcantara delivered the historic moment in Game 1 of the series, carrying Twisted Minds PH to the game win with an 18-0-3 KDA as Kimmy.
Despite Karl "KarlTzy" Nepomuceno's efforts to turn things around for Liquid PH, Alcantara's brilliance, which was the second-best single-game performance in league history in terms of kills without dying, was just too much.
With his patented Kimmy banned for Game 2, Alcantara, now playing Kagura, tried to go clutch for Twisted Minds PH in hopes of keeping the team alive.
However, it was a bit too late, as a dominant performance from Sanford Vinuya and Alston "Sanji" Pabico gave Liquid PH the game win, sending the series to a rubber match.
Liquid PH took the risk and let Alcantara play Kimmy again in Game 3, and it paid off as they got an early kill on Alcantara, even as Pabico was almost invincible, and Kiel "Oheb" Soriano frustrated Mico "Nosia" Guevarra early on at the gold lane with a surprise Bane pick.
Although Soriano had his late struggles, Nepomuceno cannot be stopped as he led Liquid PH to the Game 3 win, whose endgame began with a kill to Alcantara, who began to streak again.
The win sounded sweet to the ears of Liquid PH fans who went to K-Go Korean Food House here for a watch party.
Liquid PH moved up to second place at 7-3, ahead of a rare Monday night grudge match against Aurora Philippines.
On the other hand, Twisted Minds PH, which started the season 3-0, has now dropped to below .500 with its sixth loss in the last eight matches.
Worse, thanks to Smart Omega owning the tiebreaker due to head-to-head game wins, Twisted Minds PH fell to fifth place as its playoff hopes are now suddenly on the ropes.
