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| Team Falcons Academy completed its reversal of fortune to become the new MDL Philippines champion and the first Filipino representative to MCT SEA. Richard Esguerra |
LAS PIÑAS—Team Falcons Academy completed probably the biggest one-season turnaround in MDL Philippines history, delivering a 4-1 gentleman's sweep against Team Fuego in the grand finals to take home the Season 8 championship in front of a huge crowd at the SM Southmall Events Center.
Amid a four-hour technical delay that factored into the late finish of the playoff finale on Friday night, Falcons Academy did not lose the momentum that stemmed from an impressive performance in the play-in rounds en route to the second division title that now bears greater significance.
Needing to enter the last chance phase after placing fourth in the group stages, only to sizzle in the entire postseason phase, Falcons Academy quickly raced to a 3-0 lead against Team Fuego, which got an outright spot in the play-in.
Team Fuego, managed by renowned content creator Arvin "Fuego" Tenoria, managed to stop the sweep in Game 4 and looked poised to extend the best-of-seven series to a Game 6 past midnight on Saturday.
However, a wipeout in the final Lord fight finally ended the match for Falcons Academy at 11:58 p.m., just two minutes shy of the transition to Saturday.
The club started the day by eliminating Twisted Minds Rough World Era, tagged by many as the favorites to win after coming just close to ruling the Sibol MLBB Qualifiers for the China-ASEAN Esports Games, in the semifinals that were marred by the aforementioned delay.
Falcons Academy's championship more than made up for a dismal finish in Season 7, where the club dropped to last place in the group stages.
"Nagsumikap talaga kami, tapos pinatunayan namin na ayaw naming masayang yung opportunity na ibinigay sa amin ng Falcons. Nagtiwala sila sa amin kasi from the bottom, ngayon champion na," Eds Dro, Falcons Academy's head coach, told Dugout Philippines.
The club's championship is now more special as the team also clinched a spot at MCT SEA, which qualifies three teams for the M8 World Championship: one directly to the Swiss stages and two more to the wildcard phase.
If Falcons Academy rules MCT SEA, three Philippine teams will be in the M8 tournament proper, including MPL Philippines Season 18 finalists Team Falcons Philippines and Aurora Gaming Philippines.
Dro said that the possibility of Falcons PH seeing both its A and B squads in M8 makes him more ecstatic.
"Masaya kasi dalawang Falcons, magkasama if ever na mag-qualify kami," he further said.
