Sustaining the momentum from its searing lower bracket run, Execration pulled off a surprising 3-0 sweep against Aura PH to clinch the remaining Grand Finals spot in the MPL Philippines Season 7 on Sunday, May 30.
Veteran tank Joshua "Ch4knu" Mangilog and the crew are now eyeing to complete their Cinderella run against equally title hungry Blacklist International in the best-of-seven championship showdown later on.
League mainstay Execration marked its first MPL-PH finals appearance and also seized a spot in the $150,000 (over P7 million) Mobile Legends Southeast Asia Cup (MSC) 2021 on June 7-13.
Star jungler Kiel VJ "Kielvj" Hernandez on his Claude wreaked havoc in the closing Game 3, taking seven kills and six assists against a lone death to spark the 16-11 win in 20 minutes that finished off his former team Aura PH.
"Sobrang saya po na natalo namin sila lalo ngayong playoffs na may grand finals and MSC spot," said Kielvj in the post-match interview.
Kielvj joined hands with his "Double K Connection" partner Duane "Kelra" Pillas who also came up with big plays with Alice en route to a 5-3-3 kill-death-assist tally.
KielVJ's Ling and Ch4knu's signature Khufra spearheaded Execration's gutsy 34-minute win in Game 2.
The two stymied the attempt of Mark "LORD HADESS" Lazaro's Granger and Jaypee "Jaypee" Dela Cruz's Chou to end the game, buying enough time for Patrick "E2MAX" Caidic's Kagura to respawn and take down the two Aura players.
Former Exe standout Benedict "Bennyqt'' Gonzales' Esmeralda foiled Kielvj's segway play but E2MAX secured the Luminous Lord take to ensure the victory.
Ch4knu on Khufra, who executed a miracle set in Execration's miraculous reverse sweep against Season 6 and M2 world champion Bren Esports, continued his stellar play to give his team a head start in the series.
The seasoned tank came through with a 1-4-9 stat line for an 88 percent kill participation and absorbed 55K damage from the side of Aura to lead Execration to a 16-13 win in 21 minutes in Game 1.
The squad of coach Jomie "Pakba1ts" Abalos and Billy "Z4pnu" Alfonso started its scorching lower bracket run with a 3-2 win over Onic PH followed by a 3-2 stunner over Season 6 runner-up Smart Omega before dethroning Bren with a 3-2 reverse sweep on Saturday night.
Coach Michael Angelo "Arcadia" Bocado and strategic mentor Steven "DaleDalus" Vitug's Aura settled for a third-place finish.
Aura lost 3-1 to Blacklist in the upper bracket finals before crashing out at the hands of former players Kielvj and Renz "Renzio" Cadua who are now making history with Execration.