Liyab Esports started its campaign for a spot in the Worlds 2021 on the wrong foot, falling prey to Berjaya Dragons in their opening match in the Pacific Championship Series (PCS) Summer Split on Friday, July 9.
Liyab actually got off to a great start in the one-game faceoff, building up a 2K gold lead through getting good trade-offs until a disastrous engagement in the 24th minute.
Kyle "Dawn" Somera's Varus and Jay "Speltz" Tabarangao's Viego got picked off by Berjaya in a huge team fight at the mid lane and the Malaysians went on to slay the Baron.
The Filipino squad secured the Dragon in exchange but still the enemy team enjoyed a 4K gold swing.
It was downhill from there for LYB as BJD destroyed all their inhibitors and closed out the game in 30 minutes with an 11-7 kill score.
Liyab will look to bounce back against J Team of Taiwan at 6 p.m. and Hong Kong Attitude at 8 p.m. on Saturday.
The 10-team PCS Summer stakes two tickets to the League of Legends World Championship later this year on top of the $80,000 (nearly P4 million) prize pool.