By REYNALD MAGALLON
Team Secret shook off a determined ONE Team from Taiwan with a 2-0 sweep in their lower bracket quarterfinals match in the Wild Rift SEA Championship 2021 on Friday, October 1.
‘El Kapitan’ James "Hamezz" Santos provided the spark for the Filipinos as it bucked slow starts in Games 1 and 2 to pull off the sweep and reach the lower bracket semifinals against another Taiwanese team in Flash Wolves.
Hamezz provided the big plays on his signature heroes, utilizing his Gragas in Game 1 with a 1-2-6 KDA and his Nami in Game 2 with a 1-0-11 KDA. He also got ample support from Caster "Chewy" Dela Cruz who was solid in the two comeback wins with 0-1-7 and 5-1-6 KDAs for his Kai’sa.
ONE Team was actually the one dictating the tempo in Game 1 as it took an early 6-2 headway and an almost 8k gold lead.
TS was able to come back into the game after prevailing in a big team fight in the mid lane at the 16-minute mark. The Filipinos took four members of ONE Team and immediately went for the one lane push to complete the come-from-behind 8-7 win in the series opener.
It was the same story for Game 2 with ONE getting the upper hand once again in the early game with a 5-2 lead. TS, though, made the plays when it mattered the most, taking down two champions during a contest for the Baron at the 14 min mark of Game 2.
TS then only needed one more win during a clash for the Elder Dragon to take two champions from the Taiwanese side and a free Baron to seal the victory on a 12-7 tally.
Jyun-Lun "KID" Guo provided the Taiwanese a steady presence in the two-game series. He led his team with a 4-1-3 and 2-3-3 KDAs on his Darius but was not enough against a more poised Filipino squad.