Onic Philippines punched the first ticket to both the MPL Philippines Season 8 Grand Finals and the M3 World Championships following an emphatic 3-0 victory over Omega Esports in the upper bracket finals on Saturday, October 23.
Onic proved that its regular season performance was no fluke as the No. 2 seed remained unbeaten and has not dropped even a single game in the playoffs en route to the franchise’s third Grand Finals appearance.
Kairi “Kairi” Rayosdelsol saved his best in the series clinching Game 3 as he joined hands with Gerald “Dlarskie” Trinchera to pull off a 23-13 come-from behind win. Kairi’s deadly form was in full display on his Ling as he finished with a near-perfect 9-1-3 performance. Dlarskie, meanwhile, was unkillable on his Uranus as he held the frontline for Onic, while soaking up all the damage and baiting the ultimates from Duane “Kelra” Pillas’ Claude and Patrick James “E2max” Caidic’s Yve.
Omega looked promising in Game 3 after taking down three heroes to the side of Onic at the 11-minute mark. Dlar, however, stalled Omega’s death push before Kairi went on a counter go to pick off Christian “Raizen” Sumagui’s Lancelot and secure the Lord.
The comeback victory was a fitting end to Onic’s dominant three-game stretch after cruising past Omega in the first two matches.
Allen “Baloyskie” Baloy was the biggest problem to Omega in Game 1 as his mid-lane Popol and Kupa with a Weapon Master emblem provided the damage and crowd control for Onic. Kairi also had a good start on his Lancelot with a 5-1-6 KDA as he punished Omega's double support line-up of Rafaela and Mathilda.
Baloyskie finished with an 8-3-7 showing en route to a 15-10 victory to draw first blood in the series.
With the momentum on its side, Onic showed no let-up in Game 2 as it unleashed the double-mage combo of Baloyskie’s Yve and Marky “Markyyy” Capacio’s Pharsa. Omega tried to make a last heave backdoor play using E2max's Diversion ultimate from his Luo Yi during Onic PH's final Lord push. Kairi and company however anticipated the teleport and punished Omega for a three man wipe to finish off the MSC champions in just 12 minutes in an 11-2 tally.
Markyyy took the MVP honors as he dished out a game-high 42k damage on a 3-1-2 score line.
Onic dropped Omega to a rematch with Blacklist International in the lower bracket finals.