By REYNALD MAGALLON
Team Secret’s all-Filipino team officially qualified for the first-ever Horizon Cup following its 3-2 reverse sweep of Buriram United Esports in the lower bracket finals of the Wild Rift SEA Championships 2021 on Saturday, October 2.
Down by two games, Team Secret played with all heart and managed to sweep the remaining three games of the series to reach the Grand Finals of the tournament where it will take on Vietnamese team SBTC Esports.
TS and SBTC also get a direct invite to the Horizon Cup after finishing in the top two of the tournament. Horizon Cup is the crowning event of the Wild Rift professional scene this year and its first-ever global tournament.
Team Secret almost missed its chance to make it to the prestigious event if not for the Game 3 heroics of Caster "Chewy" Dela Cruz who lifted the Filipinos with a 10-0-9 KDA on his signature Kai’sa. That allowed the Filipinos to pull off a 25-11 victory and most importantly extend the series to a Game 4.
That Game 3 win was everything TS needed to get its bearing going for the rest of the series.
Still down by a game, team captain James “Hamez” Santos made the clutch set-up plays on his Janna and finished with a perfect 0-0-14 KDA in Game 4. Chewy on his Valus followed up his game 3 performance with another steady game of 4-0-10 KDA while Heri "Tatsurii" Garcia also came alive on his Galio with a 7-1-7 stat line.
TS forced the winner-take-all via a 14-5 domination in almost 20 minutes of play in Game 4.
The Filipino team kept the momentum, rolling from that point as they rode the back of a surging Eleazar "Azar" Salle on his Riven who scored three early kills to start the deciding Game 5.
He then scored another triple kill in a clash for the Baron at the 11-minute mark which sealed the victory for Team Secret. Azar dominated with a 9-0-3 stat line while Chewy remained steady on his Senna with a 1-1-12 KDA for a strong 15-4 close out to the five-game series.
That was a fitting end for the Filipinos in the Day 3 of the playoffs. They also swept Taiwan’s Flashwolves earlier,2-0, in the lower bracket semis before it engaged Buriram to the grueling five game in the lower bracket finals.
It set up the Grand Finals grudge match against SBTC, which beat them in the upper bracket semis.