Jaymark “Hadess” Lazaro took over for ECHO as it recovered from a Game 1 defeat to pull off a 2-1 reverse sweep of Aura Fire to advance to the second round of ONE Esports: MPL Invitational on Tuesday, November 2.
With his team’s back pushed against the wall, Hadess bounced back from a lackluster Game 1 and took over in Games 2 and 3 with his Lancelot and signature Aldous.
Hadess had a rousing start in the second game with seven straight kills to finish with a 10-3-9 KDA to help ECHO even the series. Aura, however, put up a huge fight and actually took control the most part of Game 2 in hopes to finish off ECHO using a unique composition anchored on a Roaming Hayabusa and a jungle Baxia.
Hadess, however, executed two crucial Lord steals, none bigger than the last one which allowed ECHO to close out the second game in 22 minutes and in 29-19 tally in favor of the Philippine squad.
Christian “Rafflesia” Fajura also shone on his signature Chou with key pick offs in the late game all while neutralizing Usep “FACEHUGGER” Satiawan’s Pharsa who was the biggest thorn to ECHO’s side in Game 1. Rafflesia put up an efficient a 4-4-17 KDA en route to a game MVP citation.
It was the same story in Game 3 with both teams going back and forth. Aurafire was getting the upper hand in their clashes with the team fight centered on its composition of Erico “GOD1VA” on Tigreal and Regi “QEIRA” Marviola on his Ruby.
Echo however did enough to hold the early and mid game all thanks to Rafflesia’s roaming Mathilda and Rion “RK3” Kudo’s Pharsa. That allowed Benedict “BennyQT” Gonzales’ Lunox and Hadess’ Aldous to reach their power spike in the late game and overwhelm Aura’s sustain with the two’s massive damage.
BennyQT finished with a 2-2-5 stat line while Hadess added a 4-3-1 KDA to help ECHO pull off a 12-16 come-from-behind win to eliminate the Indonesian side.
Aurafire actually had an impressive start to the series as it starved Hadess’ Paquito of his resources allowing Jehuda Jordan “High” Sumual to snowball on his Ling and give the Game 1 to Aurafire. The Indonesians faltered in the late game in both Game 2 and 3 as they couldn’t find any answers to Hadess and the rest of the Filipino players.