Nexplay Evos became the second Philippine squad to crash out of the ONE Esports: MPL Invitational following its tough 2-0 loss to Rebellion Genflix on Wednesday, November 3.
NXPE badly missed the services of its star players in John Paul “H2wo” Salonga and Renejay “RENEJAY” Barcase who both decided to sit out the tournament. The MPL PH Season 8 fourth placers never really got its bearings going in its first-round matchup against Indonesia’s eighth placers Rebellion Genflix.
Team RBG prepared well to the late game prowess of the NXPE which was anchored on team’s gold laner Jhonwin “Hesa” Vergara. The Indonesians put pressure on the NXPE rookie in the gold lane in the early game to delay his farm. RBG also utilized an offlane Ruby and Phoveus in both games to disrupt the positioning of NXPE during team fights.
In Game 1, Nexplay fell to the early game of RBG anchored on Thomas “Vall” Galileo’s Rafaela and Mohammad “Jiisaa” Fathan’s jungle Paquito who tallied 2-2-16 and 7-1-6 KDAs respectively. Rendy “Coyy” Syahputra on his offlane Ruby also imposed huge problems for the Filipinos by easily neutralizing Jeniel “Yellyhaze” Bata-anon’s Yve and Hesa’s Claude
Coyy finished with a perfect 1-0-16 KDA for the Indonesians who drew first blood in the series en route to a 19-10 tally in the series opener.
It was pretty much the same story in Game 2 as RBG banked once again on its early game anchored on Jiisa’s Lancelot. Just like in the first game, RBG repeatedly ganked the gold lane to prevent Hesa’s Alice from getting its power spike in the late game.
NXPE showed flashes of brilliance with a crucial defense against the RBG’s Lord push. NXPE rookies Sanford “Sanford” Vinuya on his Xborg and Hesa on the Alice joined hands as they took down four heroes to the side of the Indonesians following a successful defense of their base.
RBG, however, retaliated on the next team fight, catching NXPE players off-guard coming off a perfect initiation from Attanasius David “Swaylow” Sihaloho’s Mathilda. RBG killed four heroes from NXPE on that clash and ended the series with a 12-7 score in just 15 minutes of play.
NXPE was the second PH team to bow out of the tournament after Omega Esports got eliminated by Onic Philippines earlier in the day. That left four squads for the Philippines in the MPLI with Onic, ECHO and RSG PH advancing to the second round while Blacklist is still waiting of its opponents in the quarterfinals.