RSG Philippines put up a brave fight but it wasn't enough to take down MPL Indonesia champions Onic Esports as the Filipino team suffered a 2-1 reverse sweep in their quarterfinals matchup in the ONE Esports: MPL Invitational on Friday, November 5.
RSG was off to a hot start as it drew the first blood in the best-of-three showdown. That loss, however poked the sleeping giant in Onic as it dominated the Philippine representatives and took full control of the series the rest of the way.
The RSG rookies showed up in Game 1 as the Filipinos came out firing right from the get go.
Jonard “Demonkite” Caranto had the free reigns in the jungle using his Paquito which allowed RSG to take control of the early game. After ONIC ID threatened to come back, Eman “Emann” Sangco on his Natan quickly took over in the late game for the first win in the duel.
EJ “Heath” Esperanza on the Hylos and Kenneth “Kenji” Villa on the Uranus also provided the pressure for RSG. Heath’s Glorious Pathway easily disrupted Onic’s jungle rotation and team fight formation while Kenji held the frontline and lane pressure, even cutting the minion waves on Onic’s base.
A huge clash for the Lord at the 17-mark allowed RSG to score a wipeout behind Emann and Demonkite to cap the stellar Game 1 showing. The former finished with a 4-3-5 KDA while the latter was equally impressive with a 3-1-9 score line.
The win, however, was the fiinal stand for the Filipinos as they were utterly destroyed in Games 2 and 3.
Onic PH showed the champion’s pride in the second game as the Indonesians returned the favor with a dominant 7-4 victory in just 13 minutes of play. Onic PH got its hands on its comfort picks with Gilang “Sanz” wreaking havoc on his Paquito jungle with a 5-0-1 KDA. Onic also found the answer to RSG’s Hylos with a magic build Bane whose ultimate negated any form of initiation from the Filipinos.
Onic continued to roll in Game 3 as it dictated the tempo all throughout the game. The combination of Rafaela and Hylos made it hard for the Filipinos to farm in their jungle and to engage during the team fights.
The Indonesians even scored a wipe out as early as the eight-minute mark of the game. RSG showed some life after its successfully defended the base against Onic’s Lord march but the Filipinos got punished after initiating a clash in the mid lane which resulted to an RSG wipeout to cap Onic’s wire-to-wire 17-6 Game 3 win.
Onic ID secured a spot in the top four and a matchup against the MPLI defending champions and fellow Indonesian squad Alter Ego. After RSG’s loss, Blacklist was left as the lone Philippine team in the tournament and will face RRQ Hoshi on Sunday.