Nexplay Esports came through with a shocking 2-0 sweep of world champion and defending MPL king Bren Esports behind James "Jeymz" Gloria and Dexter "Exort" Martinez to barge into the win column of the MPL Philippines Season 7 on Sunday night, March 21.
Jeymz on his Baxia steered NXP's close victory in the series opener while Exort on his Yve took charge in the sweep clincher as the two new players led the crowd favorites to their first win this season.
Coach Naser "Dogie" Mollazehi's boys emerged on top of Francis "Duckeyyy" Glindro's crew in their lone match in the regular season.
That means Bren could only get its revenge against NXP in the playoffs should they pair up in the brackets.
NXP also rebounded from a 2-1 defeat to Laus Playbook Esports a day before to grab the top spot in Group B with four points.
Bren, which won the M2 World Championship two months ago, remained winless in Group A after taking a 2-1 loss to Onic PH on Saturday.
NXP punished Bren for its aggression in Game 1, with Jeymz's Baxia soaking up the damage to enable the pickoff on Karl "KarlTzy" Nepomuceno's Roger which led into a 4-1 trade and a Lord kill in the 14th minute.
A minute later, Dogie's boys went straight for the base and took a nail-biting 16-13 win.
Jeymz finished with a 5-1-5 KDA while John Paul "H2wo" Salonga's Yi Sun-Shin delivered the damage for a 4-4-8 record and Tristan "Yawi" Cabrera's Jawhead made initiation plays for a 2-3-10 tally.
Renejay "RENEJAY" Barcarse's Benedetta also shone with four kills, two assists and one death on top of tower takedowns.
It was a dominating performance from NXP in Game 2 as Exort's Yve dished out the heavy magic damage and zoning plays with the Real World Manipulation to power the 20-6 rout.
Exort, who made his season debut, posted four kills and 11 assists against only two deaths while H2wo's Ling, who easily secured his core items, finished with a perfect record of eight kills and seven assists.