Bren Esports, RSG Philippines and amateur squads Origen and El Granador Esports emerged as the four best teams in Phase 1 of the Sibol Qualifiers on Friday, Jan. 21.
They will join the Top 4 teams of the MPL Philippines Season 8—Blacklist International, Onic Philippines, Omega Esports and Nexplay Evos—in the second phase of the national team tryouts for the Southeast Asian Games set in Hanoi, Vietnam in May.
After hundreds of applications received by Sibol, the teams were trimmed down to a total of 24 squads which locked horns in the one-day, single elimination qualifier.
Bren made quick work of its opponents in the first and second rounds of the tournament, easily sweeping Sensei Gang and BigBang Esports both in a 2-0 fashion. The MPL S6 champions though faced tough challenge against Cerebrum Pro in the third round but was able to pull through with a 2-1 victory to advance to the next phase.
RSG PH meanwhile had the toughest road to the final four as it had to overcome fellow MPL PH team ECHO in the second round of the qualifiers. The Bryan “Panda” Lim-mentored squad took down ECHO 2-1 to follow up an earlier 2-0 triumph against Crowzero Esports. RSG booked a spot to the next round with another 2-0 sweep against Monster Anarchy.
Origen on the other hand had an easy route to the final four, not even dropping a single game in its three series in the tournament. Origen stomped Dauntless Fury, Ethereal Dawn and Friends all via 2-0 win.
El Granador Esports caught the last bus to the Phase 2 with a 2-1 victory over Cerebrum Fatales in Round 3. It was a fitting end to its Phase 1 run which started with clean sweeps against Mabalasik and Raven Claw Esports in the first two rounds.
Phase 2 of the the qualifers starts on Jan. Jan 27 with the Grand Finals set on Jan. 30.