Fennel Adversity extinguished the fire in Liyab Esports with a 2-1 victory in their lower bracket match in the Wild Rift Men’s 2022 Sibol National Team Selection on Thursday, Feb. 3.
Fennel survived a gritty Liyab squad in the best-of-three series to set up a lower bracket finals date with Grindsky Esports. Grindsky earlier lost to LF Adoption, 2-0.
It was FLA which drew the series first blood behind the duo of John Phillex “Dani” Bulanadi and Maynard “Arise” Limon who both unloaded perfect showings of 2-0-11 and 4-0-5 KDAs respectively.
Arise on the Akali dictated the tempo with his split push neutralizing an early 3-1 kill lead from LYB. He then scored a double-kill on the Fennel’s counter engage on Liyab’s attempt to secure the Mountain Dragon. FLA walked away from that team fight with a four-man kill which allowed the squad to reach its power spikes.
FLA dominated the next team fights highlighted by a four-champion kill in a clash for the Dragon at the 17-minute mark of the game.
Liyab tried to make a play as it went on a five-man gank on Carl “Calm” Lacsam on the bottom lane but Fennel made them pay by taking down two base turrets on the side of LYB.
FLA scored the first point of the series 13-7.
LYB refused to go down without as fight as it rode the shoulders of Gabriel Sebastian “Sho” Umali’s Diana in the final clash to take a 13-4 Game 2 win and tie the series.
Sho powered Liyab’s Ace on Fennel with a triple kill before the squad went for the Nexus in the final push.
Game 2 was a see-saw affair with both squads trading pick-offs.
A perfect Apprehend skill from Jay “Speltz” Tabarangao’s Darius caught two FLA players which resulted to a huge mid lane fight. Liyab was able to pick-off two champions on FLA before it went for the Dragon take to pad the lead.
Both teams were extra careful in the series clinching game with Fennel only leading with 2-1, 16 minutes into the game. FLA’s macro control, though, was in full display in Game 3 as despite the low kill score, it led Liyab by 6k gold lead in the economy and two more turrets in tower push.
The first full five-on-five clash of the match happened at the 17-minute mark where FLA scored a four-man wipe to take the Baron and eventually end the series, 6-1.