TNC Pro Team ML is back to its winning ways as it drubbed Bren Esports with a 2-0 sweep to snap its two-game slide on Sunday, March 13.
Joemarie “Escalera” Delos Santos showed the way for TNC in the two-game stretch, bagging back-to-back MVP honors with a 1-2-8 KDA on the Kagura and a clutch Lord steal in Game 1 and a 5-5-3 line on the Natalia in Game 2.
It was a back-and-forth affair in the series opener as Bren survived the early game onslaught from Daniel “SDzyz” Chuu’s Lancelot to drag the match to the late game where its lineup centered on the Malikk’s Aulus jungle pick is expected to strive.
True enough, Bren battled back into the game and even managed to take the lead and could have won the game if not for a disastrous fight for the fifth Lord of the match that gave TNC the window to draw the series’ first blood.
TNC prevailed in the tug of war with Escalera completing the clutch Lord steal despite being in a 4-on-5 disadvantage and without their retribution user in SDzyz who was split pushing in the top lane.
As a result, TNC managed to pick off two heroes from Bren while SDzyz took down the two inhibitor turrets. TNC went for the base in that push to take the first point of the series after the 16-10 win.
Escalera then played a pivotal role in the series clinching Game 2 as his Natalia pick shut down Malikk’s jungle Ling pick right from the get go.
His Natalia even scored the first blood in that match against the Ling and never looked back from that point as he continuously disrupted the farming of Malik and Bren’s gold lane in Jowm’s Beatrix.
That created the space for SDzyz’s Lancelot and Yasuwo’s Popol and Kupa to farm and quickly reached their power spikes to finish with a 2-0-6 and 6-1-1 KDAs respectively in TNC’s 16-7 rout of Bren in Game 2.
TNC closed out the first round of the elimination with a 4-3 record with 15 points while Bren failed to follow up its impressive win against Omega and dropped to a 1-6 record with just two points to show.