Explosive matchups highlight the first day of the MPL Philippines Season 9 playoffs as ‘super team’ ECHO collides against the MSC king Omega Esports while Nexplay Evos tangles with Onic Philippines in the first round.
Under new rule implemented by the league, the No. 1 team from the eliminations will get the chance to pick the placements of the third and fourth ranked teams while the third-seed squad will choose the placements of the fifth and sixth teams.
RSG Philippines which topped the regular season with 31 points on an 11-3 record and got an outright upper bracket semis spot, picked NXPE in its bracket while putting ECHO in the bracket of No.2 seed TNC Pro Team ML.
ECHO, being the third best team in the regular season, picked Omega as its first-round opponents before pitting Onic to NXPE in the other bracket.
The ECHO-Omega matchup will feature a clash between the leagues’ top roamer in Tristan “Yawi” Cabrera and Joshua “Ch4knu” Mangilog. Another anticipated clash in that series will be the gold lane battle between Benedict “BennyQT” Gonzales and last MSC MVP Duane “Kelra” Pillas.
In terms of the head-to-head matchup, ECHO has Omega’s number this season so far, winning both of their regular season matches in a dominant 2-0 sweeps.
In the other bracket, all eyes will be on the jungle matchup between either John Paul “H2wo” Salonga or Michael “MP the King” Endino for NXPE and Kairi “Kairi” Rayosdelsol of Onic PH. MP the King has been vocal that he idolizes Kairi.
The midlane matchup will also feature two of the best and veteran support players as Jeniel “Yellyhaze” Bata-Anon takes on Allen “Baloyskie” Baloy.
NXPE shocked Onic in their first meeting, pulling off a clean 2-0 sweep although the latter returned the favor in their second meeting to split their regular season matchup with a 2-1 victory.
All games will be a best-of-five affair except for the Grand Finals which will be a best-of-seven showdown. The playoffs will open on April 28.