Salic “Hadji” Imam put up a masterful performance on his midlane Xavier pick to power Sibol MLBB team’s dominant 2-0 sweep of Laos in the group stage of the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang esports event at the 31st Southeast Asian Games on Wednesday, May 18 at the Vietnam National Convention Center.
Hadji was untouchable on his Xavier, easily dictating the tempo for the Philippine team in the two-game series to go up 2-0 in the standings and knock on the semifinals door.
The MPL Season 8 MVP unloaded a 3-1-10 KDA in the opener before spearheading the attack in the second game with a neat 11-0-8 line to close out the series.
The Filipinos, just like in their first two games in the tournament, struggled in the early game against the double-tank setup of Laos that featured a jungle Barats and a roaming Franco.
Laos continued to dictate the pace until the mid-game courtesy of the accurate hooks from Nanoship’s Franco but a clash at the 14-min mark turned things around for the Filipinos as they scored a four-man kill while also securing the Lord.
It was all Sibol from that point as it drew the series’ first blood, 14-11, in the 16-minute run time.
Sibol showed no letup in the second game as Jonmar “OhmyV33nus” brought his signature Estes back to life to anchor a near-perfect 19-2 win to clinch the series. The Filipinos were dominant all-game-long as it kept Laos scoreless in the first 12 minutes of the game while they already collected 11 kills.
OhmyV33nus provided support with a 0-1-18 line on his Estes while Howard “Owl” Gonzales added a 6-0-6 line on his surprise gold lane Grock pick.
The Philippine team can secure its spot to the semifinals with a victory against Myanmar later tonight.