The Sibol Wild Rift women’s team delivered the country’s first gold medal in the esports events in the 31st Southeast Asian Games at the Vietnam National Convention Center on Wednesday, May 18.
The national team composed of the members of the Grindsky Eris team which won the SEA Esports Championship last year just stamped its class all over Singapore with a clean 3-0 sweep in the finals to put an end to the series of heartbreaks for the Filipino esports athletes in the biennial meet.
The quintet of Angela “Angelailaila” Lozada, April “Aeae” Valiente, Charize “Yugen” Doble, Rose Ann ”Hell Girl” Robles, Christine “Rayray” Natividad and Giana “Jeeya” Llanes swept the group stage to book a spot in the semifinals where they made quick work of Thailand 3-1.
Brimming with confidence, the ladies opened up the series like a house on fire as they dominated the Singaporeans 16-9 to draw the series’ first blood.
Doble and Robles took turns in punishing Singapore in the opener as they scored a pair of triple kills - first, when Doble completed the feat during their fight for the rift herald at the 12-minute mark to also power Sibol’s first ace of the series. The second one came during a huge midlane clash when Robles completed another triple kill which proved to be enough to take the first point of the series.
Game 2 had Singapore engaging Sibol in a tight contest while holding on to a slim gold lead. The Filipinas however turned things around after it capitalized on its three-man pick off of the Singaporean to secure the mountain dragon and the baron nashor to close out the second game, 17-8 and take a commanding 2-0 lead.
Singapore showed some fight in Game 3 but just like in the first two games it lost grip of the lead following a huge team fight near the dragon pit. Doble wreaked havoc and scored a quadra kill to cap the series, 27-21, and bag the gold mint.