RSG Philippines showed exactly why it is the defending champion of the MPL Philippines Season 10, giving the super rookies of the Onic Philippines the early boot with a dominant 3-0 sweep in the first round of the playoffs at the Blue Leaf Cosmopolitan in Quezon City on Thursday, Oct. 20.
Last season’s regular season MVP Dylan “Light” Catipon and Arvin “Aqua” Calderon set the tone for the rout with timely initiations to secure the victory and set up an upper bracket semifinals dance against ECHO.
The victory also came sweeter for the defending champions who failed to win a single game against the super rookies, suffering a two 2-0 sweeps in their regular season meetings.
RSG PH slammed the door on Onic’s comeback hopes in Game 1 after the super rookies briefly took the gold lead at the 11-minute mark behind the play from Nets’ Beatrix and Super Frince’s Faramis picks but Light and Demonkite connived down the stretch to draw first blood.
Riding the crest of the Game 1 win, RSG showed no letup in the second game with Light’s Mathilda and Aqua’s Pharsa providing the combo plays to deal damage from the distance to limit Nets’ Melissa pick.
Emann, unmolested on his farms, led the charge with 4-0-6 line on the Irithel while Aqua added a 1-0-6 line.
RSG looked like it would easily cruise to a sweep in Game 3 but Onic PH put up a tough stand, scoring 10 kills in the first 10 minutes of the match thanks to the sustain coming from Aqua’s Faramis and the initiation from Light’s Jawhead.
A Lord secure at the 11-minute mark allowed the defending champions to fully seize control of the map but still couldn’t get the job done on their first try with Onic PH surviving the third lord siege.
RSG, though ,would not be denied as a pick-off on Ryota’s Esmeralda spelled doom for Onic PH as its heroes one-by-one fell down, allowing RSG players to go for the base lock and secure the sweep.
Nathanael “Nathzz” Crisologo held the fort for RSG PH during the searing rally from Onic PH finishing with a 4-5-9 KDA while Demonkite and Aqua added 7-5-9 and 6-4-11 tallies on the jungle Karina and midlane Faramis respectively.