RSG Philippines denied the comeback bid of Bren Esports with a 3-2 escape to forge a lower bracket finals showdown with ECHO in the MPL Philippines Season 10 playoffs at the Blue Leaf Cosmopolitan on Saturday, Oct. 22.
The defending champion went off to a hot start to the series, scoring the first two games before they got challenged by the hungry and gritty Bren team which forced the winner-take-all Game 5.
With the team needing to stop the bleeding against the streaking Bren Esports, Dylan “Light” Catipon put up a clutch Khufra performance in the deciding Game 5, providing the much-needed initiations that gave RSG PH the advantage in the early stages which it never relinquished the rest of the way.
Light set up the play with 0-1-10 KDA, spearheading a masterful 12-1 display in the series clincher. Emann also saved his best for last with a neat 4-0-3 line while Demonkite added a 3-0-8 tally.
In Game 1, RSG PH brought out its best game in the opening game of the series behind the perfect initiation from Light on his Lolita pick and the perfect zoning from Aqua’s Lylia. With those two leading the way, Demonkite dominated the jungle battle against Kyletzy’s Balmond on his way to finishing with a 5-1-6 KDA.
The defending champions looked like they were on their best form all-game long even, shrugging off a huge Lord steal from Bren Esports by punishing them with a counter engage that took down three heroes.
Aqua unloaded a 5-1-10 KDA while Light finished with a 0-4-13 tally as RSG scored the first point of the series 18-8.
The reigning MSC kings carried over the momentum into the second game when they put up another masterful performance with Light once again making the big plays, containing Super Marco’s Irithel and Kyletzy’s Karina. He also limited the playmaking of Owgwen on the Mathilda with quick engagements that led to pick-offs using the Jeet Kune Do ultimate of his tank Chou.
At the end of the rousing performance, RSG PH took a commanding 2-0 lead over Bren with Light spearheading the attack with a 0-2-12 KDA while Demonkite and Emann just had their way with 5-1-7 and 4-0-6 score lines on Julian and Claude, respectively.
Fighting for its tournament lives, Bren showed that it is not yet ready to give up on its M4 dreams as it once again utilized the signature Gusion pick albeit at the hands of Kyletzy. The ploy proved to work wonders anew as after a back-and-forth affair in the early game, Kyletzy slowly found his groove to lead the way for Bren with a 5-1-8 KDA and force Game 4.
Punished by RSG PH all game-long, Pandora on the Fredrinn came up huge in the crunchtime with a perfect ultimate that caught Emann’s Claude and Light’s Lolita. That pick off enabled RSG to defend the base and went for their own push to force the decider.