The curse of the MPL Invitational continued to haunt the Philippine teams as the last Filipino team standing in RSG Philippines bowed out of the tournament after a 2-1 loss to the Geek Fam Indonesia on Sunday, Nov. 6.
Ironically, the last MPL Philippine team in the semifinals saw their campaign end at the hands of two Filipino imports Allen “Baloyskie” Baloy and Aaron “JanaaQT” Lazaro who led the Indonesian crew to another monumental upset of a Filipino champion team.
Fresh from a 2-0 sweep of Blacklist International a day before, Geek Fam continued to shock the rest of the field when it scored a dominant 10-5 victory in the series opener.
1rrad kept his steady play for RSG PH in the onset of the match but Aboy on the midlane Valentina pick proved to be the biggest thorn to the side of the Filipino crew, finishing with perfect 5-0-1 line.
Baloyskie on the Diggie also allowed Caderaa on the Beatrix to quickly reach his power spike to put up a neat 3-0-4 KDA.
Refusing to go down without a fight however were the Raiders who came roaring back in Game 2 to secure a 29-9 equalizer in Game 2. Exort and Nathzz provided the one-two punch for the reigning MSC champions scoring nine kills each on the Valentina and Benedetta picks, respectively.
Geek Fam, which missed the playoffs in the MPL Indonesia Season 10, would not be denied as it barged into the grand finals with a 12-7 victory in the winner-take-all Game 3.
JanaaQT and Aboy once again starred for the Indonesian team finishing with 3-1-2 and 4-1-6 lines on the jungle Gusion and midlane Valentina picks.
Geek Fam will face the winner between the Kairi “Kairi” Rayosdelsol-led Onic Esports and Todak.