Sibol MLBB couldn’t complete its signature Cinderella run in the lower bracket after yielding to Indonesia, 3-0, in the Grand Finals of the IESF World Esports Championship in Bali, Indonesia on Sunday, Dec. 11.
The nationals, backed by the Filipino Mobile Legends champion team Blacklist International, failed to even score a point in the series as the Indonesians only needed two wins to bag the title by virtue of its 1-0 lead incentive for making the grand finals through the upper bracket.
It was the first time the Filipinos lost a major event in the MLBB title since winning the 2019 Southeast Asian Games. Filipino teams went on to win the M2 World Championship (Bren Esports), MLBB Southeast Asia Cup 2021 (Execration), M3 World Championship (Blacklist International), 31st Southeast Asian Games, and MSC 2022 (RSG Philippines).
Sibol actually put itself in a great position in the series opener, taking control of the contest in the early game including a huge Lord steal from Edward “EDWARD” Dapadap’s Benedetta.
Sibol, however, couldn’t protect the lead as the Indonesians secured crucial pickoffs on the Filipinos with the help of its crowd controls to turn things around and take a 14-7 victory.
Jabran “Branz” Wikoko was untouchable on his Beatrix pick finishing with a perfect 8-0-6 KDA.
It was practically the same story in Game 2 as Sibol showed some fight despite being shoved into the ropes, taking a 9-5 kill lead and destroying all of Indonesia’s outer turrets. Indonesia, however, completed two massive pickoffs on Kiel “Oheb” Soriano’s Lesley and Jonmar “OhmyV33nus” Villaluna’s Kaja that allowed them to secure the 18-minute Luminous Lord.
Edward’s heroics on the Lapu-Lapu anchored the Filipino’s base defense despite missing three of its heroes to survive the siege.
Sibol then marched on and even secured two more Lords but couldn’t fully take advantage of it as Indonesia scored a four-man wipe in a huge midlane clash to finally close out the 28-minute game with a tight 21-20 win and bag the gold medal.