Onic Philippines found a chink on what seemed to be an impenetrable armor of the powerhouse ECHO squad as Kairi “Kairi” Rayosdelsol came through in crunch time to hand the league leaders its first taste of defeat, 2-1, in the MPL Philippines on Friday, March 11.
Kairi on his Helcurt pulled off a clutch Deadly Poison Sting against two heroes of ECHO to spearhead the counter-attack from Onic PH after the foiled Lord push from ECHO.
Marky “Markyyy” Capacio and Jaylord “Hatred” Gonzales then cleaned up and secured the kills on the low health ECHO heroes leaving Jankurt “Kurttzy” Matira alone to defend their base against the marching Onic side.
Kairi finished with a 7-4-8 KDA on the Helcurt while Gerald “Dlarskie” Trinchera who played a crucial part in holding the fort for Onic with his Uranus during the late game base defense contributed a 3-3-9 score line in Onic’s 19-22 come-from-behind win.
It was fitting end to a brawl matchup that saw both squads engage in a nerve-racking full five-on-five clashes all series long.
It was actually ECHO which drew the series’ first blood as Benedict “BennyQT” Gonzales on his Phoveus unleashed a 9-1-10 showing to tow ECHO to a 23-24 opener.
Onic PH took control of the early game behind the efforts Allen “Baloyskie” Baloy in disrupting Karl “Karltzy” Nepomuceno’s Lancelot in its jungle rotation. A well-defended Lord push where BennyQT scored a triple kill and eventually ECHO’s wipeout of Onic allowed ECHO to catch up.
Both teams went back and forth from that point and traded blows before a Bennyqt pick-off on Kairi’s Ling down bottom lane allowed Bren to secure the 26-minute Lord and eventually the first point of the series.
Onic refused to go down without a fight as it gave ECHO a dose of its own medicine with Baloyskie and Hatred utilizing the Johnson-Kadita combo which was first used by ECHO this season.
With the focus on the Johnson and Kadita, Kairi on the Ling and Markyyy on the Beatrix had their free reigns on the jungle.
Although hampered by Onic pressure especially Karltzy’s Aulus which was completely shut down, mustering only a 1-7-7 KDA, ECHO managed to regain foothold as they attempted a one-lane push after a pick off on the Baloyskie’s Johnson.
That however wasn’t enough as Baloyskie executed two perfect Rapid Touch Down – the first one to take out Karltzy for the free Lord and the last one to take down the ECHO base to score the first point of Onic’s reverse sweep.
Onic PH improved to a 4-2 record while ECHO still hold the top spot despite sliding to a 5-1 slate.