RSG Philippines secured the top seed at the end of the regular season along with the upper bracket spot in the playoffs following its convincing 2-0 sweep of Onic Philippines in the MPL Philippines Season 9 on Saturday, April 9.
RSG, which finished sixth last season, had a complete turnaround after finishing atop the standings with a league-best 31 points and 11-3 record.
It also has the power to pick which teams will meet in the first round of the playoffs while players like Jhonard “Demonkite” Caranto, Dylan “Light” Caranto and Eman “Emann” Sangco also have a clear shot at the regular season MVP race.
RSG played to its strength in the two-game stretch and waited for its heroes to reach their power spikes before taking over in the game, evident in the team’s 15-13 come-from-behind win.
The regular season’s best team weathered the initial storm put up by Onic led by Kairi “Kairi” Rayosdelsol who had his hands on his comfort Fanny pick.
Kairi ran wild especially in the early game when he scored a huge chunk of his 8-2-4 stat line in Game 1. RSG, thanks to Light’s Grock and Demonkite’s Baxia, managed to hold the fort and allowed their late game composition anchored on Emann’s Beatrix and Aqua’s Cecilion to reach their peaks.
A Lord steal from Emann at the 17-minute mark gave RSG a window to turn things around as it dominated Onic in the ensuing clashes including the most crucial one near RSG’s red buff pit where it secured a three-man wipe of Onic to secure the Lord.
RSG took the first game in the next Lord push as Emann finished with a 5-2-6 KDA while Aqua had 4-1-9 tally.
It’s almost the same story in the second game as RSG depended to Emann’s Karrie in the late game. Demonkite on the jungle Baxia and Light on the Franco however gave Emann enough protection and space to farm and quickly reach his power spikes.
When Emann got his hands on his core items, RSG then went on a roll as the Karrie pick proved to be a kryptonite to Onic’s tanky lineup that has a tank build jungle Karina, an Atlas, a Yu Zhong and an Aldous – all of which are high-HP heroes and a perfect target for Eman.
Eman delivered the goods with an impressive 8-0-4 line while Aqua provided support with a 1-1-13 KD on the Yve.