The M4 World Champion ECHO opened its MPL Philippines Season 11 campaign in style, asserting its mastery over a new-look Blacklist International with a 2-0 sweep at the Shooting Gallery Studios on Friday, Feb. 17.
Benedict “BennyQT” Gonzales showed why he is considered the best gold laner right now as he put up a series-long brilliance on his signature picks in Beatrix and Brody as the Orcas extended their win streak over the Codebreakers to six games which started in the Grand Finals of the M4 Worlds.
ECHO started off the series with a rousing 14-2 Game 1 win with Tristan “Yawi” Cabrera and Karl “Karltzy” Nepomuceno making a conscious effort of putting the pressure on Blacklist’s new gold laner Red “Super Red” Bordeos.
As a result, BennyQT had the space he needed to quickly reach his power spike and finish with a neat 8-0-5 KDA on the Beatrix while Yawi added a 0-0-9 line on the Atlas.
Unlike in the first game, Blacklist showed semblance of life in the second game as it managed to recover from a rousing start of ECHO behind Yawi’s Valir and Alston “Sanji” Pabico’s Yve.
Blacklist even dodged a huge bullet midway through the game as BennyQT failed to complete a patented ECHO backdoor play. ECHO executed a solid base defense before taking out three of Blacklist players in the final Lord fight to nail the win.
BennyQT put up a 7-2-7 line on the Brody while Yawi added a 0-2-17 KDA on the roaming Valir and Sanji finishing with a 7-3-8 tally on the Yve.