Sibol bucked some group stage hiccups and a tough Myanmar team in the semifinals to keep its three-peat drive in the MLBB men’s competitions of the 32nd Southeast Asian Games on Saturday, May 13.

Sibol MLBB men's team survives Myanmar in the semifinals. (Moonton Photo)

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After staving off a possible group stage elimination with two crucial wins over Vietnam and Timor Leste, the Sibol team composed of the core members of Bren Esports authored a gutsy 2-1 reverse sweep against Myanmar in the semifinals.

With the Nationals trailing by as many as 4k gold in the winner-take-all Game 3, Charles “Flaptzy” Canon initiated with a clutch petrify combo that caught three heroes of Myanmar in the 13th minute Lord fight.

Angelo “Pheww” Arcangel provided the follow up and secured a triple kill to anchor Sibol’s four-man wipe.

The Filipinos then went on for the base siege, taking down all of Myanmar’s outer turrets before going for the base lock against Maynmar’s lone defender in RubyDD’s Gloo to complete a 9-11 comeback.

Arcangel finished with a 6-2-2 line on the Kadita while Canon added a 2-3-5 tally on the Yu Zhong

It was actually Myanmar which drew the series first blood behind an effective pick-off composition anchored on a Natalia pick. The Burmese took Game 1 with a 20-13 victory.

Sibol, though, displayed its championship poise as Michael “Kyletzy” Sayson secured a huge Lord steal in the waning moments to drag the match to the late game. 

That set up the stage for Marco “Super Marco” Requitano who ran wild on the Karrie with a 9-2-4 line and spearhead Sibol’s 17-14 equalizer.

Sibol will next face Malaysia in the gold medal match. Interestingly, it was the Malaysians that put the Filipinos title retention bid in the balance after defeating Sibol in the group stage. 

The loss proved to be crucial for the Filipinos as they needed to sweep the rest of its assignments in the groups just to advance to the crossover semis.