ECHO saved some blushes and outlasted hometown bet Burn X Flash with a nail-biting 3-2 victory to salvage a third place finish in the MLBB Southeast Asia Cup 2023 at the Aeon Mall Mean Chey in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Pegged as heavy favorites in the tournament, ECHO salvaged a third place finish in MSC (Moonton Games)

Coming off a gut-wrenching sweep loss at the hands of Onic Esports in the semifinals, ECHO seemed to be still in shock after falling behind 1-2 in the battle for third place but managed to pull itself together just in time to bag the win.

Alston “Sanji” Pabico kept the Orcas afloat in Game 4 with a perfect 8-0-16 line on the Yve. He also played a pivotal part in the team’s base defense against a Burn X Flash siege at the 14-minute mark.

ECHO survived the base push from Burn X Flash, completing a four-man wipe. The Filipinos secured the Lord in the ensuing objective clash to even the series and force a deciding game after a 14-14 win.

Buoyed by the confidence boosting win, ECHO seemed to have finally returned to their dominant ways, putting much of the pressure on the gold lane to put pressure on Burn X Flash’s Filipino import Mariusz “Donut” Tan.

Sanji provided the damage from the distance with his Pharsa pick, scattering a 7-2-2 line while Benedict “BennyQt” Gonzales added a perfect 4-0-2 KDA in the wire-to-wire 14-3 Game 5 win.

It was actually ECHO who scored the first point of the series behind a stellar Harith game from BennyQt who took charge with a neat 10-0-4 KDA.

The Filipinos though would eventually lost steam in the next two games with Donut and Kosal “ATM” Piseth who both proved to be the biggest thorn to the side of ECHO in its loss in Games 2 and 3.