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AP Bren, RSG PH secure Snapdragon Challengers upper bracket semis spots

Sports | Esports

AP Bren, RSG PH secure Snapdragon Challengers upper bracket semis spots

By Reynald I. Magallon

Filipino squads AP Bren and RSG Philippines both secured outright spots to the upper bracket semifinals after topping their respective pools at the end of the group stage in the Snapdragon Pro-Series Season 3 Challengers Finals.

*AP Bren celebrates after claiming the top spot in the group stage (Screenshot from ESL Snapdragon stream)

* RSG PH topped a stacked Group A, which also featured fellow Filipino team and M4 world champion ECHO, with a 4-1 record while AP Bren beat 2023 MSC champion Onic Esports from Indonesia for the top seed in Group B. RSG PH fielded its 2022 MSC winning lineup with Jhonard “Demonkite” Caranto and Arvie “Aqua” Calderon returning from a one-season break to join Dylan “Light” Catipon, Eman “Emann” Sangco and Nathanael “Nathzz” Estrologo. The crew was actually tied for the top spot with ECHO but managed to take the lead by virtue of the winner over the other rule. ECHO, though, was missing the services of two of its M4 champions with Karl “Karltzy” Nepomuceno and Benedict “BennyQt” Gonzales sitting out the tournament. In the other group, AP Bren kicked off the group stage with a massive 2-1 win over the Kairi “Kairi” Rayosdelsol-led Onic Esports and later on proved to be pivotal to its campaign. Even after absorbing a crucial loss to Bigetron Alpha towards the end of the group stage and Onic winning its next four matches for a similar 4-1 record, the Filipino team still kept the top spot due to the first win. In the play-in Onic will take on Red Giant Esports which was bannered by Blacklist International gold laner Red “Super Red” Bordeos for the right to face RSG PH. ECHO, meanwhile, lock horns with Bigetron Alpha with the winner setting up a clash against AP Bren.

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