Back-to-back champion Lyceum of the Philippines University rolled its way as Jose Rizal University, Arellano University and College of St. Benilde made surprise entries to the Final Four of the Collegiate Center Championship (CCC) Season 3 under its mother company Collegiate Center for Esports (CCE).

The Pirate Esports topped the elimination round with a 7-1 card before making short work of the No. 4 seed University of Perpetual Help System Dalta, 2-0, in the upper bracket playoffs to headline the semis cast.

Revelation squad Jose Rizal U, which came in second in a major turnaround this season with a similar 7-1 card, needed three games to dispatch No. 3 seed San Sebastian College-Recoletos in the other upper bracket pairing.

Higher seeds San Sebastian and Perpetual, in stunning fashion, crashed out of contention in the lower bracket as Arellano and CSB pulled off upsets to gatecrash their way to the semis.

The No. 7 seed Arellano ran away with a dominant win in Game 3 over San Sebastian, the Season 1 runner-up, as No. 5 CSB completed a reverse sweep of Perpetual to complete the Final Four cast of the fastest growing Esports collegiate league backed by Fantech, Converge, and Xiaomi.

Lyceum takes on JRU in the upper bracket while Arellano and CSB duke it out in the lower bracket of the semis.

The semis and grand finals of the prestigious tourney, led by chairman Stanley Lao, president Waiyip Chong, chairman emeritus Peter Cayco, general manager Jay Recto and lead project manager Franz Abrenica, will be held live at the red carpet of the inaugural Philippine GameDev Expo (PGDX) in Pasay City on Aug. 19 and 20, respectively.

As good as advertised, the Pirate Esports met little to no resistance in barging to their third straight Final Four appearance behind the lead of two-time MVP Mark “Mark” Kenneth Delos Reyes and breakout start Em Jhay “Alas4Spade” Cabradilla.

Alas4Spade stamped his class in Lyceum’s 2-0 sweep of Perpetual, claiming the MVP honors in both matches won by the Pirate Esports in dominant fashion.

He flashed a lethal Beatrix with 10/1/3 kill-death-assist ratio in Game 1 won by Lyceum in only 13 minutes highlighted by 4,000-gold gap and 8-4 turret score.

In Game 2, Alas4Spade put on a show with Leslie (6/0/2 KDA) as the Pirate Esports ran away with a massive 13,000-gold upperhand and 9-0 turret gap for the win in only 12 mins. Lyceum also topped the kills in both games, 16-9 and 15-6.

JRU was not to be left behind in Lyceum’s quick march to the semis as Justin Clark “Infamous” Posadas and Mark Jabez “21jabez” Cruz starred in Games 1 and 3.

Save for a 23-7 defeat in Game 2, it was all JRU against San Sebastian with Infamous’ Novaria (5/0/7 KDA) being hailed as the MVP in Game 1 and 21jabez’ Claude (4/0/8) in Game 3.

But CSB and Arellano snared the bigger victories by eliminating San Sebastian and Perpetual in the lower brackets, where they first made short work of No. 8 Mapua and No. 6 Emilio Aguinaldo College with 2-0 sweeps, respectively.

After splitting the first two games, Alexandre Gabrielle “AK” rose to the occasion with an impressive Baxia (4/2/8 KDA) as CSB drubbed San Sebastian in only 12 minutes in Game 3 with 9,000-gold lead, 9-1 turret dominance and 15-8 kill score.

Also triumphant in the rubber match Game 3 was Arellano, which leaned on Carl Danrev “Lrac” Lucero’s Baxia with a 6/1/9 KDA against Perpetual.

Lrac scored a crucial triple kill in the final clash with the Lord on Arellano’s side to earn the gritty win that featured slim gaps in gold, 59,000-55,000 and turrets, 8-7, albeit a huge lead in kill scores, 22-12.

San Beda and Season 2 runner-up Letran were eliminated as early as the elimination round by finishing at 9th and 10th place, respectively.