Liquid ECHO copped its second MPL Philippines crown after completing a stunning 4-0 sweep of defending champion Falcon APBren in the Season 13 Grand Finals at the SM Southmall on Sunday, May 26.

While it ended up as a sweep, the score didn’t fully reflect how tight the contest was – with the deciding clash in Game 4 leaving no one but TLPH Alston “Sanji” Pabico’s Valentina as the last hero standing.

It was actually the San-san duo of Sanji and Sanford “Sanford” Vinuya which sealed the deal for Liquid ECHO in the final clash as they took turns in the extended team fight that began with a tug-of-war on the 18th minute Luminous Lord.

With the two squads pouring all the skills against each other, Sanford’s Arlott pick dazzled and dashed its way to a triple kill.

Marco “Super Marco” Requitano, on his Roger pick, retaliated and took down Sanford for a triple kill of his own but Sanji, however, took charge and did the clean-up job by taking down Super Marco for his double kill that completed a five-man wipeout of FCAP.

With enough minion wave at the midlane, Sanji went on a one-man siege to take down the FCAP base and formally rise back to the MPL throne after ruling it the first time in Season 11.

Throughout the series, the Lord dance had been key for TLPH with a four-man wipe in the 13th minute Lord fight in Game 1 setting the tone for the rout.

Sanford took the Finals MVP honors after an all-around performance that saw him tally a 6-5-7 line in the series-clinching Game 4,  impressive 3-1-5 and 7-0-7 KDA on the Paquito in Games 1 and 2 and 2-0-7 KDA on the Lapu-Lapu in Game 3.

He was a catalyst to the tone-setting Game 1 win where like in the final play, TLPH used the Lord dance as a bait to let FCAP initiate the team fight. That resulted to a four-man wipe for the defending champions and allowing the M4 world titlists to draw first blood with a 11-7 kill score.

Liquid ECHO then went on a hot 8-0 start in Game 2 and did not allow FCAP to get on the kill board until the 11th minute mark.  APBren showed semblance of fight but completely lost control of the game during the 16th minute Lord fight where TLPH traded the Lord and hero for another four-man kill.

It was never the same from there as TLPH went on to dominate the M5 world champions in Game 3, 13-3, to move on cusp of the title.