For the first time since the very first M-series World Championships, one of the two Philippine representatives is not advancing to the knockout stage of the crowning tournament of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang.

That, after Aurora Gaming, the MPL Philippines Season 14 runner-up, got the boot following a heartbreaking 0-2 loss to Indonesia’s Team Liquid in the M6 World Championships on Wednesday, Dec. 4, at the IOI Grand Exhibition and Convention Center in Malaysia.

The Filipino crew, despite brimming with world championship experiences with Renejay “RENEJAY” Barcase, Edward “Edward” Dapadap and Kenneth “Yue” Tadeo all played in the world stage in the past, struggled with the new swiss format in the group stage.

Two straight losses against Falcon Esports and NIP Flash to open their campaign came haunting the Filipinos in the end. Aurora did show some semblance of brilliance with 2-0 win over ULFHEDNAR, but just couldn’t keep the momentum going against TLID.

“The turning point was when they were able to take advantage of our mistakes, in the first game I think it was (on the clash) on the red buff and in the second game, in the second tower where they were able to teleport using Lou Yi,” said head coach Aniel “MTB” Jiandani.

Those moments proved to be the deciding factor in the series that saw the Filipinos actually take the lead but just couldn’t hold on to it.

Aurora led 10-5 in kill score in the series opener but couldn’t fully capitalize as TLID reached the power spike of its double-marksman setup. Sultan "AeronnShikii" Muhammad, on the Granger pick, scored a maniac to lead the comeback win.

It was pretty much the same story in the second game as the Filipinos, this time, built a much bigger lead – at 4.1k gold – which slowly vanished in front of the Indonesian’s assault which tactically utilized the Diversion play from Luo Yi.

Throughout the M-series history, Aurora is only the second Filipino team to fail to advance to the knockout stage since Onic Philippines also missed to do so back in M1 in 2019. It also ended the Philippines’ five-year streak in the M-series where both of its representatives are figuring in the playoffs of the world tilt.