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RRQ Kaito ends ECHO Proud's reign to rule MDL Season 3

Sports | Esports

RRQ Kaito ends ECHO Proud's reign to rule MDL Season 3

By Reynald I. Magallon

At A Glance

RRQ Kaito overcame a slow start and completed a come-from-behind 3-2 victory to dethrone two-time champion ECHO Proud in the grand finals of the developmental league on Sunday, May 12, at the Shooting Gallery Studios in Makati.

A new kingdom has been built in the MDL Philippines.

RRQ Kaito overcame a slow start and completed a come-from-behind 3-2 victory to dethrone two-time champion ECHO Proud in the grand finals of the developmental league on Sunday, May 12, at the Shooting Gallery Studios in Makati.

Trailing 1-2 heading into Game 4 and with ECHO marching toward the base turret, Cymond “CY” Torres made a defense to remember, fending off three Orcas to save the Kings from the death bed.

RRQ, backed by Indonesia’s King of Kings RRQ Hoshi, rode the momentum of that solid base defense with CY scoring a triple kill to tie the game at 2-2 and drag the match to a winner-take-all.

Denniel Denison “xNova” Gomez, behind his Mathilda pick, then took over for RRQ in the title clincher, earning him the Finals MVP honors. He was also dominant in the Game 1 win behind his Chip pick.

Cy and xNova were joined by Edferdz “Ferdz” Fernandez, Gabriel “Denjiro” Guinto and Carl “Minguin” Gallantes in the title-winning crew.

It was a fitting end to RRQ Kaito’s dominant run in the season where they went on to sweep the regular season with a perfect 9-0 record, earning an outright spot to the semifinals along with second seed Omega Neos.

RRQ easily dispatched Blacklist Academy in the semifinals with a 2-0 sweep to advance to the grand finals. ECHO Proud, on the other hand, had to work its way back to its third finals appearance after taking down Onic Arsenals 2-0, before pulling off another 2-0 upset over Omega to set up the finals showdown.

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