ECHO Philippines takes down RRQ Indonesia securing the second Grand Finals slot

ECHO Philippines takes down RRQ Indonesia securing the second Grand Finals slot
Publish Date 14 Jan 2023
Author Jerico Arguelles
Viewed 982 times

The stakes are high for the lower bracket grand finals. The Kings of Kings, RRQ Indonesia, after a clean sweep performance against fellow Indonesian team Onic ID, look to face The House of Highlight, ECHO Philippines, who recently dropped down to the lower brackets after a nail-biting best-of-5 series in the upper bracket grand finals against Blacklist International, which concluded with a score of 3-2 in Blacklist International's favor. Will RRQ Indonesia overpower Echo Philippines and secure their second M Series World Championship grand finals slot? Or will Echo Philippines prevail over the Indonesian crowd favorites and secure another PH versus PH grand finals at the M4 event? Which team will join Blacklist International in the M4 grand finals as we head into the lower bracket finals?


Moving onto the draft phase, both teams have banned out heroes that we have seen all over M4 such as Karrie, Chou, Gloo, Fredrin, Joy, and Wanwan. RRQ securing first pick has picked Yve leaving Kaja open for the taking for Yawi. KarlTzy continues his utility core streak by securing the Barats while RRQ secure more standard picks such as Lapu-Lapu and Beatrix. Echo seems to have drafted a pick-off like draft while RRQ follows a standard draft approach with decent damage and synergy. 

The game starts with both teams following the typical rotations with no buffs being stolen. This format was followed all the way till the first turtle where both teams were evenly matched. During the first turtle fight, KarlTzy secures the retribution on the objective while unfortunately falling into the hands of RRQ after the turtle secure. Meanwhile a great black dragon form ultimate coming from Sanji disrupts the RRQ squad around the turtle area while Yawi and Sanji combo their ultimates to pick off RRQ members. Ultimately this trade resulted in a 1 for 2 pick off that favored Echo as they only lost KarlTzy in the process while they picked off VYN and Clayyy while also securing the turtle. This clash has ultimately led Echo to a comfortable gold lead as they continue to pick off members of RRQ one by one. The snowball of Echo never stopped which ultimately brought RRQ down in game 1 as Echo secures a lord in the 14th minute mark of the game to bring game 1 to a close. 

For game two, the bans looked similar to game 1’s bans with the addition of Sanji’s Kadita being banned by RRQ. This gives Echo the opportunity to secure BennyQT’s Karrie pick which is known to be one of Echo’s current best picks. RRQ on the other hand gave Yve a second chance while also snatching away the Yuzhong that was used by Sanford during the prior game. Echo finishes their draft by locking in a jungle Chou for KarlTzy and giving Yawi his Hilda pick, leading their draft to look like they would want to focus on delaying the jungler of RRQ. RRQ responds by securing Skylar’s Brody. RRQ has yet again seemed to be following a standard draft that has a good balance of engagement and damage. 
The game starts with both junglers respecting each other as they secure their buffs and farm. Although over at the gold lane, both roamers of each team have decided to focus on staying with their gold laners. As soon as KarlTzy hits level 4, he tries his best to pick off Clayyy’s Yve by using his ultimate on Yve under his tower bringing him closer to Sanji to try and pick off Clayyy. Unfortunately the damage was not enough leading to a follow up by Alberttt to instead pick off KarlTzy. Echo responds to this pick-off by focusing on Skylar, resulting in him getting picked off by Yawi’s Hilda diving him under RRQ’s tower. By the first turtle arrives the first big team fight. KarlTzy with his retribution secures the turtle while RRQ members try their best to try and bring down other Echo members. A chase by R7’s Yuzhong leads him to be kicked under Echo’s tower by KarlTzy which results in him being taken down securing a gold lead for Echo. The game is then a stalemate until the second turtle where a huge clash resulting in the takedown of Yawi leaving the turtle for RRQ. This results in a shift of the gold lead wherein RRQ starts to snowball from this point forward. With the second secured lord of  RRQ, they lead echo to their demise as they wipe them out ending game 2. 

Game 3’s drafts start by both teams banning out the exact same heroes they banned during game 2. Echo is still able to secure BennyQT’s Karrie by first picking her. RRQ then followed their game 2 draft by securing the Yve and Yuzhong yet again. In the second half of the draft, Echo picking up the Atlas and Akai alongside the Pharsa of Sanji shows that Echo has drafted a draft that would want to challenge RRQ into team fights they know they can win. Alberttt secures his Hayabusa, which made the crowd cheer knowing it is one of his best picks. RRQ also drafting a Grock shows that they are wanting to play by the pick-off. 

Game 3 starts with both junglers reaching level 4 in time for the first turtle fight. By here, the first massive team fight happens. As each team contests for the turtle, a perfectly timed black dragon form ultimate coming from R7 takes down KarlTzy, the retribution holder for echo. This leads RRQ to secure the first turtle. Securing the first turtle has allowed RRQ to somewhat hold the gold lead all throughout early to mid game as they secure all three turtles. During the first lord appearance, Echo strikes back by taking out three members of RRQ while also snatching the lord, turning the tides of the game. Unfortunately for Echo, RRQ has a perfect defense as they take down the lord alongside 4 members of Echo. This leads to a bit of a stalemate while waiting for the second lord to spawn. During the second lord fight, a repeat of what happened during the first lord fight commences allowing KartlTzy to secure the second lord while Echo sweeps up the battlefield and claim 4 members of RRQ. This massively turns the gold lead into their favor as they start racking up all of RRQ’s towers. By the time the second lord arrives at RRQ’s base, RRQ unfortunately can not hold on any longer as Echo takes down RRQ for game 3 as they head to RRQ’s base with the help of the lord. 

Now we are at matchpoint for Echo as we enter the draft for game 4. Similar bans to the prior games but this time RRQ bans out their own Yve while Echo bans out their signature Karrie pick. Gloo is the first pick of this game heading over to RRQ. While Echo secures a Lapu-Lapu and Pharsa, two great standard picks. VYN’s Franco makes his debut in this series as RRQ third picks him. Echo finishes their draft by picking Yawi’s signature Chou and KarlTzy’s Akai that has helped him secure both lord objectives during game 3. RRQ answer back by picking Alberttt’s Karina and Skylar’s Irithel. 

The match point game for Echo starts great as Echo secures a very early first blood by slaying R7’s Gloo with an early rotation by Sanford. By the time the first turtle spawns, KarlTzy is able to secure the turtle uncontested as Sanford zones out Alberttt by applying pressure in RRQ’s jungle. R7 also yet again falls into the hands of Sanji leading Echo to lead a 2-0 kill score along with a turtle. Multiple clashes then followed with both teams making trades left and right which resulted in the gold lead being surprisingly low, usually being below a thousand. By the time the next  turtle spawns, Echo looks to be in prime position to get the turtle but unfortunately it gets stolen away by Alberttt as he falls to Echo after using retribution to secure the turtle. RRQ is then able to pick off two members of Echo which has then shifted the momentum and gold lead over to RRQ. RRQ then secures the second turtle to further increase the lead RRQ has. During the spawn of the first lord, KarlTzy is able to secure the lord after an impressive play by Sanford which ends up in a maniac as he takes down four members of RRQ. The gold lead then shifts to Echo as they start to snowball, increasing their gold lead greatly. RRQ ultimately stumble as they try to stop Echo from taking the third lord as the members of Echo decided to target RRQ’s base after taking out R7 resulting in Echo winning the series 3-1.

Drafts:

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Game 4: 

Post Game Results:

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Game MVPs:

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Game 4: 

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