EN
PH
The first series for the last day of the regular season of MPL-PH S9 is a face-off between the current 2nd seed of the tournament, TNC, and the M2 champions BREN. The squad of the Rising Phoenix looks to maintain their momentum and place in the tournament as today's series will dictate whether they will be in the upper brackets come Playoffs. BREN Esports, on the other hand, looks to gain experience as this will be a no-bearing match to them after they have been eliminated from the regular season. Will the ever consistent and highly objective team of TNC prevail against the no pressure yet very precise play from BREN Esports?
It seemed as if TNC's strategy in Game 1 of the series was to ban JOY BOY—using five (5) of their bans to remove the playmaker's heroes. Throughout the majority of the early to mid-game, it looked as if this decision worked for the Top 2 team. With all of their lanes dominating against the opposing team, SDzyz's Ling masterfully executing the retribution spell, the game easily went on in the favor of TNC. The TikTok play from Benthings' Lolita and Escalera's Lylia to delay Saxa's Karina also helped delay the rotation coming from the jungler resulting in SDzyz securing all of the turtle objectives in the early game. However, it was Saxa fighting back using retribution during the first lord take that helped shift the momentum towards their team. This has helped them regain footing and confidence which allowed them to turn the tides against their team. BREN Esports just shows why they are the former world champions as they take Game #1.
JOY BOY's Chou has been opened in Game #2. This has enabled BREN Esports to play aggressively in the early phase of the game, allowing them to take control of a wider space of the map, enabling Saxa's Ling to farm freely. At the end of the game, TNC was left with only a single turtle take as BREN flexes on their two (2) turtle objectives and three (3) lord takes, forcing their opponent to retreat as they march on to destroy their base. With Pandora's Phoveus being able to skillfully prevent Kramm's rotation and zone the majority of their opponents, it has been ensured that this game will go the way of the former world champions. Despite this being a no-bearing game, BREN shows how professional they are as they turned the Phoenix Squad's hopes to ashes, taking game #2 and the series.
GAME 1 (19:05) - BREN 14 (W); TNC 11 (L)
GAME 2 (16:44) - TNC 4 (L); BREN 7 (W)
GAME MVPs:
