MANILA, Philippines — Top seed Blacklist International survived a streaking BREN Esports, 3-2, as ECHO avenged their regular season losses against RSG Philippines, 3-1, in Day Two hostilities of the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League Philippines (MPL PH) Season 10 Playoffs at the Blue Leaf Cosmopolitan in Quezon City.
In the first match-up of the day, ECHO and RSG set the tone with clashes left and right in just the first 10 minutes of Game One of their best of five contest.
Both teams traded objectives, leads and kills, but the tides seemed to favor the Orcas in the end as ECHO claimed a 2-0 lead.
RSG retaliated and managed to take Game Three to extend the series. But just as the defending champions seemed to take the lead in Game Four, ECHO successfully pulled off another backdoor play to send RSG to the lower brackets, 3-1.
ECHO coach Archie “Tictac” Reyes said the team felt motivated to win against RSG PH after suffering back-to-back losses against the reigning titlists during the regular season.
"Sobrang halaga [yung panalo], yun nga makabawi [kami] sa regular season tapos syempre defending champions [yung tinalo namin]," an emotional Reyes added during their post-match interview.
All eyes were on the second match of the day though as world champions BREN Esports went head to head with Blacklist International — winners of the M2 and M3 championships, respectively.
Making a triumphant return to the playoffs after regular season exits in the last edition, both teams wanted to retain their upper bracket advantage and be one step closer to representing the country once again in the world stage.
Like the previous upper bracket match-up, the first game saw Blacklist International with an early lead but BREN Esports managed to close the gap to the point where the game could go either team's way but Blacklist International eventually surged with the win.
BREN Esports dominated Game Two for the equalizer and rode their winning momentum to take Game Three, after yet another back and forth match, propelling them to match point.
The agents’ push for a decider was sealed when BREN Esports made the mistake of allowing Season 10 MVP Jonmar "OhMyV33NUS" Villaluna to use their signature hero Estes along with Kiel "OHEB" Soriano using Claude and Salic "Hadji" Imam with the Faramis, unleashing the Agents’ signature UBE strat (Ultimate Bonding Experience) and forcing the rubber match.
The decider matched the pace of the previous games of the day, a back and forth trade at the early game. But Blacklist International secured objective after objective, forcing BREN to remain at their base.
Though BREN managed to mount a defensive play to extend the match-up, it was the Agents who secured their Upper Bracket advantage, relegating BREN Esports to the lower brackets, 3-2.
Blacklist International was all praises against the underdogs BREN and how they have exceeded everyone’s expectations.
“Grabe yung BREN ngayon, para sila yung sinasabing lason this season. Sobrang saludo ako sa [kanila],” said Villaluna during their post-match interview.
The action-packed Day Three of the MPL PH Season 10 Playoffs will see three match-ups.
The Upper Bracket Finals that pits Blacklist International against ECHO opens the day's hostilities at 11 a.m. Down at the lower brackets, RSG and BREN lock horns at 3 p.m. The night cap will then feature the lower bracket finals between the loser between Blacklist and ECHO, and the winner between RSG and BREN at 7 p.m.