MANILA, Philippines — BREN Esports has been eliminated by ECHO Philippines while Blacklist International secured the first Mobile Legends Southeast Asia Cup slot after defeating RSG Slate Philippines 3-1 in the Mobile Legends Professional League Philippines (MPL PH) Season 11 Playoffs at the SMX Convention Center.
Having finished the regular season as the top seeds, BREN Esports and ECHO were predicted to face-off in the Grand Finals but after suffering defeats from the 3rd and 4th seeds, it would be the Beehive and the Orcas battling in the lower brackets with the reigning world champions showing BREN Esports the door with a 1-3 defeat.
Speaking with members of the press, BREN Esports coach Francis "Ducky" Glindro lamented that the team were not able to follow through with their gameplans and maybe by showing some of their plays during the IESF World Esports Qualifiers, the other teams were able to prepare.
"The only thing I'm really sad about is the schedule. We could have, parang nagtago ng strats and stuff. Unfortunately, we had to show them in IESF. That's one of the sad things na nangyari sa amin this season," shared Glindro.
The other thing that Glindro laments is the packed schedule, comparing it to the Indonesian league which had ended during Holy Week while the Philippine league was still playing the Regular Season then giving the Indonesia team for the SEA Games a month to prepare.
He added: "It could have been scheduled better. Kasi nagawa siya ng Indonesia, what more us? Kasi there were other factors in play like religion like tayo we had Holy Week in the middle."
Blacklist International in top form
The other match-up of the day saw Blacklist International assert their mastery of Mobile Legends with a 3-1 victory against reigning MSC champions, RSG Slate PH. The win also qualified the agents to the upcoming MSC 2023 happening in Cambodia this June.
Having been predicted by many to crash out during the first day of the Playoffs, jungler Danerie "Wise" Rosario attributed the team's successful and near perfect playoffs run to rookie midlaner Kenneth “Yue” Tadeo who had to fill in the issues of the team's once KDA machine Salic "Hadji" Imam who took a break this season.
"May factor rin si Yue na lagi siyang nasa top five KDA [performance]. Rookie pa lang siya, [and nung regular season] na ngangapa pa lang siya. Ngayon [sa playoffs], lumabas na yung tunay niyang laro di na siya kinakabahan," shared Rosario.
MPL Philippines Season 11 will conclude tomorrow with ECHO Philippines and RSG Slate PH facing off in the lower bracket finals at 11am. The winner will face Blacklist International in the Grand Finals at 5pm. MPL Philippines will also award its season's first team and induct another awardee to the Hall of Legends which will take place between the two matches.