Mixed results for Sibol in 1st round of IESF Qualifiers

MANILA, Philippines -- The country's national esports team Sibol underwent an acid test this week at the World Esports Championships' (WEC) South East Asia Qualifiers for Womens Mobile Legends Bang Bang (MLBB) and Dota2.

The men's MLBB team has a direct invite to the championship organized by the International Esports Federation (IESF) after they won last year's event.

Women's MLBB

For the Womens' MLBB team, Sibol ended up with a strong group stage outing, conquering Group A without a single game loss. But Cambodia turned up to be the team's kryptonite. 

In Game 1 of the semifinals, Sibol caught up to Cambodia's early game aggression, with the Filipinos shifting to an objective game, focusing on keeping the gold lead as well as taking down turrets to eventually take the first game.

Game 2 featured a more strategic Cambodia squad, which toned down its aggression and focused on the gold lead and cleaned up their lanes. With Sibol trying to clear the waves on both their top and bottom lanes while the lord was already up, Cambodia took the man advantage to take the lord and pick out the Sibol roster one by one, securing a wipeout and forcing a decider.

On the brink of elimination, Sibol had a bad start in Game 3 as Cambodia took an 8-0 lead, preventing Sibol from trying to secure any objectives. The lord dance by the 12th minute saw three heroes down on the side of Sibol, prompting Cambodia to seize the base and take the series, eliminating Sibol from the qualifiers.

Dota2

The Dota2 roster started strong with a win against Thailand in just under 35 minutes but saw defeat at the hands of Malaysia. But the Filipino squad paid the loss no mind as they had to immediately bound back to face Cambodia the same night and unleashed their hunger for a win by taking down the Cambodia squad in just over 30 minutes.

With one match left, Sibol had to secure a win against Myanmar to book their ticket to the Asian Championship. 

Myanmar started the game with aggression taking a 3-0 lead against the Filipinos, but Sibol was able to read the Myanmar's team and able to slowly close the gap, tying the game in kills and gold lead by the 13th minute. The back and forth between the two teams came to a head by the 23th minute when a team fight saw four players down on the side of Myanmar to shift the game's momentum to the Filipinos, who eventually take the match-up 30-12 to book their ticket to the IESF Asian Championships happening in Chengdu, China in September.