Joshua “Aspect” Tating’s late-game maniac powered Laus Playbook Esports’ 2-1 reverse sweep of Nexplay Esports in Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League Season 7 regular season, Saturday evening.
Aspect finished with 10 kills and two assists against one death playing Bruno in Game Three to give the Playbook franchise a winning debut in the MPL.
Things started to get going for Playbook when a great initiation from Tristan “Yawi” Cabrera (Grock) put Nexplay in a very bad spot.
Though Yawi was able to snatch Aspect’s Bruno to start a crucial clash, Playbook was able to reverse the outcome with Nowee “Ryota” Macasa (Lapu Lapu) and Peter “Jake the Dog” Lapitan spearheading a four-man wipe — leaving James “Jeymz” Gloria the lone survivor for Nexplay.
With the advantage in manpower, Playbook went on to secure the first lord of the match to tip the scales entirely to their favor.
Aspect (Bruno) then scored a crucial Maniac in the 15:09-mark, which almost sealed the deal for Playbook. But Jeymz, who once again survived the Playbook onslaught, prolonged the fight by fending off the four-man Playbook contingent.
The Eagles secured another lord in the 16:14-mark which spelled doom for Nexplay.
Arvin “Arvs” Bacayan (Silvanna) backstopped Aspect with six kills and eight assists against two deaths while Ian “Beemo” Sergio chipped in 14 assists with his Rafaela. Ryota added a perfect 5-0-8 kill-death-assist line for Playbook.
On the other hand, Yawi was the lone bright spot for NXP in Game Three with two kills, three assists, and four deaths as John Paul “H2wo” Salonga (Roger) was held to just four assists and three deaths.
Nexplay Esports actually started out Game One strong, with Lance “LanceCy” Cunanan (Kagura) and Yawi (Benedetta) asserting their dominance in the early game which paved the way for H2wo’s Roger and Renejay “Renejay” Barcarse’s Wanwan to take over the match.
But Playbook, despite an outstanding defensive stand from Renejay “Renejay” Barcarse (Alice) and Jeymz (Yu Zhong), managed to escape Game Two and even the series by riding Jake the Dog’s impressive Harith performance.
LPE has now tied Execration at the top of Group B with identical 1-0 cards. Nexplay, meanwhile, joins Omega Esports at the bottom with 0-1 cards.
Playbook will next face Blacklist International on Saturday, March 27, at 7:30 p.m. while Nexplay Esports looks to bounce back against defending champion BREN Esports on Sunday, March 21, at 7:30 p.m.
