By: Arjohn Roxas
Aurora Gaming kicked off their MPL Philippines Season 16 playoff campaign with a hard-fought 3-2 victory over TNC Pro Team in the upper bracket semifinals on Thursday at the Cuneta Astrodome.
Despite dominating the regular season, Aurora looked vulnerable at times against TNC. Still, the Northern Lights showed poise and composure in a tense rubber match to advance to the upper bracket finals.
The series began with both squads refusing to back down, splitting the first two games.
Aurora then pulled ahead in Game 3 with an aggressive lineup anchored by Jan “Domeng” Delmundo’s Granger, who pulled off a Maniac just four minutes into the match.
However, TNC quickly regained control by the seventh minute, as Justine “Zaida” Palma’s Yi Sun-Shin secured all the Turtle objectives while punishing Light’s failed initiations.
At the 23-minute mark, a clash erupted in the midlane during a Lord siege.
Kenneth “Yue” Tadeo caught three TNC members with his Traction Pulse, breaking through their defenses and paving the way for a tower lock to claim match point.
In Game 4, Aurora fell behind by as much as 7k gold by the 11-minute mark.
But the Northern Lights capitalized on TNC’s overaggression, defending their bottom lane tower and wiping out the Phoenix Army to even the series heading into the second Lord.
After a series of back-and-forth skirmishes around the second and third Lords, TNC finally secured the fourth Lord following a pickoff on Yue’s Pharsa, closing out the match in 25 minutes to force a decisive Game 5.
In the final game, TNC controlled the early stages with six kills and a 1.7k gold lead by the eighth minute, while Aurora focused on enabling Yue’s Cecillion to scale his overflowing stacks.
A Lord clash at the 12-minute mark ignited Aurora’s comeback.
The Northern Lights secured the objective, wiped out TNC to even the kill count and swing the gold lead to 5k, then dominated the second Lord fight with a 3-0 trade to seal the series in 16 minutes.
With the win, Aurora Gaming will aim to secure a grand finals berth against Team Liquid Philippines on Friday, still at the Cuneta Astrodome.
