By: Jan Marcus Montevirgen
Aurora suffered a stunning upset against Falcon Esports (Myanmar), losing 0-1 on Day 1 of the Swiss Stage at the M6 World Championship, held Thursday at the IOI Grand Exhibition & Convention Center in Malaysia.
With the loss, RORA now holds a 0-1 record as they await their next opponent after the match between fellow Filipino squad Fnatic ONIC Philippines and Team Liquid Indonesia at 9:00 PM.
“I think we’ll just do what we do best. The tournament is not over yet. We know we can bounce back from this loss. Hopefully, we’ll keep in mind that this tournament won’t be easy if we want to win it,” said head coach Aniel “Master the Basics” Jiandani in a post-match interview.
RORA got off to a strong start in the best-of-one series, with Renejay “Renejay” Barcarse (Guinevere) securing the first kill just 1 minute and 26 seconds in.
However, despite this early advantage, the Filipino squad faced significant setbacks as the game progressed into the mid-game.
A key turning point came at the 9:19 mark when Jan “Domeng” Delmundo (Moskov) executed a crucial Lord steal with his Spear of Destruction ultimate, giving his team some breathing room and briefly shifting the momentum back in Aurora’s favor.
However, a decisive skirmish at the 12-minute and 35-second mark in the Lord pit turned the tide in favor of Falcon Esports. They eliminated two members from Aurora, swinging the momentum heavily to their side.
From that point on, Falcon maintained control, and Aurora was unable to recover, with the game ending in just 16 minutes and 47 seconds.
Yar “Px7” Mon, playing Zhu Xin, was named the MVP of the match, posting an impressive KDA of 7 kills, 2 deaths, and 8 assists. In contrast, Domeng and Renejay combined for 3 kills, 6 deaths, and 10 assists.