Sibol’s Caviar “EnDerr” Acampado punched his ticket to the Starcraft II gold medal round, while their Mobile Legends Bang Bang moved up to the next phase of the lower bracket of the 30th Southeast Asian Games, Friday at the Filoil Flying V Arena.
After imposing his dominance in the group stage yesterday, Acampado lorded over Tran “MeomaikA” Hong Phuc of Vietnam, 3-2, in the winners’ finale.
Acampado — who dropped Games One and Four of the best-of-three series — used a huge Game Five performance to shrug off the reigning WESG SEA champion.
“Masaya siyempre kasi sure na na mayroon akong nagawa for Philippines. And I’m sure din naman na mayroon ding ibang makakakuha ng spot [sa medal round] sa ibang games,” said Acampado, as he is the first Sibol athlete to assure the country of a medal in the first-ever eSports event in the SEA Games.
“Siyempre masayang-masaya, nawala na ‘yung kaba ko. Ayun, masaya… Parang iniisip ko, gagawin ko na lang kung ano ‘yung pinractice ko and come what may na lang.”
The 27-year-old local Starcraft star will face Singapore’s Thomas “Blysk” Kopankiewicz — who pulled the upset rug from under Hong Phuc with a score of 3-1 later in the day — for the gold medal.
This gives EnDerr a chance to avenge fellow Filipino, Justin “Nuks” Santos, who was swept by Blysk in the lower bracket playoffs, eliminating him from the competition.
Meanwhile, Sibol’s MLBB squad swept Vietnam, 2-0, to step an inch closer to the gold medal round of the Mobile Legends Bang Bang event.
The Philippine squad put out a masterful performance in Game One, tallying a total of 40,585 in the gold department compared to Vietnam’s 26,278.
Sibol then rallied behind Karl Gabriel “KarITzy” Nepomuceno’s Esmeralda to fend off the pesky Vietnamese side in Game Two.
Nepomuceno was responsible for eight of the team’s 14 total kills. The 15-year-old local ML star only died once throughout the course of the game, which ran for a total of 14 minutes and 50 seconds.
The rest of the victory-clinching team was composed of Jeniel “Haze” Bata-anon (Baxia), Angelo Sancio “Lusty” Castromayor (Khufra), Angelo Kyle “Pheww” Arcangel (Granger), and Kenneth Jiane “Kenji” Villa (Chou).
Acampado looks to top the Starcraft II finale on December 10, Tuesday. Meanwhile, Sibol’s MLBB squad will face Malaysia on December 8, Sunday, for the right to face Indonesia in the gold medal match.
