Erice came up with the biggest play in Game Five to tow Cignal Ultra to its second-straight The Nationals Dota 2 championship after a 4-1 victory over STI, Sunday evening.
The Southeast Asian Games gold medalist finished with a stat line of six kills, nine deaths, and 25 assists for the Warriors, but none of these contributions were bigger than the crucial Aegis steal he made in the 38:21-mark of the title-clinching Game Five.
With three men down, STI’s Nando (Troll Warlord) and Dric (Tusk) gave everything they had to defend the top lane. Abat (Morpling) took down Dric first while taking care of Nando afterward.
Cignal destroyed both STI’s top and middle lane towers, but a great initiation from Bhm (Batrider) paved the way for Kokz (Lina) to kill Jamesy (Queen of Pain) while Nando, who had just bought back, ended Abat’s wicked sick to turn things around for STI.
With two of Cignal’s core heroes without buyback, STI went on to Roshan’s pit hoping to turn the game around. Unfortunately for them, Erice (Mirana) had a few tricks up his sleeve. Erice went in with the leap to snatch the Aegis right under STI’s nose.
Though STI managed to punish Erice, the steal helped Cignal buy enough time for Abat and Jamesy to resurrect. That proved to be the nail in the coffin for the Warriors to seal the two-peat.
Abat top scored Cignal with 14 kills, five deaths, and 11 assists while Jamesy provided eight kills, seven deaths, and 20 assists. Van tallied seven kills, five deaths, and 14 assists for Cignal.
“Yung una nung natalo kami ‘di namin inexpect na matatalo kami kasi inisip namin mas ready kami, nung natalo kamo malungkot… nag discuss kami kung pano kami natalo tas nag reset na lang kami para sa ngayon,” said Erice, looking back on the team’s upper bracket loss to STI yesterday.
Nando ended with 10 kills, seven deaths, and nine assists for the E-Olympians while Bhm had four eight kills, nine deaths, and 14 assists.
Cignal won the first two games in the grand finals while STI was able to close in by claiming Game Three.
It was a revenge game of sorts for the back-to-back champions as it was STI who sent them down the lower bracket. Cignal had to go through Happy Feet before setting up the rematch against the E-Olympians.
Happy Feet bagged the bronze medal of the tournament while the promising Playbook Laus Esports finished at fourth.
