By: Jan Marcus Montevirgen
Fnatic ONIC Philippines continued their march toward glory by securing a spot in the upper-bracket finals with a thrilling 3-2 victory over Falcon Esports in a five-game series on Day 2 of the M6 World Championship knockout rounds on Sunday at the IOI Grand Exhibition & Convention Center in Malaysia.
This victory handed the Myanmar team their first loss on the world stage.
“I don’t want to say that we’re really humbled. Going in, we weren’t really arrogant; we went into the match knowing that we were going to win. I will never discount how strong the other teams are,” said head coach Anthony “Ynot” Senedrin in the post-match interview.
“Falcons are a team that really stood out in the Swiss Stage. They had a good match with BTK, and we had a tough time with BTK. So mainly, it’s just us being the team that’s supposed to win it all, and that’s where it all comes from. But going into M6, I really believed that all of us were grounded,” he continued.
In Game 5, King “K1ngKong” Perez delivered a stellar performance on Joy, securing five kills and two assists within just eight minutes of play, helping his team build an impressive 3.3k gold lead. From that point, FNOP never looked back, finishing the match with a decisive push in the top and mid-lanes at the 18:57 mark.
Frince “Super Frince” Ramirez (Yve) was named MVP of the match with a flawless KDA of two kills and nine assists. Meanwhile, K1ngKong ended with an outstanding record of seven kills, one death, and five assists.
FNOP started the best-of-five series strong, dominating Games 1 and 2 with Duanne “Kelra” Pillas (Bruno) and Super Frince (Pharsa) being named MVP of the game, respectively.
However, the Falcons came back strong in Games 3 and 4, leveling the series at 2-2 and setting up a thrilling winner-take-all Game 5.
Fnatic ONIC Philippines’ next match is set for December 11 at the Axiata Arena, where they will face the winner of the upcoming matchup between Team Liquid Indonesia and RRQ Hoshi at 6 p.m.
Last Saturday, FNOP entered the Knockout stage on a high note, sweeping the reigning MSC and MPL Malaysia champions, Selangor Red Giants, 2-0.
In that series, Kelra dominated throughout the best-of-three, playing Bruno in Game 1 and Granger in Game 2. The 19-year-old gold laner finished the entire series with a total KDA of 17 kills, two deaths, and 16 assists.
