After a forgettable performance in Game Four, Hate redeemed himself in the do-or-die Game Five, lifting Execration over the gutsy Cignal Ultra, 3-2, in the quarterfinals of the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League-Philippines, Thursday evening.
With Execration already up two-games-to-one over Cignal, Hate struggled mightily on his Lancelot, finishing the game with just a kill, six deaths, and three assists. Hate, however, shrugged it off and made the biggest play in Game Five to help Execration seal its semifinals berth.
After a crucial pick off on E2MAX’s Pharsa, and with no more turrets left on their side, Cignal decided to make a move on the lord in hopes of making a comeback.
With the lord’s health down to almost half, Hate (Helcurt) popped his Dark Night Falls ultimate to disrupt Cignal on the objective. He then jumped on Hadess (Harith) and used his Deadly Stingers to take down the Cignal core.
Hate fell after tsujin (Wanwan) successfully triggered his Crossbow of Tang on the former. It proved to be a good trade for Execration, though, considering that Hadess’ was already down, leaving Cignal with no one to contest Bennyqt’s well-farmed Claude.
S4gitnu (Uranus) then chased off tsujin for a kill, while Bennyqt took the lord for Execration. Bensanity (Khufra) and ImbaDeejay (Rafaela) tried to contest the lord take which delayed their defensive stance.
With the minions already inside the camp of Cignal, S4gitnu sneaked inside for backdoor push. The troika of ImbaDeejay, Bensanity, and RHEA (Esmeralda) was able to catch up but it was already too late as the minions finished the match.
Hate finished with nine kills, three deaths, and five assists. Meanwhile, Bennyqt, who was consistent for Execration all series long, had two kills, a death, and eight assists. He also had the most damage dealt with 51,488.
S4gitnu had three kills, no deaths, and five assists. Ch4knu and E2MAX combined for four kills, seven deaths, and 19 assists.
On the other hand, Hadess was limited to just a kill, three deaths, and five assists. tsujin finished with five kills, three deaths, and an assist.
Both teams went at it in the opening game, with Ch4knu’s Khufra paving the way for Hate’s Harith to reach its maximum potential despite the early game delaying tactics from Bensanity’s Hilda.
Execration was able to pull the stops needed for Game One to reach late game. Unfortunately, though, Hadess’ constant pressure in the side lanes proved too much for Execration to defend. That later gave the edge to Cignal in the match which lasted for almost 32 minutes.
It was a different story for Cignal in Game Two. Despite Hadess’ Yi Sun Shin getting its much-needed farm in the early game, Execration’s two-core set up of Hate’s Harith and Bennyqt’s Roger — along with the pressure that came from the Selena of E2MAX — gave a bunch of problems to Cignal’s no fighter composition which led to Execration knotting up the scores at 1-all.
Ch4knu proved once again that he’s built for the big stage, setting up a crucial pick off on Hadess’ Ling in the lord pit clash which went to Execration’s favor. Ch4knu then prevented ImbaDeejay’s Pharsa from teleporting back to Cignal’s camp, using his ejector to throw ImbaDeejay inside the lord which also gave Hate (Roger) and S4gitnu (Uranus) the space to take down the throne – putting Execration a win away from clinching a semifinals berth.
However, Hadess’ Ling was able to survive the late game domination of Execration in Game Four with Rhea’s Leomord and tsujin’s Angela playing a pivotal role to force a do-or-die Game Five.
Execration, which is gunning for its first title in the league, will be battling the winner of the Smart Omega-Blacklist International match-up on Saturday in a best-of-five semifinals series.
