The management of Liga Adarna has finally released its official statement a day after its Mobile Legends: Bang Bang tournament grand finals between ArkAngel FE and BREN Victress reached a controversial end.
“In light of the incident during the Liga Adarna: Laban Para Sa Korona MLBB Championship, we would like to take this opportunity to apologize and explain what happened,” the statement read.
“Last Sept 27, the Championship Series between Arkangel Fe and Bren Esports began. Arkangel Fe was leading by 1-0. During Game Two, the camera on AAFE stopped working. Our team marshall didn’t notice it until the opponent pointed it out. Two minutes after this, the camera was back on. According to our rules, ‘During times of disconnected video call, the team will be given five minutes to reconnect.’ According to AAFE, their camera was on and the technical glitch was a possibility. However, according to our official video call recording, the camera was off for ten minutes.”
ArkAngel, who climbed its way up from the losers’ bracket to face BREN, was facing a twice-to-beat disadvantage in the finals. The defending champions were able to win the opening match to even up the scale.
Then came the controversial Game Two.
According to a post from Krizzia “Krish” Edangalino of ArkAngel, one of the league’s marshals called them out after seeing that the team’s camera stopped working. Therefore, the marshals and the opposing team had no vision of AAFE. They tried to fix the camera for about three seconds but came up with an alternative to use a phone camera instead to fix the issue immediately.
ArkAngel won Game Two convincingly and was all geared up for its title-clinching Game Three. That, until the marshals informed them that the win was being contested by BREN.
Edangalino, for their part, bared that there is no way that they could have possibly known that there was a glitch because everything seemed fine on their end, claiming that they have proof that their camera is on from the team’s call logs, audio recordings, and saved replays.
As per league rules, teams will be given five minutes to reconnect after a disconnected video call. However, the marshals only alerted ArkAngel ten minutes after the camera stopped functioning.
The statement also said that both teams settled for a rematch while BREN asked for a redraft which ArkAngel also agreed to. However, before the match started, BREN decided to withdraw from the competition, automatically declaring ArkAngel the champions.
“Due to this, we talked with both teams and we all have agreed that Game Two will have a rematch. After that, Bren Esports requested for a redraft. AAFE has agreed with the redraft after our discussion,” said Liga Adarna in the statement.
“Before the match started, Bren Esports decided to withdraw from the Finals, thus, automatically declaring AAFE the Champions. However, AAFE has refused to accept the championship without a proper match.”
The reason behind BREN’s withdrawal was not included in the league’s statement. But a post from BREN Esports head coach Ralph “Leathergoods” Llabres’ page shed light on the decision.
“Ganito lang ka-simple ang stand namin, may rules and dapat sundin ang rules. Period. Dami niyong speculations ang sa amin, kung may rules, sundin ang rules,” said Llabres answering a comment from a certain Karen Elegino.
Llabres even cited a similar incident in the elimination rounds wherein Finesse Empress was deemed disqualified after a player from the team was disconnected in the video call and failed to reconnect after five minutes.
“We want to impose sanctions against Liga Adarna for a substandard ruling. We were ready to play the remake, but we were directed otherwise, to forfeit the match and settle the above-mentioned league’s misgivings quietly,” added BREN MLBB head coach Francis “Duckey” Glindro in a comment.
“In our off-screen discussions with the League Operations of Liga Adarna, we have never, not even once, put malice on AAFE, and never will,” answering to accusations that the BREN organization is pinning the blame on ArkAngel.
ArkAngel refused to accept the crown, declaring the championship match a no-contest. Philippine General Hospital, who was the beneficiary of both ArkAngel and BREN Esports, will receive the prize money.
