RSG Slate Philippines shrugged off an opening game disaster to successfully mount a reverse sweep of Nexplay Evos, 2-1, in Week 4 Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League (MPL) Philippines Season 11 on Saturday.
It was their third win in the last four games to take the third spot in the standings with 11pts. NXPE on the other hand succumbed to their fourth season win with eight points.
Despite the win, outspoken RSG head coach Brian “Panda” Lim was far from satisfied with the team’s performance.
“Nung Game 3, the macro game (of RSG) was very very poor because we could’ve actually played much much better but the team had too much overthinking, poor execution, hesitation movements, and also poor map reading and bad communication,” coach Panda told members of the press after the game.
“Even though we won, not only me pero yung mga players ko who played kanina, I don’t think they’re really satisfied with the game because they played much better sa practice. Pero overall sa tournament against NXPE Game 3, we didn’t really show who we are,” he continued.
Nathanael “Nathzz” Estrologo (Benedetta) provided the early game highlights in Game 1, starting with a triple kill off a 2nd-minute turtle fight and 1-on-1 outplays against Jan Domenic “DomengDR“ Del Mundo (Claude).
But NXPE banked on their late-game potential, shutting down Nathzz, who went on a rampage with an 8-2-5 KDA, in the 18th minute to secure the lord and equalize.
DomengDR then successfully chipped down the base turret in the 21st minute before getting taken out which enabled his allies to finish the objective and take the opener, 1-0.
Buoyed by their dramatic fightback, NXPE looked deadly in Game 2 courtesy of Borris James “BruskoDR” Parro’s (Chou) nifty Way of the Dragon set-up plays to help his team secure five kills while denying RSG of any not until the 7th minute.
RSG though caught their second win when John Paul “H2wo” Salonga (Fredrinn) secured the objective during the first lord fight that lasted for almost two minutes.
Dylan “Light” Catipon (Ruby) capped off their comeback with a double kill during the 19th-minute lord fight to force the rubber match, 1-1.
Game 3 boiled down to a 26th-minute team fight where Light (Kaja) botched a conceal play but RSG leaned on their mechanical prowess to score a 5-1 wipeout and take the series.
