John Darry “Irrad” Abarquez played beyond his years as he led RSG Slate Philippines to a comeback win over Echo, 3-2, to book an upper bracket finals ticket in the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League (MPL) Philippines Season 11 playoffs at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City on Friday.
RSG will be contesting a ticket to the MLBB Southeast Asian Cup tomorrow against Blacklist International, who stunned Bren Esports earlier today.
Echo was the first to pull ahead early in Game 1, courtesy of Karl “KarlTzy” Nepomuceno (Valentina) and Alston “Sanji” Pabico (Kagura), who both had 1-0-3 KDAs by the 4th minute to establish a 5-1 lead on the kill tally.
Dylan “Light” Catipon, though, delivered pinpoint set-up plays to help RSG slowly chip away the deficit and secure the next two lords culminating in a 14th-minute base turret siege, 1-0.
Echo led as much as 6k by the 12th minute, but RSG showed superb mechanical prowess during a messy 16th-minute skirmish led by Tristan “Yawi” Cabrera’s (Khufra) Tyrant’s Revenge set-up that resulted in a 3-1 exchange plus the lord.
Echo continued to mount pressure from there and scored the equalizer at the 25th-minute mark, 1-1.
With momentum on their side, Echo leaned on Sanji’s pinpoint targeting. Sanji was at a perfect 3-0-4 KDA by the 9th minute of Game 3 to help the M4 World Champions reach match point by the 14th minute, 2-1.
Game 4 saw Irrad flaunt his prowess on the Lancelot pick, almost single-handedly saving RSG with a clutch lord fight against three enemy heroes in the 23rd minute to help his team recover from three inhibitor turrets.
He took the Game 4 MVP with an impressive 8-2-5 KDA.
Irrad continued his stellar display, starting off with a triple kill off a 6th-minute turtle fight as RSG controlled the match.
Eman “EMANN” Sangco (Karrie) then scored a double kill in the 13th minute which they concluded with an unofficial wipeout to execute a successful base turret siege and take the series.
