Aether Main’s Renz ‘Pein’ Reyes pulled out all the stops needed to set up a best-of-seven Grand Finals showdown with Sunsparks in the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League-Philippines Champion Invitational, Saturday evening.
The first-ever MPL-PH champions first had to go through a grueling series of matches against Season Two champs and arch-rival Cignal Ultra, before eventually ending the match-up in four games, 3-1.
And Aether Main has ‘El Kapitan’ to thank for that.
In a skirmish near the lord pit entering the 20-minute mark of the game, Cignal Ultra — despite losing Eson (Atlas) right away — was poised for a massive comeback after taking down Coco (Harith), Yuji (Esmeralda), 666 (Diggie), and Haze (X.borg) to cap off the four-for-one exchange.
Pein (Uranus) — who left the professional scene after Season Three to focus on his family and pursue his streaming career — went to contest Cignal Ultra’s lord take. He then completed the impossible, taking on four members of Cignal Ultra, while killing Yakou (Granger) and Dysania (Valir) in the process.
Pheww (Selena) tried to secured the lord, but was unfortunately killed by it, leaving Tets (Chou) and Pein to battle it out.
Tets burned his way of the dragon to keep Pein away from the lord. But Pein managed to use his ionic orbit to complete the lord steal, tipping the scales to Aether Main.
Pein was hailed match MVP with three kills, six assists, and four deaths — but nothing was more important than the 33-percent damage he took for the side of the 2-1 Aether Main. Yuji backstopped his captain with 12 kills, four assists, and seven deaths, while Haze had six kills, six assists, and five deaths.
“Nagulat din ako e. Dinasalan ko na lang ‘yun, nakuha ko pa. Dasal lang, dasal. Ano, sakto lang, kasi sanay na kaming kalaban sila e,” said Pein after the match.
Yakou, on the other hand, finished with 10 kills, 15 assists, and five deaths. Meanwhile, Pheww ended up with 10 kills, 12 assists, and four deaths for Cignal Ultra, who bowed out of the competition with a 0-3 standing.
In the second match of the game, Sunsparks swept the elimination phase after taking a 3-0 sweep of Season Three champion Ark Angel.
Jaypee (Harith) once again spearheaded Sunsparks with six kills, 12 assists, and five deaths. Renzio (Uranus) followed it up with six kills, eight assists, and three deaths.
Ryo had a monster performance for ArkAngel, finishing with a stat line of 17 kills, two assists, and five deaths. ArkAngel ended the tournament with a 1-2 slate.
Aether Main will face Sunsparks tomorrow in the Grand Finals.
