Team Liquid PH secured at least a top-four finish after eliminating Turkey’s Aurora Gaming, 3-1, in the lower bracket quarterfinals of the M7 World Championship Knockout Stage on Friday at the MPL Arena XO Hall in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Head coach Rodel “Ar Sy” Cruz tipped his hat to their Turkish opponents, who showed remarkable growth—particularly in their dominant Game 1 win and strong early-game showing in Game 4.
“Based on the game day today, I can say Aurora Turkey deserves to be in the grand finals because they really improved a lot like when it comes to drafting, technicalities, mechanics, macro, all of those technicalities. They’ve improved so much,” he said.
Aurora opened the series with a rousing victory, overwhelming Team Liquid in Game 1 before the Filipinos responded with a similarly dominant performance in Game 2 to even the series.
Game 2 was tightly contested in the early stages until Alston “Sanji” Pabico’s Pharsa delivered a crucial double kill during the ninth-minute Lord fight, securing the objective and swinging control of the map in Team Liquid’s favor.
Riding that momentum, the Cavalry never relinquished control and reached match point by the 14th minute, led by Kiel “Oheb” Soriano’s flawless 2-0-8 KDA on Claude.
In Game 4, however, the reigning MPL Philippines champions found themselves in trouble, trailing by as much as 8,300 gold by the 13th minute due to Lukasz “Pagu” Bigus’ Kaja and his series of brilliant pick-offs.
The KarlTzy-led squad finally found an opening during the 16th-minute Lord dance, where the two-time world champion jungler secured the objective, sparking a decisive 3-for-1 exchange as Team Liquid completed the comeback to seal the series.
Team Liquid will next face Indonesia’s Alter Ego, with the winner set to battle Malaysia’s Selangor Red Giants for the final ticket to the grand finals.
