After a best-of-five upper bracket semifinal in the Mobile Legends Professional League (MPL) Philippines Season 11 Playoffs, Echo Philippines and RSG Slate Philippines once again faced off in a rematch on May 7—this time for elimination.
But it would be Echo who achieved revenge after another five-match series, booking a grand final appearance against Blacklist International, leaving RSG Slate eliminated in third place.
It was a crucial series that displayed the prowess of both Echo and RSG Slate. From the macro and micromechanics, up to the potential surprise plays and backdoor opportunities, all of the matches were thrilling on their own. In a back-and-forth affair, Echo and RSG Slate traded matches, with neither going back-to-back.
Both teams exchanged blows across the series, with every game separated by the barest of margins. This led to five different players being selected as the MVPs for each of the five matches, including Echo’s Benedict “Bennyqt” Gonzales using Harith, Alston “Sanji” Pabico with his Yu Zhong, RSG Slate’s Nathanael “Nathzz” Estrologo with his Arlott, and Eman ‘Emann” Sangco on Beatrix.
But it was game five MVP that mattered most: Karl “Karltzy” Nepomuceno, with his signature hero Lancelot, proved the difference maker in the end. Karltzy is known for his Lancelot plays, with the player utilizing him in previous high-stakes matches.
This includes clutch performances in games from the M2 World Championship—the largest and most prestigious tournament in all of Mobile Legends—which earned him status as the best jungle/core player in the world.
Karltzy had a friendly yet competitive exchange of words with RSG Slate’s John “Irrad” Abarquez, who is the current jungler of his team. After Karl and Echo lost to RSG Slate in the upper bracket semifinals, Irrad was interviewed, saying that he is a better Lancelot player than Karltzy.
Karltzy responded by saying that their next match would prove who would be the best but claimed that the last player who called him out went on to take a break from professional play. Karltzy was referring to Jonard “Demonkite” Caranto, RSG’s jungler from season 10 last season, who opted to rest this season 11 due to personal reasons.
Karltzy’s Lancelot in past seasons was known to be an assassin that aimed to notch up a large kill tally. But his Lancelot this time took on a different approach, acting as support and offering assistance to his teammates. Karltzy scored one kill, one death, and six assists in game five, participating in nearly all of Echo’s kills for the game.
With the win over RSG, Echo has now also qualified for the Mobile Legends Southeast Asia Cup (MSC) alongside the upper bracket finals winner, Blacklist International.
Both teams will also face later today, May 7, in a best-of-seven match series to determine who will be the MPL Season 11 champion, which is also a rematch of the MPL Season 10 finals and M4 World Championship finals.
