What happened during AE Main vs AE Valkyrie?

This article was written by Chise Alcantara.

Everyone was looking forward to the second day’s studio match that evening featuring two sister teams AE Main and AE Valkyrie. These two teams have been doing relatively well for the duration of MPL PH, and it’s pretty safe to say that we’ll see both of them in the playoffs so there wasn’t really much at stake for both of these teams except for AE Main’s flawless record. It would have been very interesting if AE Valkyrie were the ones to halt AE Main’s winning spree, but sadly for them, AE Main showed everyone why they’re considered to be the frontrunners for this year’s championship by totally decimating AE Valkyrie’s younger and more inexperienced team.

“If I were in AE Valkyrie’s position I would have a tough time coming up with a strategy as well,” confesses AE Pein. AE Pein’s dominating Fanny in the first game and clutch saves on Angela really helped cement the victory for Aether Main. “I can’t see any weakness in our lineup. The only chance the opponent has to defeat us is to outplay us but that would be really difficult because we have quality players,” said AE Pein.

AE Main’s current player roster have been together for more or less a year now and have already won a few championships together, while on the other hand, AE Valyrie’s team’s roster were only finalized a few weeks before the MPL PH Qualifiers happened. “We need to become more synced since we only started playing as a team a few months ago. I don’t think we loss because of our individual skills as players but because we didn’t move as a unit,” says AE L3bron from Aether Valkyrie.

The Aether clan prides itself on only including quality players in their ranks. “Why would you want to handle so many players instead of concentrating on making the ones you already have the best they can be?” asks AE Pein. AE Pein was one of the people who scouts for new players to invite to the AE clan and was actually the person to help bring AE Valkyrie together for MPL PH. “I saw a lot of potential in them and saw they could really do well in the competition if they got a bit more experience and practice,” says AE Pein. “We didn’t actually practice at all today, ha ha! I think we were just out of it because we hadn’t been able to warm up or strategize at all. We woke up around 12 p.m. and just hung out,” says AE L3bron. AE Pein butts in, “that’s why I asked you guys earlier if you had already practiced, ha ha!”

Even though AE Valkyrie may have lost, they are still really driven to improve and do well in the competition. “We’re always improve after each game we play so I wouldn’t expect anything less,” says AE Pein. We then asked what Aether Valkyrie’s game plan would be if they were to meet Aether Main in the finals and they answered, “We don’t have anything planned right now but we’ll definitely think of something when the time comes,” says AE L3bron. “Pipilayan na n’yan kami sa bahay, ha ha!” adds AE Pein.

Make sure to watch these two promising teams continue to grow in MPL PH’s Regular Season every Saturday and Sunday.

Are there more upsets in store?

This article was written by Chise Alcantara,

If you tuned-in to the first week of regular season, you’ll know that there were several upsets and surprise results from a number of matchups. Here are a few matches for this Saturday and Sunday that you should watch out for.

DD vs White Rascals

The White Rascals made a hell of an impression in their first week with their clean sweep on the first day and going even with one of the crowd favorites of this tournament, OBS Raven. They’re going against two Digital Devil teams this week, DD Demon Kings and DD No Limit who both have yet to score points. Will the Rascals pull off another commanding victory? They’re presence is shaking up the competition more than anyone ever expected.

Aether Main vs Aether Valkyrie 

Aether Main has demolished their competition so far and are ahead in points in the MPL Philippines league standings. They’ll be facing their sister team Aether Valkyrie who are tied for second place with White Rascals and OBS Gaming. These two Aether teams have played a lot of practice matches together so it’ll be exciting to see if they’ll pull out something new to surprise their sparring partners. Both teams have a chance to claim the top place this week so you can expect that both teams will definitely give their all in Day 2’s scheduled studio match.

Aether vs OBS Weekend

It’s going to be an exciting OBS vs Aether weekend. With OBS Gaming’s unexpected defeat against Aether Main last week, will OBS Gaming suffer another defeat to another Aether team or will they learn from their previous losses? Look to OBS Gaming as they fight to get their footing in the regular season of the MPL Philippines.

OBS Raven is also scheduled to take on leading team, Aether Main. OBS Gaming, Raven’s sister team lost to Aether Main in last week’s series so everyone is wondering if OBS Raven will take revenge for their sister team and finally stop Aether Main’s win streak. Pride is riding on the line this weekend so be sure to tune in May 19 and May 20 for week 2 of MPL PH regular season, the matches are set to start at 15:30 SGT.

Knowing Your Win Conditions is Half the Battle

This article was written by Chise Alcantara.

A lot of players don’t often think about how they’re going to win the game. While it may seem really obvious that you have to take objectives and team fight effectively in order to win, in truth there are a hundred of ways for you to do so and actively keeping your overall win condition in mind really separates the casual players from the pros. In their game against White Rascals, how OBS Raven played around achieving their win condition greatly affected how they performed in the two matches. We interviewed S4ngmu and Basha from OBS Raven to get their insights on how to read the game effectively and translate the little changes in gameplay to wins.

A lot of people commented about how your hero composition in your first game cost you guys the win. Could you give us some insight as to why you picked Helcurt and Fanny in the first game?

The reason we picked Helcurt was because it would counter Fanny, which was one of the comfort picks of a couple of players on White Rascals. Helcurt’s ability to block enemy vision really helps decrease Fanny’s effectiveness in team fights by cutting down her mobility. We mean, she can’t properly hook onto walls if she can’t see them. Helcurt also counters Hayabusa since he’ll have trouble trading places with his shadows.

We picked Fanny because OR Burning really wanted to play her since he hasn’t been able to do so for the longest time. We practiced the day before the competitions and we felt confident going into the game. We were planning to have a 1-3-1 lane distribution with Helcurt and Fanny taking care and farming the side lanes while the “supports” hold the mid-lane.

That seems like a good plan. Why do you think it didn’t work out?

It was really miscommunication on our part. The individual shot calling caused us to get disoriented and confused as to which person to follow. Also, we lost the final Lord objective. Everyone knows that if you lose a level three Lord while you’re already behind, it’s practically GG by that point.

What did you guys change going into the second game?

We definitely worked on our coordination better. Also, we’re not sure why but we thought that the enemy team would pick Helcurt but they picked Harley instead. To have core (meta) picks on your team like the ones we had in the second game really gives your team an advantage. We already picked out Guison and Diggy for the first and second slots, which were essential to the plan of being able to properly engage and disengage from fights.

What made you so confident to pick Helcurt, Kagura, and Diggy again even if they didn’t work out as well as you had planned the first game?

First, we picked Diggy so that the enemy team couldn’t pick him to counter our Acai pick, which would be essential to our game plan, which was to have mini-engages throughout the game without committing too many resources.

Helcurt makes objective control really tip towards your favor since if your teams are  the ones taking the Turtle or the Lord, you can block enemy vision with your darkness while you use retribution to secure the objective. It gave us a distinct advantage during team fights throughout the game.

S4ngmu, Basha, and the rest of the OBS Raven team managed to close out their Sunday series against White Rascals in a 1-1 draw. The Mobile Legends Bang Bang Professional League Philippines regular season is set to continue this weekend starting at 15:30 SGT, so catch all the action live to support your favorite Mobile Legends teams.

 Boy did we call these games wrong

This article was written by Chise Alcantara.

As you probably know by now, the first week of the MPL Philippines regular season has started and things are developing faster than we expected. And with so many interesting things happening this past weekend, we made sure that you guys are up to speed by showcasing some highlights from Day 1 and Day 2 of the first week of MPL PH Regular Season.

Like we mentioned in our previous article entitled “What to Expect from the MPL PH Regular Season” , an unforeseen development regarding some members of Nimbus Gaming not being eligible to compete in this tournament resulted in White Rascals qualifying for the regular season games. With that, almost everyone thought that they were on the back end of things and were treated as the underdogs of the tournament, which made their great performance on the first day all the more surprising, ending with a score of 2-0 in the White Rascals vs Invictus Godz series and a respectable score of 1-1 against one of the most promising teams this season, OBS Raven on Sunday.

Another team that everyone was keeping close watch over was OBS Gaming, but because of completely different reasons. OBS Gaming was considered to be the frontrunner of this competition, not only because of their all-star lineup including OG Z4pnu and OG Pakbet but also because of their clean victories against all their competitors in the qualifying matches and even their first day in the regular season. But on the second day of the competition, their dominance would be challenged by none other than another leading contender in the league, Aether Main, which completely outplayed OBS Gaming using their superior rotations and farming leading to a score of 2-0 in favor of Aether Main.

Other than their impressive win against OBS Gaming, Aether Main also swept their best-of-two series against Vicious&Delicious on the first day so no one really expected that all of this was just to set up something even greater for the second day, which was bringing out the immobile marksman, Hanabi as the main carry.

Even though AE Coco’s Hanabi didn’t have much impact during the first day because of AE Yujiii’s stellar performance on his Guison stealing the spotlight, Coco came back with a vengeance on the second day decimating OBS Gaming’s entire team as well as all the objectives on the map. The impact of the Hanabi pick was so great that it forced the OBS Gaming team to pick a marksman of their own, Roger, for the second game, just to have a chance in bringing things back if things got sour during the early game. Unfortunately for them, the second game just seemed like a replay of the events of the first amtch, where they couldn’t stop the rampaging damage of AE Coco’s Hanabi.

We don’t want to say we told you so but we already predicted that Hanabi will shake up the MPL tournament.. Will this trigger a start of a meta change in the MPL PH scene? We can only watch how things unfold in next week’s matches.

The regular season is pretty promising

This article was written by Chise Alcantara.

The regular season is about to start this Saturday, May 12, 2018 at 3:30 SGT and things couldn’t get any more hype. We’ve been closely watching the pool of talented players and well-formed teams this year and we have to say, it’s anyone’s tournament. Here’s the top ten teams in the country that have successfully qualified for the Mobile Legends Professional League Philippines and what you can expect from each of them in the upcoming regular season.

1. OBS Raven

OBS Raven takes really good care of their carries as seen in their games with Unity Godz in the week 3 qualifiers. They feed their carries all the resources early game in order to get them to a point that they can impact the game. Burning’s Helcurt was well protected by the displacement team OBS setup, which had equal defensive and offensive capabilities.

2. OBS Gaming

It seems like OBS Gaming’s strategy revolves around Z4pnu, their top global player. Z4pnu will farm to a point that he becomes a real threat to their opponents. Their opponents will then focus Z4pnu because of his aggressive playstyle, leaving the other carries like Pakbet to deal free damage to the opposing team from a safe range while being proctected by tanks.

3. Digital Devils No Limit

The players from Digital Devils No Limit really excel in keeping their cool during even the most hectic team fights as seen in their well-executed micro plays in their games against Solid Gaming Omega. Jana’s kiting on Kagura and Peace’s isolation plays on Hilda were the highlights of those matches. Without proper protection, their opponent’s carries are in danger of getting focused down early.

4. Digital Devils Demon Kings

One of the most important things in tournaments like these is a team’s ability to adapt and evolve, especially if you’re playing for the long run. Digital Devils Demon Kings showed off their flexibility in their picks to counter OBS Pegasus’ comfort picks in the week 3 qualifiers. Some games can be decided before the players even take one step on the map.

5. Digital Devils Professional

Another team that focuses on feeding their star player is DD Pro. DDP.Heww’s Lancelot had some impressive showings in their game against Invictus Godz. With proper protection from teammates who like to play off-tanks like Dee, they can really dominate the game by just using their superior mechanics.

6. Invictus Godz

Invictus Godz make use of global map pressure by using mobile assassins like Fanny to be able to pressure lanes and towers while their carries farm. Vhen’s Fanny allows for his team to continuously provide back up for his lanes making almost every fight tip in favor of Invictus Godz. If I were part of the enemy team facing Invictus Godz, I’d auto-ban Fanny.

7. Vicious & Delicious

Viscous & Delicious utilized big and game-changing plays to sway games in their favor as seen in their game against Pentakill Gaming. Ass’ Lolita AOE stuns on the enemy team completely wrecked Pentakill Gaming in late game team fights. While these make great cuts for highlight reels, I hope they can pull off these high-risk, high-reward plays in the regular season. It would make for a really interesting viewer experience.

8. Aether Valkyrie

Aether Valkyrie really likes to play things slow, with most of their games reaching past the 20-minute mark. Their game plan usually involves having more resources farmed than the enemy team then surprising them during late game team fights. The other teams better watch out when they pick late-game scaling champions.

9. Aether Main

Yellyhaze showed off how much of a nuisance mobile tanks can be in their match against their sister team, Aether Valkyrie. One of Aether Main’s best traits are their well-timed initiations and quick follow-up, which makes them deadly in skirmishes and team fights.

10. White Rascals

In a surprising turn of events, White Rascals qualified for our regular season because of a technicality involving some of the players from Nimbus Gaming. They had a no-broadcast match against Godz Awesome, which they swept. Will they be able to keep up with the rest of the contenders? Find out this Saturday.

A lesson on map awareness featuring plays by Top Global Player OP Lard

This article was written by Chise Alcantara.

If you’re a tank or charger main, you’ll know the frustrating feeling of getting a great initiation going and your team still leaves you to die. Sure, it’s easy to blame your noob teammates for not following up on your manly Leeroy Jenkins plays but a lot of times there’s more to initiating then getting those satisfying perfect five-man knock-ups.

In the week three qualifiers, a game between OBS Pegasus and DD. Demon Kings showed how much correctly timed initiations can matter in a game. OP Lard, a member of OBS Pegasus and one of the Top Global Players in Mobile Legends had mechanically impressive plays featuring Akai and Grock but he still couldn’t carry his team to victory, leaving with a score of 2-1 in favor of DD. Demon Kings. Sadly, we won’t be able to watch OBS Pegasus in the regular season but we can learn a lot from this game regarding the factors you need to consider before making an initiation.

1. The “Correct” Play

In one of the final clashes of the first game, OP Lard’s Akai got in a lot of really nice wall Hurricane Dances including one you would see at 19:18 but they didn’t manifest into anything worthwhile for OP because there was no follow up. Sometimes you have to get into the minds of your teammates in order to know if they’ll be following up on your engage. This time, the other members of OP were busy taking care of other lanes and clearing minions but Akai went in a couple of seconds too early. While you could argue that OP Lard’s executed the right play to make in that situation, being right doesn’t really matter if you don’t win.

 2. Sometimes you don’t need teammates

Even if you’re a tank, other elements like towers can compensate for the damage you lack in order to get picks without relying on follow-up for your team. Moments later at around 19:50, OP was defending their base against the well-fed DD team. OP had two heroes dead but because of great chaining of skills that provided great AOE crowd control, DD were forced to take damage from the enemy crystal. Even with low health, OP Lard knew that his hero could keep on providing necessary crowd control needed to stop DD’s onslaught on their base.

3. Bursting down your opponents

A lot of people underestimate the amount of damage tanks can do when certain situations are met. Besides knowing the limitations of your champion when behind, knowing the plays you can make when ahead is important too. OP Lard’s Grock was well-fed in the second game and was doing massive AOE damage with his Power of Nature and Wild Charge. OP Lard’s surprise bush engage and bait decimated the DD carries and solidified OP’s victory.

 4. Success rate

Also in the second game around 7:43, we see a beautiful Guardian’s Barrier that walled out DD Crypt’s Jawhead from the safety of his team and his tower. This displacement was a good signal for OP’s carries Echo, Yeezus, and Lembot to use their cooldowns to burst down the out of position enemy. They went in wholeheartedly because they knew that this was a really safe and easy pick on the enemy team. Even a half-decent player knows that if you can make a situation a 5v1, it’s a signal to go in.

 5. Knowing the counters

In the deciding match, DD changed their strategy to counter OP Lard’s engages by picking Diggy, which is a hard counter for any CC-oriented composition. While OP Lard did get a few good picks with his team, they ultimately fell short during late game team fights as you would see at 14:28 and at 16:30 when Akai’s Hurricane Dances should have pinned the DD team to the wall but it got instantly countered by Diggie’s Time Journey.

These are only a few of the factors you need to consider when playing as a tank initiator. If you want to learn from the pros at the highest level of play, you better watch the matches of the MPL regular season starting this Saturday.

Counter picks abound in the final qualifier week’s matches

This article was written by Chise Alcantara.

UNITY GODZ vs OBS RAVEN 1-2

Farm simulator was the name of the first game between UNITY GODZ and OBS Raven featuring Fanny and OR Burning’s Helcurt. Even though Fanny was well fed the entire game, she couldn’t get near OR’s squishy members because of how many displacement skills OR had with OR Basha’s Chou, OR S4ngmu’s Saber, and Oy’s Jawhead, which cost GODZ the late game fights. Having trouble getting through tanks would be a theme in these matches. In the second game, GODZ’s Harley made quick work of OR’s heroes who didn’t get to farm well because of the consistent ganks and map control provided by the Johnson-Angela combo, which resulted in a one-sided game favoring Unity Godz. And after the really close deciding game, the OBS Ravens finally got through Unity Godz’s defenses, securing their spot in the regular season.

Vicous & Delicious vs Pentakill Gaming 2-1

Three minutes in and we already had some action brewing as Pentakill Gaming secured the Turtle in exchange for four of their members’ lives and an early triple kill for VaD a|Kevv’s Helcurt, which would prove to be their demise as he translated that lead into a 14-0-10 score by the end of the game. In the second game however, VaD a|Kevv’s Yi Sun Shin pick didn’t work as well as VaD had hoped in pairing with VaD a|Vino’s Angela because of the constant pressure provided by PK Goddess’s Johnson that drove circles around Vicious and Delicious.

Sometimes you’ll have final scores that don’t do justice to all the sick plays a player does and this was definitely one of those moments. The two game-changing flicker initiations from VaD a|ass’s Lolita were what really got her team ahead. Her AOE stuns stopped Pentakill Gaming right in their tracks, demolishing their dreams of having a spot in the regular season.

Solid Gaming Omega vs Digital Devils No Limit 1-2

The first game just proved that early snowballs can affect the game tremendously even if the early kills don’t go to your carries. The score was 7-1 three minutes into the game with SGOSolid:RBEH’s Diggy even having a killing spree. Thanks to Diggy’s defensive abilities, the heroes of DD couldn’t even get close to SGO’s SolidPepe who was free to deal massive damage from afar in team fights leading to a clean victory by SGO.

You knew Digital Devils No Limit wanted revenge after that stomp so DD|Jana brought her Kagura out for the second game. Showing off her really good kiting and support from the back line, which completely shut down the initiators of the other team bringing the series to a tie. An off-meta pick served DD well in the final match with Peace’s Hilda that isolated SGO’s carries in team fights, reducing their damage output and impact, which won her team their slot in the regular season.

OBS Pegasus vs DD Demon Kings 1-2

When you allot too many resources to stop one hero and still don’t manage to shut her down then you definitely have a problem. To counter DD>> YB420’s Fanny, three members of OP picked displacement heroes but the lack of follow-up from the damage dealers of OP caused them multiple team fights and eventually the first game.

Top Global player, OP Lard’s Grock holding everything down for his team in the second game. The insane picks he makes with his walls and crowd control provided easy sieging opportunities for OP, leading to an easy victory tying the series 1-1.

DD coming in strong and learning from their mistakes from both games. Seeing as they were having problems from OP Lard’s sets and initiations, DD>>Crypt picked Diggy to counter all OP’s crowd control and pick potential. One skill from Diggy countered Cyclop’s root, Acai’s displacement, and Jawhead’s toss, which lead to an easy victory for DD Demon Kings.

 Why Estes, Rafaela, and Nana never see play in MPL and ranked play

This article was written by Chise Alcantara.

A few days ago I queued up for a rank game and was placed in the last slot. The rest of my team were composed of a tank, a marksman, a fighter, and an assassin so I insta-locked Estes and said I would lane with the marksman because I felt comfortable with playing him and felt like he would fit in this aggressive team composition that had a lot of consistent DPS.

By the time we got into lane, my marksman (who I was going to support with all my love, affection, and spirit of camaraderie) had already flooded my chatbox with hurtful, violent reactions about picking Estes. Needless to say, said marksman fed and caused us the game while I got MVP with the most kill participation in my team. Am I salty or bitter at him for flaming me? Of course not. Why? Because, not only was I the better, more understanding person in this situation—I actually saw his point.

Even though I was relatively fed, I didn’t really feel I contributed much to the game at all.  Calling Estes underpowered is an understatement. Ever since the nerfs of his heal last year, he has never been the same and he’s been part of the trifecta of “useless” heroes along with Nana and Rafael for a while now. But, why do people consider them useless?

“I think it’s because of the way gold works in Mobile Legends, at least when compared to traditional MOBAs,” says Shin Boo, veteran shoutcaster. “In ML, laning is not really emphasized because you get gold even if you don’t last hit the minions. Sustain supports, like Estes and Rafael, are really good when you have to stay in lane, which isn’t really necessary in ML.” We also haven’t seen Nana in a while since her damage is negligible compared to other mages that provide the same kind of CC.

Most supports that are used in the MPL PH have a lot of impact either defensively, offensively, or even both. Examples of these are Angela and Diggie, that both have really huge influence in team fights.  Angela has global map pressure thanks to her ultimate, which can easily make any 1v1 sway in her team’s favor. Diggie on the other hand has the ability to nullify the enemy team’s initiations adding to his team’s survivability.

We’ve seen a few tank supports in some of the games like Lolita, who specializes in blocking range skills and Minotaur, a cc-machine with great survivability but has conditional effectiveness because of his rage mechanic that regulated him to B-Tier. “You’d want more combat oriented abilities if you want to have an impact in this assassin dominated meta. Also, it’s more shield over heal,” says Shin Boo. After all, if the enemy kills your carry before you can even heal him or her, than it’s pointless.

The supports that aren’t in the meta right now are most really old heroes, which leads us to believe that their kits seem a bit outdated compared to the more flexible and arguably more thought out skills some of the new releases have today. There have been talks of reworking Nana, which are pretty exciting but no mention of Estes nor Rafaela. Hopefully these supports will eventually get the support they need as the meta changes come regular season.

Assassins… assassins everywhere

This article was written by Chise Alcantara.

DIGITAL DEVILS PRO VS WIL IMBA

WIL IB.Killer showed us what Helcurt does best and that is farming like crazy while helping your team get kills. At one point,  WIL had a 12k gold over DDP, which translated into a slaughter-fest in late game team fights. The second game was a lot closer thanks to WIL IB Ge’s very skillful plays on Harley but she couldn’t carry hard enough against the DD Heww’s Lancelot when he’s backed up by DD 匕モ匕ち’s Angela. Using the momentum they got from their win in the previous game, DD really showed off their teamwork by following up on almost every engage DD 乇丂Ծ刀’s Saber did. This pocket pick from DD proved fatal to WIL IB’s team composition, which cost them the best of three.

ADVICI ESPORTS vs GODZ AWESOME

ADVC pulled in an early lead with ADVC JM’s fed Guison whose AOE damage decimated the entire GZ team. But GZ came back strong with the next game by utilizing the incredible mobility of GZ Hera 恐い’s Fanny and the follow-up support of GZ Weng 恐い’s Angela, which completely shutdown the ADVC JM’s Guison.

Game 3 had very surprising picks and bans with GZ banning Fanny, which helped them a lot in Game 2 and ADVC deciding to put their fate in ADVC JM’s Guison, once again after his shaky second game. Whose gamble paid off? ADVC’s trust in their teammate proved to be a good decision on their part as he got pick after pick, which snowballed the game. ADVC Hao’s Helcurt also became quite annoying for the GZ to handle with unrelenting splitpushing and ganks.

WHITE RASCALS VS NIMBUS GAMING

Who knew tank fights could be so intense? The high damage composition of White Rascals hit a brick wall of tanks composed of G Kj41n_Up’s Johnson, G Mie’s Chou, and a very fed semi-tanky Jawhead piloted by G Alchemist and they barely made a dent in their defense resulting in a victory for Nimbus Gaming. They then used that momentum to steamroll their opponents in the next game leading to a clean sweep for Nimbus Gaming.

INVICTUS GODZ vs DIGITAL DEVILS PRO (Semi-finals)

DD 乇丂Ծ刀’s Saber pocket pick didn’t pan out as well as they had hoped in the first semi-finals game proving that it was more a situational pick that could work well in an engage composition. DD could do nothing against IG Kirito who went Godlike on his Guison, leading his team to their first semi-finals win. DD bringing out surprise picks left and right with an oldie, Hilda used by DD Dee. Their off-meta pick paid off for DD, because of how many ultimates Hilda tanked in that game, which allowed DD’s Heww to use the assassin Lancelot to get free damage off the opponent bringing this series to a deadlock.

A very hyped third match featuring DD Heww’s Lancelot vs IG Kirito’s Guison ensued. Tower dives and objective steals came from both assassins, which made the match closer than it should have been considering the overwhelming kill lead DD had over IG. But as the game went on, the gold lead translated into a victory for Digital Devils Pro with an impressive 26K gold for DD Heww’s Lancelot.

ADVICI ESPORTS vs NIMBUS GAMING (Semi-finals)

G Alchemist brought in the Jawhead that has worked so well for him this series. The playmaking potential of the heroes chosen by Nimbus Gaming in the first game allowed for them to take the clean victory. In the second game though, G Alchemist brought out a surprising marksman pick, Carrie. She melted turrets and champions late game but got overwhelmed by the tanks and assassins of ADVC in the last teamfight, which caused them the game. Despite ADVC’s Grock playing really well and making plays during teamfights, Nimbus Gaming’s rotations were too much for them to handle and with that, Nimbus Gaming earns their spot in the regular season.

ADVICI ESPORTS vs INVICTUS GODZ (Bronze Match)

The Gusion rampage continues as IG Kirito used the mage-assassin to flawlessly dominate the enemy team with his 10-0-6 score. Another mage, ADVC Muska’s Cyclops stole the scene in the second game with another flawless 9-0-5 score by making picks with his third skill’s rooting mechanics coupled with his burst damage.  IG got the early lead in the deciding game because of the rotations by IG Vhen’s Fanny map pressure and jungle steals by IG Helena put ADVC so behind that they couldn’t recover for the entire game. Invictus Godz secure their spot in the regular season.

Why meta marksmen in ranked aren’t being being pick nor banned in the MPL Philippines

This article was written by Chise Alcantara.
Special thanks to Kaisaya.

If you’ve tuned in to the past three weeks of MPL qualifier streams, you would have probably noticed several meta heroes that have been very prevalent in the series such as Lancelot, Martis, Johnson, Angela, Guison, and Fanny. This isn’t really surprising because of how equally visible these picks are in amateur rank play, but what’s intriguing is the severe lack of representation of marksmen included in the commonly sought after picks and bans in the competitive scene. Are marksmen underpowered? Short answer, yes. But that doesn’t really explain why they aren’t at all banned in games like other comfort picks of pro-players.

“You would sometimes notice that teams ban heroes that aren’t really meta but because it’s a comfort pick of a particular opponent,” Em “Kaisaya” Dangla, MPL Shoutcaster and Mythic rank player, said. “But marksmen aren’t usually prioritized in bans even though almost all the teams in the qualifiers have at least one MM main player.”

So why aren’t MM’s being prioritized in picks and bans? Because they’re not threatening—at least compared to other stronger meta picks. “Give a really skilled player who knows the inside outs of that hero and the opposing team would most likely be doomed,” says Kaisaya.

Traditionally, marksmen have always played the roles of being glass cannons who deal consistent DPS from a safe range. They also turn into tank-shredding, tower-destroying hyper carries late game and act as fail-safes whenever teammates feed their lane. Though, sadly for marksmen, the MPL PH late game seems to be always beyond reach with the usual pro-match lasting up to 15-20 minutes, just enough time for them to comfortably buy their third or forth item in the comfort of their base while waiting to respawn to make it to the final frame of their base exploding. “Good players can end the game within the first 15 minutes without an MM because of high-impact, early game assassins,” says Kaisaya.

You may be asking, “then why am I wrecking noobs on the rank ladder with my girl, Lesley?” Well, have you noticed how long your games last? Have you ever actually faced against a coordinated team that will focus you so hard that you feel like they had deeply rooted hatred for guys who play female characters online? Marksmen that aren’t Layla, can actually function decently in high rank play and can actually be considered B to A tier but in an environment where a highly coordinated team knows how much of a threat you can be when left alone, good luck not getting deleted within the first 0.5 seconds of the fight by a fed Guison.

So will marksmen ever be part of the meta again like in the early seasons of ML where compositions were actually designed to feed overpowered marksmen like Moskov in order to carry the team with his insane damage? Maybe, considering some of the recent MPL games have been lasting over 20 minutes because of the amount of tanks and off-tanks being picked by MPL teams. In Advici Esports vs Nimbus Gaming, G Alchemist surprised everyone with the Karrie pick, which admittedly did melt the enemy team in the late game because of Karrie’s innate percentage health damage. Though the MM hype was short-lived once she got focused down late game, which caused Nimbus Gaming’s low-damage team composition to crumble.

Marksmen heroes can become viable in the MPL once again if the pros actually make a team composition that can protect their marksmen from the current overpowered assassins in today’s metagame. Till then, marksmen will remain to be the high risk, high reward situational picks that get overshadowed by more consistent and high impact heroes. Consistency is key to securing a spot in the regular season, so we’ll see if we’ll get more adventurous picks from teams now that they’ve tested the playing field.