MPL Qualifier Week 1 Recap

Just in case you missed any of the action

This article was written by Chise Alcantara.

 OBS Gaming vs OBS Vanity

The showdown between the twin teams of OBS, showed all viewers why assassins continue to dominate the Mobile Legends meta right now. OBS Gaming’s Z4pnu dives solo against three opponents after receiving enough gold from his farm. His teammates know that the key to success is getting their assassin fed and then promptly unleashing him onto the unsuspecting enemy squad.

You’d think OBS Vanity would come to the second game having learned their lesson but they made no adjustments to shut down Z4pnu’s Guison after their crushing defeat in the first game. This time, Z4pnu had the support of his teammate Dian on Helios and Pakbet on Kagura to execute effective pick offs to push their way to a quick 2-0 victory.

Invictus Godz vs OBS Exodus

If people ask why you auto-ban Fanny in high rank games, show them the matches between Invictus Godz and OBS Exodus and they’ll quickly understand. The sheer map pressure that the hero applies on the enemy team when piloted by a capable player is unrelenting. OE JZEFF, Fanny supports the tower siege tactic exploited by exodus while  farms with Lancelot.

In their second game, Invictus Godz first picks Fanny for Vhen and gets the quick revenge win over OBS Exodus using the same exact tactic used on them in the previous game. OE didn’t have an answer to the strategy they prepared themselves.

If there’s one thing that we have learned from these three games, it’s to ban Fanny. After the first blood was given to Vhen’s Fanny, no one could have stopped Invictus Godz from snowballing the entire game and securing a 2-1 victory.

Aether Valkyrie vs OBS Pegasus

AE| Kenji on his Hayabusa dominated the enemy farmer, OP Yeezus on Helcurt allowing for an easy win for AE Valkyrie. Going in for the kill, Kenji chose Helcurt in their following game and farmed like crazy to contribute damage in the late game team fights. *Aether Valkyrie* had an amazing engage composition with its three-man onslaught AE | Van’s Johnson, AE | Lebron’s Saber, and AE | Kenji’s clean up using Helcurt. AE claim the swift 2-0 victory over OBS Pegasus.

Aether Main vs Digital Devils Professional 

The players from Digital Devils Professional starved Aether Main for resources with their methodical jungle stealing and rotations. Their amazing use of DD Heww’s Lancelot’s and DD Luffzy’s Harley to dominate them in late game team fights helped secure an early victory.

Yellyhaze’s on engage with Chou was on point which helped AE dominate the early to mid game in the second game of the series. A miracle steal by Harley caused the tides to turn in DD’s favor, eradicating the 6K gold lead Aether Main worked so hard to achieve. But their luck was short-lived because of a few overly ambitious fights by DD, where AE showed their dominating teamwork.

In game 3 of the series, AE Yuji’s Harley got fed early, having a score of 4-0-1 at level 5. DD’s Helcurt kept forcing the split push play but wasn’t accomplishing much and left his team with a disadvantage when it came to team fights. DD Heww’s Martis defended their base valiantly and got picks whenever he could, making it difficult for AE to enter DD’s base even though there were no turrets defending. Eventually, AE secured a pick on DD Luffzy on Kagura and that caused DD to full under the weight of the rampaging tanks of AE leading to a well-fought 2-1 victory for Aether Main.

OBS Gaming vs Invictus Godz 

The first semifinals matchup came down between OBS Gaming and Invictus Godz. OG Yolo showed the playmaking potential of tanks by opening up opportune engages for his carries to capitalize on. OG Pakbet on Kagura also proved to everyone that you don’t need to rack up kills in order to greatly influence the game. OBS Gaming quickly gained an advantage as they pushed the first semifinals matchup into 1-0.

In game 2, OG Jeffqt4ever’s Jawhead dominated the game from start to finish by virtually transforming into an unkillable machine while still being a threat to the enemy team. Invictus Godz fate was sealed when they had a miscommunication in the last moments of the game which caused them to fall one by one to the Lord. OBS closed the series in a 2-0 sweep.

Aether Valkyrie vs Aether Main

AE | Yellyhaze went to work as Chou by neutralizing any threat that may come to his carries by being as annoying as possible to deal with. Yellyhaze’s efforts led to a flawless game 1 victory against their sister team. 

AE | Changu showed off his Martis skills in the second game of the semifinals series  to deal out the damage when AE Valkyrie needed it the most. Aether Valkyrie applied a slow push strategy which eventually led to a tied up series at 1-1. The third game was a complete stomp in favor of AE Main with three members of AE Valkyrie accumulating less than 3k gold each. The three assassin plus two tank composition was too much for AE Valkyrie to handle leading to a final score 2-1 in favor of Aether Main.

Invictus Godz vs Aether Valkyrie 1-2

Vhen on his Martis and Helena on his Grock kick off the third place matchup by showing off their synergy with their flawless scores leading to an easy Invictus win. Aether Valkyrie was ultimately unable to put a stop to the snowballing duo as they drop the first game in the best-of-three series. The three tank composition for IG didn’t go as well as they had hoped in the second game once mid-game started and AE’s assassins, Gusion and Nathalie started both dealing over one thousand damage each.

Even though it seemed like a close fight, AE Valkyrie kept the gold lead throughout the final third game while pressuring Invictus Godz’s towers. Inevitably, Invictus made the mistake that AE Valkyrie was waiting for and quickly translated it to a victory after 26-minutes. Aether Valkyrie closed out the first week qualifier with a 2-1 victory to secure the third place spot.