M3 World Championship: ONIC PH punch finals ticket with 3-0 sweep over BTK
ONIC Philippines kicked off the penultimate day of the M3 World Championship on Saturday (18 December) by punching their ticket to the grand finals with a resounding 3-0 sweep over North American upstarts BloodThirstyKings (BTK) in the upper bracket finals.
After topping Group B with a less than stellar 2-1 record, ONIC PH seemingly flipped the switch and have been unstoppable in the Playoffs.
The Filipino powerhouse scored back-to-back 3-0 sweeps over RSG SG and RRQ Hoshi to get to the upper bracket finals against BTK, who were coming off huge upsets over Blacklist International and EVOS SG.
ONIC PH had a strong start to their showdown with BTK by taking an easy 15-minute win with a 17-5 kill lead behind Jaylord "Hatred" Gonzales' Pharsa, who earned the game MVP nod for a clean five-kill, five-assist performance.
The Filipinos continued their hot streak into game two and built up a 5-1 kill lead by the six-minute mark. While ONIC PH made good use of their aggression and took full map control, BTK managed to put up a stubborn defense of their base.
After an 18-minute war of attrition, the Filipinos finally broke through their North American opponents' defenses to a commanding 2-0 series lead.
Hatred earned the MVP nod for the second-straight game, this time for a clean two-kill, eight-assist showing on Chou. As a testament of how much ONIC PH were in control of the series, BTK were barely able to get to the other side of the map and failed to deal a single point of damage to the Filipino team's turrets.
With their backs against the wall in game three, BTK were the ones on the offensive early. However, ONIC PH called their opponents' bluff and instead focused on taking turrets, giving them control over much of the map.
The North Americans refused to be choked out like in game two and decided to bring the fight to ONIC PH in clashes for control of the Lord, stalling the game out to over the 20-minute mark.
ONIC PH used their BTK's aggression to their advantage, picking off their heroes as they overextended to finally begin sieging the North Americans' base. Once again refusing to be choked out, BTK repeatedly pushed out of their base to break the siege of their base.
However, the Filipinos outmaneuvered BTK and punished their overzealous attempts to finally claim the 3-0 series sweep after 22 minutes of action.
Gerald "Dlarskie" Trinchera on Yu Zhong earned the MVP nod in game three for a clean three-kill, seven-assist showing and anchoring ONIC PH's unstoppable deathball as they punched their ticket to the finals.
After three-straight 3-0 sweeps in the upper bracket, ONIC PH have all the momentum in the world as they await their opponents in the best-of-seven grand finals on Sunday (19 December).
Meanwhile, BTK drop down to the lower bracket finals. The North Americans will be looking to force a rematch with ONIC PH for the championship by defeating the winner of the lower bracket semi-finals between Blacklist International and EVOS SG.
For more esports news updates, visit https://yhoo.it/YahooEsportsSEA and check out Yahoo Esports Southeast Asia’s Facebook page and Twitter, as well as our Gaming channel on YouTube.
