SEA Games 2023: Philippines beat Malaysia to claim Men's Mobile Legends gold

The Philippines continues to be the most dominant country in Mobile Legends as it claimed its third-straight gold medal for Men's MLBB in at the 2023 Southeast Asian Games' Esports event with a 3-0 sweep over Malaysia in the grand finals on Sunday (14 May).

The Philippines' Men's MLBB representatives for this year were players from Bren Esports — David "FlapTzy" Canon, Michael Angelo "KyleTzy" Sayson, Angelo "Pheww" Arcangel, Marco "SUPER MARCO" Requitano, and Vincent "Pandora" Unigo.

Meanwhile, the Malaysian team was comprised of players from different teams, with Muhammad "Chibi" Nor from Homebois, Mohammad "Izanami" Lim from RSG Slate MY, Mohammad "Xorn" Noor from Red Giants Esports, as well as Idreen "Momo" Jamal and Muhammad "CikuGais" Fuad from TODAK.

Both the Philippine and Malaysian teams started the event's group stage in Group A. Malaysia finished as the group's first seed with a perfect 4-0 record while the Philippines settled for second with a 3-1 line, with their only loss coming at the hands of the Malaysians.

The two squads then set up another showdown for the gold medal after emerging victorious in the first round of the playoffs, where the Philippines defeated Myanmar, 2-1, while Malaysia beat host country Cambodia in another 2-1 affair.

Team Philippines were quick to take revenge for their loss in the group stage by outlasting their Malaysian opponents in back-to-back 20+ minute marathons to take a commanding 2-0 series lead. With momentum on their side, the Philippine squad then secured the 3-0 sweep in a 10-minute stomp.

KyleTzy notably won game MVP honours for games one and two while SUPER MARCO took the nod for game three.

With this victory, the Philippines finished 2023 SEA Games Esports event with the highest medal tally at five. Aside from its Men's MLBB gold, the country also has another gold in League of Legends: Wild Rift as well as one silver for Women's MLBB and two bronzes for VALORANT and Crossfire.

The Philippines has also claimed its third-straight gold medal in Men's MLBB, dating back to the first-ever SEA Games Esports tournament in their home soil back in 2019.

The inaugural event was won by a mixed roster of players from different teams while the Philippines' second gold medal during the 2022 games in Hanoi was won by players from Blacklist International.

Blacklist International notably took the gold as the reigning MLBB world champions at the time, having defeated fellow Filipino team ONIC Philippines at the M3 World Championship in December 2021 prior to the 2022 SEA Games in May 2022.

This year's reigning champion is also a Filipino team after ECHO defeated Blacklist International in the M4 World Championship in January.

The Filipinos will be looking to continue their dominance over MLBB in home soil as the M5 World Championship is set to be held in the Philippines this December.

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