PINAS lang malakas!
ECHO Philippines dethroned Blacklist International during the all-Filipino Mobile Legends: Bang Bang M4 World Championship finale on Sunday in Jakarta, Indonesia.
With a 4-0 sweep, ECHO prevented Blacklist from being the first Filipino to secure a back-to-back win in the international Mobile Legends competition.
The team was also able to take back the Season 10 Mobile Legends Professional League Philippines crown that it lost against the Tier-One-backed squad in October.
Two days prior to the grand finals, Blacklist had pushed ECHO back to the lower bracket with a come-from-behind win, scoring 3-2 during the tournament’s upper bracket finals.
But after defeating the Indonesian team RRQ Hoshi with a 3-1 victory, ECHO secured a spot in the grand finals, setting an all-Filipino game on January 15.
The stellar performance of Benedict “Bennyqt” Gonzales helped the team seal its victory in the first two rounds using the game heroes Lunox and Brody respectively.
Alston “Sanji” Pabico, Karl “KarlTzy” Nepomuceno, and Sanford “Sanford” Vinuya also contributed to the intense gameplay as they dominated their Filipino rivals.
Through Sanji’s flawless Guison play, he tightened the game with a lopsided 23-10 kill score within 13 minutes of play.
Although Blacklist attempted to turn the tables during the fourth and final round with Johnmar “OhMyV33nus” Villaluna’s signature Beatriz pick, ECHO crushed OhMyV33nus and Danerie “Wise” Rosario near the Lord pit with 16 minutes left on the clock.
With two members down, the team went straight to their opponent’s base and snatched the ML trophy from the reigning team.
Bennyqt was named this year’s most valuable player for his impressive gameplay throughout the season, walking away with US$ 5,000 or PHP 27,000.
ECHO took home a whooping US$ 300,000 (or nearly PHP 16.3 million) while Blacklist got US$ 120,000 (approximately PHP 6.5 million.)
ECHO is composed of members Karltzy, Bennyqt, Sanford, Sanji, Tristan “Yawi” Cabrera, Jankurt “KurtTzy” Matira, and Jaypee “Jaypee” Cruz, and coaches Harold “Tictac” Reyes and Robert “Trebor” Sanchez.
This is the third time a Filipino team won the world championship at the professional ML competition.
This is also the first time for a Filipino player to win two championship titles. Karltzy led Bren Esports at the M2 World Championship in 2021.
Banner courtesy: ECHO’s Facebook page
