Crawling out from the Lower Bracket, the Philippines’ Bren Esports tediously worked their way to reach the finals of the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang M2 World Championship in Singapore. On January 24, Bren went toe-to-toe with Myanmar’s finest, Burmese Ghouls, in an epic series that went the distance.
The road to the playoffs
Bren had to thread the needle to earn a shot of making it to the Sunday finals. They were relegated to the Lower Bracket after dropping their opening match against the Ghouls. Bren began its playoff push and faced MPL Malaysia/Singapore champions Todak. They won their best-of-three encounter 2-1.
Later on, in what was arguably the most anticipated match of the day, Bren squared off with their rival, 2020 MPL Invitational champion Alter Ego Esports from Indonesia. The two squads met last December in the MPL Invitational where the Indonesians threw a 3-0 beatdown of the Filipinos to earn the crown. It was a different story for M2 though, as Bren got their revenge with a 2-1 victory.
On the final day of the tournament, the winner of the Lower Bracket finals will set a title showdown against the Burmese Ghouls — MPL Myanmar 2020 champs. Bren had their hands full against another formidable Indonesian squad in RRQ Hoshi. Led by KarlTzy and FlapTzy, Bren racked up three straight wins after dropping the opening match of their best-of-five series to beat RRQ, setting up a finals match against Myanmar.
Epic seven-game championship
Bren Esports, whose core members were part of the 2019 SEA Games gold medalist Philippine team, set a collision course rematch with Burmese Ghouls who swept them early in the playoffs.
Myanmar’s journey to the finals had an express route after their scintillating 3-2 victory against RRQ Hoshi in the Upper Bracket. Proving their worth as championship contenders, Burmese Ghouls capitalized on an early lead in the deciding game with a 9-5 kill advantage. At the 12-minute mark, they grew their kill lead to 15-9 and by the 14th minute, marched their way to victory against RRQi. More importantly, they secured the first spot in the grand finals.
Game 1 of the best-of-seven title clash between PH and MM started with Bren snatching the win after taking advantage of a miscoordination by the Ghouls at the lord area. Bren sustained the momentum in Game 2, scoring a 12th-minute win anchored by Pheww’s flawless performance of Selena (5-0-17 KDA).
Things were looking good for the Filipinos on that point but the Ghouls had other plans. Not to be outclassed, team Myanmar shocked Bren with a methodical 13th minute victory in Game 3. The Burmese boys played solidly and did not even give up a single turret.
Continuing their onslaught, the Ghouls staged a monumental comeback by also clinching the games 4 and 5. Similar storylines were seen, Bren took the early lead before the Ghouls effectively got their bearings right and got the W.
Down 3-2 and with their backs against the wall, it was KarlTzy’s time to shine. With an unorthodox pick in Game 6, KarlTzy’s Brody had a dominating performance with a 9-1-11 KDA stat line. Pheww also contributed big with his Lunox, tallying 8 kills and 8 assists to go with 5 deaths. Forcing a rubber match, KarlTzy cemented his M2 legacy with a masterful showing of Claude to seal the victory for the young Filipinos.
Along with the bragging rights as the best Mobile Legends team in the world, Bren Esports took home the lion’s share of the $300,000 pool prize. KarlTzy was named Finals Most Valuable Player with his phenomenal performance (he also earned the first Savage of M2) and pocketed $3,000.
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