Team Liquid Philippines overpowers SRG.OG for long-coveted MSC trophy

MANILA, Philippines — The Mobile Legends Bang Bang Mid-Season Cup is no longer elusive for Team Liquid Philippines as the Cavalry overpowered Malaysia's Selangor Red Giants.OG (SRG.OG), 4-1, in the grand finals at the Esports World Cup, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The reigning Philippine champion had an unbeaten record in the group stages, sweeping Egypt's Ultra Legends, 2-0, and surviving Indonesian titlist, ONIC Esports, 2-1, to book its ticket to the playoffs.

With the fastest win time in the group stages, the Cavalry had the first opponent pick in the first round of the knockout stages. It chose Aurora Türkiye, hoping to avenge the loss of fellow Filipino squad ONIC Philippines.

Team Liquid knew its opponents well, sweeping the Turkish champions, 3-0, to set up a rematch with ONIC Esports in the semifinals.

The stampede was in full force, with Team Liquid taking an early 2-0 lead and though the Sky Kings were able to retaliate in Game 3, it would be Team Liquid that would march to the grand finals.

There, the Filipinos faced defending champion Malaysia's SRG.OG, which had defeated ONIC Philippines, 3-1, on the other side of the knockout brackets.

In the best-of-seven grand finals, Malaysia turned Team Liquid Philippine's signature early game aggression against them, dominating the Cavalry in a 5-19 kill score to take the series opener.

Team Liquid recalibrated its draft for Game 2, picking a deadly Yi Sun-shin and Lapu-Lapu combination for jungler Karl "KarlTzy" Nepomuceno and EXP laner Sanford "Sanford" Vinuya, which allowed them to equalize.

Vinuya, the eventual Finals Most Valuable Player, continued to be the difference maker in the series, with Game 3 seeing key initiations from the EXP laner that secured the game-winning wipeout as Team Liquid seized the series lead.

SRG.OG then took a gamble in Game 4 with a Kimmy pick for the goldlaner. Team Liquid responded with pure aggression, propelling themselves to match point in just 10 minutes.

Hoping to extend the series, the Malaysian squad manage to match Team Liquid in the early minutes of Game 5, even securing key pick-offs. But the damage of Kiel "Oheb" Soriano's Granger was just too much for SRG.OG, leaving them scrambling to defend their base as Team Liquid secured objective after objective and eventually took the base to finally lift the MSC trophy — the sole missing international title for the squad.

For its part, fellow Philippine representative ONIC Philippines also managed to finish on the podium after surviving the civil war against sister organization ONIC Esports, 3-2, in the battle for bronze earlier in the day.

With the win, Team Liquid is on the brink of securing the Esports World Cup Club championship, with chess Grand Master Magnus Carlsen also representing the organization and having won the chess event last Friday, August 1.