By Justine Juyad

PHOTO: Rappler

RSG Philippines swept TNC pro team in the upper bracket finals to book their first-ever Grand finals ticket in the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League - Season 9 last April 30, 2022.

The second-year team continued their undefeated playoffs run after shutting down TNC in three straight games behind Jonard “Demonkite” Caranto's calculated aggressiveness and Arvie "Aquaaa" Calderon's excellent execution of the ultimate skills during breath-taking clashes.

With that dominant victory, they also secured a slot in MLBB Southeast Asian Cup 2022 in Malaysia.

“This was just part of my imagination – my imaginary expectation that I really, really, really want it,” emotional head coach Brian “Panda” Lim on their huge win.

Demonkite (Baxia) showed his aggressiveness early and went for a godlike start to lead his team into a 5k gold gap in the first 7:30 minutes. They protected their momentum in the next minutes to draw first blood after a 5-0 clash win in the 16:50 minute mark.

The top-seeded team stayed dominant, winning the game two without losing a tower with Aqua (Yve) who had 2/0/12 KDA statline getting the MVP honors after brilliant positioning and execution of Real World Manipulation.

Aqua (Pharsa) proved that he's arguably the best mid laner of the season as he led his team into the grand finals after ruling the game 3 with his tremendous execution of Feathered Airstrike and finished with 4/0/11 across his name.

Meanwhile, TNC still has a chance for a finals slot as they will battle Omega Esports, who just came from a 3-0 win against last season's runner ups Onic PH,  in the lower bracket finals.

The defending MSC champions kept their back-to-back title hopes alive with a sweep of Onic in the lower bracket semis.

Omega showed why they are the comeback kings after bouncing back from a slow start in game 1 as they went for a 4-0 clash win near the lord area in the 11:11 minute mark and started to control the game.

Joshua "Ch4knu" Mangilog (Khufra) sealed the comeback opener win with his clutch signature Tyrant's rage + flicker combo which caught Jaylord "Hatred" Gonzales (Xavier) and Mark Christian "Markyyyyy" Capacio (Brody).

Duane "Kelra" Pillas took over in the next two games and led his team into a dominant sweep win to keep their season alive.

RSG will await the winner of Omega vs. TNC on Sunday before the Grand finals showdown.