Aurora Gaming stuns Team Falcons to clinch first-ever MPL crown

Aurora Gaming dethroned the defending champions to claim the throne as their own.


Fourth-seeded Aurora Gaming brought back nostalgia to beat second seed Team Falcons, 4-2, and rule the MPL Season 18 grand finals on Sunday at the PhilSports Arena.

Aurora Gaming, which ended Team Liquid’s three-season reign in the lower bracket finals, unleashed the Estes pick in different roles for Games 4 and 5 to turn things around against the higher-ranked Team Falcons and capture its first-ever MPL title after two heartbreaking bridesmaid finishes in Seasons 14 and 16.

The feat also gave Aurora Gaming a massive boost when it heads to Istanbul, Turkey to try defending its world title in the M8 World Championship.

Aurora was off to a big start with midlaner Kenneth "Yue" Tadeo setting the tone on Zhuxin, unloading six kills and seven assists against just one death to help the Northern Lights draw first blood in the best-of-seven affair.

Team Falcons then roared back behind Marco "Super Marco" Requitiano's Claude in Game 2 and Cici in Game 3 to flip the switch and take a 2-1 lead.

Aurora, however, had other plans. The reigning world champions caught Team Falcons by surprise when it launched a tried-and-tested ultimate bonding experience (UBE) strategy by drafting Estes in the middle lane.

Yue made Team Falcons pay, dropping nine assists to help tie the series to a 2-all deadlock. Aurora once again picked Estes in Game 5, this time for roamer Dylan "Light" Catipon. And the result remained the same for them with Light providing the support for Jan "Domeng" Del Mundo's Chou as they clinched the match point, 3-2.

Team Falcons finally decided to ban Estes in Game 6, but it hardly shook Aurora's momentum.

Domeng's Clint punished Team Falcons with a late double kill in the 11th minute to pave the way for the tower lock and end his team's long wait of capturing an elusive title.

—JKC, GMA News