MPL Philippines

TNC 'tricks' prove effective against Echo's surprising drafts to score reverse sweep

TNC Pro Team employed two massive strategic plays in Games 2 and 3 to counter Echo's puzzling drafts  and score a 2-1 reverse sweep in Week 6 of the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League (MPL) Philippines Season 9 on Saturday.

They successfully executed a beautiful diversion play in Game 2 to turn a losing game into a win then opted for a sidelane swap in the laning stage of Game 3. These helped them bring their season total to 21 points while dealing Echo (22 points) their third loss of the season.

Echo introduced the unorthodox roaming Masha pick for Tristan "Yawi" Cabrera in the opener but failed to produce results from the early goings.

However, Echo started pulling away in the midgame after scoring a 4-1 trade off in a 9th minute lord fight to take control of the match.

The two-time MPL champions took the opener with a dominating 18-8 kill lead built around Karl "KarlTzy" Nepomuceno's (Paquito) 6-1-8 KDA. Despite the early game struggles, Yawi finished with a respectable 3-3-6 KDA.

It looked like a sweep was on the way when Benedict "Bennyqt" Gonzales (Phoveus) scored a triple kill in Game 2 during a 10th minute skirmish to secure the lord and extend Echo's kill lead to 9-2.

But TNC survived Echo's aggression after scoring a pick off on KarlTzy (Hayabusa) in the 13th minute to recover some map control.

They followed it up with a sneaky diversion play on a 4-man top lane gank, initiated by a pinpoint Ben "Benthings" Maglaque (Khufra) tyrant's rage set-up on Yawi (Natalia) while Mark Genzon "Kramm" Rustana (Kramm) kept four Echo members busy in the lord area leaving the Echo base turret defenseless.

TNC forced the extension despite a massive 19-6 deficit on the Game 2 kill tally.

In Game 3, TNC then opted to put Robee Bryan "Yasuwo" Pormocille (Beatrix) in the exp lane, instead of the goldlane, across Frediemar "3MarTzy" Serafico (Hylos) that worked wonders resulting in a lopsided early game. Echo drafted a surprising Grock goldlaner and Angela roamer but proved ineffective with TNC's early counter play.

Jomearie "Escalera" Delos Santos (Natalia) also played a key role in disrupting the opposing jungler and limiting KarlTzy's early game progression with timely pickoffs, leading to a 4k gold lead at the 5th minute which they maintained throughout the game for the clincher.

—MGP, GMA News