MLBB: Aurora Gaming shocks Team Liquid to advance to M7 upper bracket semis

Aurora Gaming stunned its previous tormentor Team Liquid with a nail-biting 2–1 victory in their all-Filipino showdown in the opening match of the M7 World Championship Knockout Stage on Sunday in Jakarta, Indonesia.

After falling to Team Liquid in both the MPL Philippines Season 16 finals and the M7 Swiss Stage opener, Aurora finally exacted revenge, booking a spot in the upper bracket semifinals.

Team Liquid, meanwhile, dropped to the lower bracket, where one more loss would end their title campaign.

Aurora punished Team Liquid in Game 1 with gold laner Jan "Domengkite" Delmundo (Granger) securing the fourth Lord objective and picking off Karl "KarlTzy" Nepomuceno (Yi Sun-shin) to spark the middle lane push and the win. 

The reigning back-to-back MPL champions, however, regained poise in the next game with veteran roamer Jaypee "Jaypee" Dela Cruz (Khaleed) shining with two kills and six assists to help equalize the best-of-three series. 

Team Liquid then picked up where it left off in the decider, gaining a 3,000 gold lead in the first 15 minutes but a pivotal Lord dance spelled the difference as Aurora Gaming completed the upset. 

Jungler Jonard "Demonkite" Caranto (Joy) had a crucial Lord steal before exp laner Edward "Edward" Dapadap (Yu Zhong) fueled the wipeout after taking down KarlTzy's Lancelot. 

It snowballed for Aurora from that point on as they marched down the middle lane to avenge their previous losses to Team Liquid. 

Edward, appearing in his fifth straight M-series stint, claimed the MVP honors after unleashing four kills and five assists to carry Aurora to its best finish so far. In M6, Aurora failed to enter the playoffs after bowing out early in Swiss Stage. 

—JKC, GMA Integrated News