Team Falcons, Onic impress early in MPL PH Season 18 opening week

Team Falcons and Onic made an early statement, taking down champion clubs in the opening week of the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League (MPL) Philippines Season 18 at the Victoria Sports Tower.

Team Falcons overcame a Set 1 debacle, when the three-time defending champions completely shut them down during their Friday clash, by winning the next two games to complete a 2-1 comeback despite fatigue from back-to-back international tournaments.

Team Liquid totally dominated the opening game with a 15-1 kill spread led by Karl "KarlTzy" Nepumuceno's perfect KDA of six kills and five assists on Paquito.

However, Team Falcons quickly put that loss behind and turned to Marco "Super Marco" Requitiano in Game 2 as the veteran gold laner torched the Cavalry with six kills and seven assists on Claude before Salic "Hadji" Imam finished the job in Game 2 on Valentina.

Team Falcons followed it with a 2-0 takedown of a new-look TNC on Saturday to emerge undefeated through Week 1.

Another champion fell in the opening week as Onic Philippines blanked reigning world champion Aurora, which began a new chapter without exp laner Edward “Edward” Dapadap, who recently retired from the professional MLBB scene, and jungler Jonard “Demonnkite” Caranto, who is currently on loan to RRQ Hoshi in the MPL Indonesia.

The victory also gave player-turned-coach Angelo "Pheww" Arcangel a winning coaching debut.

Onic then picked up where it left off when it faced AP.Bren on Sunday, pulling off a similar 2-0 win behind import Clayton "Savero" Kuswanto, who poured five kills and four assists on Brody in Game 1 before midlaner Frince "Super Frince" Ramirez closed it out in Game 2 on Vexana.

—JKC, GMA News