By REYNALD MAGALLON
Fnatic Onic Philippines is finally an MPL Philippines champion.
The Sonics needed a clutch base defense in the final moments of Game 7 to avert a huge collapse and take down Aurora Gaming MLBB with a pulsating 4-3 win to wrest the Season 14 crown at the Green Sun Hotel on Sunday, Oct. 20.
Fnatic Onic squandered a commanding 3-1 lead and was even on the verge of losing the series altogether after Aurora secured a Luminous Lord to spearhead a 21-minute siege.
The Sonics, however, showed nerves of steel as they held onto their high ground defense behind Duane “Kelra” Pillas’ Beatrix and Jann “Kirk” Gutierrez’s Edith before turning the table in the messy team fight that saw them complete a shocking four-man wipe.
With one player left to defend against five Fnatic Onic players, the Sonic went for the base lock to bag the franchise’s very first league title after settling for three runners-up finishes in the past.
FNOP won the lion’s share of the prize pool amounting to USD USD 150,000 or over PHP 8.7 million
Kelra, who has long been searching for his first MPL title, made sure he would not be denied this time, tallying a 4-1-4 line on the Beatrix to also bag the Finals MVP plum.
Kirk and Frince “Super Frince” Ramirez supported him with similar 3-0-8 line on the Edith and Vexana in the 11-7 Game 7 win.
The crucial base defense saved some blushes for Fnatic Onic after it failed to close out the series in Game 5 despite leading a commanding 10k gold lead.
At match point and with only two towers left on Aurora’s base, Fnatic Onic committed a huge blunder when it allowed their opponents to contest on a 13th minute Lord. Three Sonics fell in that Lord dance as Aurora went for a one-lane push to live to fight for another game.
Momentum seemed to have tilted toward the side of Aurora as it scored another come-from-behind win in Game 6 to force the deciding Game 7.
It was actually Fnatic Onic which scored the first two games of the series behind the stellar play of King “K1NGKONG” Perez who dominated Game 1 with superb jungle control and secured Game 2 on a gutsy backdoor play.
Aurora finally got on the board after a come-from-behind win in Game 3 but both Kirk and Kelra stepped up in Game 4 to put Fnatic Onic at match point.
