Selangor Red Giants and Aurora Philippines have progressed to the M7 World Championship Upper Bracket Final following close games against Aurora Gaming and Alter Ego, respectively.
The Malaysian esports organisation pulled off a comeback from 2-1 down against Aurora Gaming, the last remaining Western team in the tournament. Meanwhile, Aurora Philippines toppled Indonesia’s Alter Ego 3-1, despite the latter almost pushing the series to a fifth game.
Aurora Gaming Go Toe-to-Toe with Selangor Red Giants
In a competition that is largely dominated by Southeast Asian teams, Aurora Gaming has performed above expectations. Aiming to mirror the performance of CIS representative Team Spirit at M6, the Turkish side has its sights set on a top-four finish at M7. However, the team arguably faced its biggest challenge so far in the event — the back-to-back-to-back-to-back MPL Malaysia champion Selangor Red Giants.
Despite Selangor Red Giants, which recently concluded its partnership with OG Esports, being viewed as one of the tournament favourites, the team lost a tense map one in just over 18 minutes. However, the second game went in its favour, as the roster turned around an early game deficit to level the series 1-1 in over 24 minutes.
After both sides continued to trade wins, Selangor Red Giants sent Aurora Gaming to the Lower Bracket via a hard-fought game five. Highlighting how much of a team effort this was from the MPL Malaysia champion, three different players were named MVPs in the team’s win — John ‘Innocent’ Banal, Mark ‘Kramm’ Rusiana and Muhammad ‘Yums’ Suhairi.
Aurora Philippines Defeat Alter Ego
The second series of the day was a battle of the second seeds as MPL Indonesia’s Alter Ego faced off against Aurora Philippines.
Unlike its Western counterpart, the MPL Philippines Season 16 runner-up was able to walk away with a 3-1 victory, setting up a ‘revenge’ match against Selangor Red Giants.
Game one of the series was seemingly in Alter Ego’s grasp past the 15-minute mark after the Indonesian side gained momentum, took the Lord and looked to crash into Aurora’s base despite being at a kill deficit (10-15). However, a crucial teamfight from Aurora Philippines swung the momentum back in its favour, allowing the team to secure a Lord soon after and close out the game in 18 minutes.
In game two, Alter Ego made relatively light work of Aurora, winning in under 14 minutes with a 13-4 scoreline. The pace slowed down in game three as Aurora Philippines consistently gained momentum to claim what proved to be a crucial win in 17 minutes.
Perhaps the major highlight of the entire day, across both series, was the final game. The 17-minute match was a battle of Alta Ego’s aggression vs Aurora Gaming’s ability to hang on and strike when the time was right.
In the end, despite Alter Ego largely dominating the game in terms of gold, it was Aurora that found the right teamfights to take down Alter Ego and send the side to the Lower Bracket. This could, however, have been very different if Alter Ego had been able to finish off Aurora’s base in the 14th minute.
What Happens Next?
With the M7 World Championship Upper Bracket Semi-Finals concluding, all eyes will be on the Lower Bracket.
Taking place tomorrow (January 22nd), MPL champions will clash as Indonesia’s ONIC faces off against Team Liquid PH. Meanwhile, CIS representative Team Spirit will go head-to-head with Myanmar’s Yangon Galacticos. The winners of these matches will face Aurora Gaming and Alter Ego, respectively.
The post Selangor Red Giants thwarts Aurora derby in the M7 Championship Upper Bracket appeared first on Esports Insider.
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