By REYNALD MAGALLON
The Northern Lights shone through the gloomy days brought by the abrupt end to Team Liquid’s Golden Road dreams.
Aurora Gaming came out with a masterful performance and blanked Alter Ego, 4-0, to etch its own history and win the M7 World Championship at the Tennis Indoor Senayan in Jakarta, Indonesia on Sunday, Jan. 25.
The Northern Lights was dominant from start to finish as the Filipinos repeatedly dictated the tempo and won all the big team fights during the four-game sweep to become the fifth franchise from the MPL Philippines to bag the crown jewel of MLBB esports.
Save for the inaugural tournament, Philippine teams have claimed all of the last six crowns with Bren Esports winning twice in the M2 and M5, Blacklist International in M3, ECHO in M4 and Fnatic Onic in M6.
The quintet of Jan “Domengkite” Del Mundo, Jonard “Demonkite” Caranto, Dylan “Light” Catipon, Kenneth “Yue” Tadeo and Edward “Edward” Dapadap pocketed $320,000 or more than P18.56 million.
The Filipinos opened up the series sizzling with Domengkite just dashing his way around Alter Ego heroes in the curtain raiser after getting his hands on the core items for his Harith pick.
He finished with a 3-2-7 KDA though it wouldn’t be possible if not for the zoning provided by Light’s Hylos (3-1-10) and Edward’s Lapu-Lapu (5-1-7).
It was pretty much the same story in Game 2 as Light, on the Grock, disrupted the jungle of AE. That not only prevented the heroes of the Indonesian squad from reaching their power spike but also allowed his own damage dealer to snowball.
Edward shone on the Sora with a 7-2-8 KDA while Light and Yue chipped in 4-2-11 and 4-0-8 KDAs, respectively.
Aurora kept the momentum going in Game 3 with Demonkite once again dominating the jungle battle against AE. The Indonesians were starved off their resources with Light putting in the pressure behind the pick-off potential of his roaming Chou.
Demonkite, Domengkite and Yue put up a spotless performance with the jungler finishing with a 4-0-8 line on the Fredrinn, the gold laner with a 4-0-5 tally on the Granger and the midlaner a 4-0-11 KDA on the Zhuxin to put Aurora on cusp of bagging the crown.
Smelling blood on the water, Aurora showed no let up in the Game 4 and totally dismantled AE right on its home turf.
