Embattled Sibol uncrowns Indonesia for MLBB title in WEC 2023

Sibol dethroned defending champion Indonesia (ID), 3-1, in their best-of-five grand finals series to claim the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) crown in the 2023 IESF World Esports Championship in Iasi, Romania on Sunday, September 3.

The AP Bren-laden Philippines (PH) avenged their fellow Filipino squad Blacklist International's defeat in the championship round last 2022 after uncrowning the Indonesians.

The quartet of Angelo Arcangel, David Canon, Marco Stephen Requitano, Michael Angelo Sayson, and Rowgen Unigo, and GameLab's Jan Amande bagged the top prize of 50,000 dollars or more than 2.8 million pesos.

Down 1-0 in the Bo5 series, the Filipinos vented ire against their Southeast Asian rival in the next three games to complete an unblemished run in the 15th IESF WEC with a 7-0 record.

The SEA rivals went toe-to-toe in Game One which lasted 29 minutes, among the longest all tournament long, with both sides seemingly equal in gold and objectives.

Unleashing Kadita's ultimate Rough Waves, Marcel "Moreno" Sinulingga spelled the difference as he caught two Sibol players in the lord pit.

This gave Indonesia the maximum advantage to push the mid-lane and clean up the Philippines' base for a 1-0 advantage.

Beaten but undeterred by the opening game defeat, Sibol took matters seriously to decimate the Indonesians in Games Two and Three quickly.

Sayson earned the Game Two Most Valuable Player (MVP) plum behind his near flawless six kills and eight assists performance on top of one death while using Fredrinn.

Grand Finals MVP Requitano's Brody, meanwhile, led the charge for the nationals in their 23-5 victory in the third game with an 11/1/5 kill-death-assist (KDA) line.

In Game Four, Sibol picked Valir and Pharsa to counter ID's sustain-heavy heroes Novaria, Baxia, and X. Borg.

With such choices, PH dominated the early game up to the mid-game for a 5-0 kill score before slaying the Lord in the 12th minute to run amok in the mid-lane and seal the deal.

Before the grand finals, Sibol swept Group D by defeating Egypt, Colombia, and Ukraine then blanked United Arab Emirates in the upper bracket (UB) quarterfinals, 2-0.

Come the UB semifinals, PH met ID, and the Filipinos downed the Indonesians, 2-0, to secure their place in the finale against Saudi Arabia, which they ruled by two to none.

The Saudis lost in the lower bracket finals over Indonesia, setting the stage for a rematch in the grand finals for the latter.

Sadly, the Indonesians couldn't get the revenge they wanted.

They settled for silver and 30,000 dollars (over 1.7 million pesos).

Sixteen countries competed in this year's WEC MLBB tournament.