They may face Vietnam, Cambodia, or Singapore.
Assured of a silver finish in the Southeast Asian Games, the SIBOL Wild Rift team has reason to be confident going into Sunday’s gold medal brawl—even if they don’t know yet who they’re going to face.
After all, they defeated reigning champions Vietnam on Saturday with a thrilling reverse sweep in the upper bracket finals, rallying back from a 0-2 hole to ultimately win, 3-2, and advance to the grand finals of the League of Legends: Wild Rift in the SEA Games in Cambodia.
As exciting as that win was, coach Van Alfonso will not let the lessons go under the rug. They would need to learn from them if they want to bring home the gold.
“’Yung largest factor bakit kami talaga natalo for the first two games is [miscommunication],” Alfonso said.
Coach Van underscored that the 0-2 deficit pushed the team composed of Chammy Nazarea, Aaron Bingay, Justine Tan, Reniel Angara, Gerral Gelacio, and Golden Hart Dajao to the wall—and it pushed them hard.
This meant Dajao, who bagged MVP honors in the match, and the rest of the squad had to put out a Herculean effort to get the win.
“Lahat basically inadjust namin. ‘Yung mindset namin, ‘yung things na pinaplano namin sa game. We had to adjust a lot of things para maging possible ‘yung comeback namin,” Alfonso added.
That is no small feat—and it can be taken in good light or in bad. The good: they were able to accomplish such a tall task. The bad: they fell into that scary hole.
The Filipino esports squad, thus, have to cover all bases as they may face Vietnam again in the finale, or equally competitive squads in Singapore and Cambodia.
“Kailangan ire-assess ‘yung situation namin and i-review mga games namin, kung ano ba talaga ‘yung mistakes na na-commit namin and things na kailangan namin i-adjust,” Coach Van elaborated.
They look to deliver their end of the bargain, especially since esports fans will be watching.
“Alam namin maraming nag-aabang and medyo intense din naman ‘yung anticipation ng mga audience,” said Alfonso.
The Pinoy pro gamers will take the grand finals stage at 8:00 p.m. tonight.
Dajao, displaying a plain face amid all the hype, has a gentlemanly wish ahead of the match.
“May the best team win.”
Pinoy fans sure that team will be SIBOL.