Echo Philippines, coming off a clean sweep against other contenders in Group C during the Group Stage, is matched against the second-place team from Group D, Team HAQ, in the Day 1 Upper Bracket of the Knockout Stage. Can Team HAQ overcome the huge 1-11 odds stacked against them by the M4 talents, or will Echo continue to make a 100% win rate highlight after highlight in the Upper Bracket of the M4 Championship?

Right off the bat, it was surprising that both Yve and Chou survived the banning phase. Both were instant picks in the first picking phase, with Chou going to Yawi and Yve being snatched by Mannn. The second picking phase was unexpected, with Karltzy locking in a Grock jungler. This allowed Team HAQ to go for a Hilda, completing the zero-armor combo on Dyroth-Hilda-Irithel.

The early game easily went to the side of Echo, as Minnn was picked off three times by Echo in just four minutes. Echo punished Team HAQ's aggressive draft in the first five minutes, but Team HAQ occasionally took some kills as they camped Echo's gold lane. Just when Echo took back their lead by wiping out Team HAQ, the first Lord fight was a disaster, with Team HAQ trading a Lord for four members of Echo. Yet another disastrous clash for Echo led them to lose all their inner turrets. Great recovery from Echo as they managed to took the all-inner turrets of Team HAQ. It was a back-and-forth battle for both teams. Just when Team HAQ had the advantage in the fourth Lord fight, a backdoor play by Bennyqt made the difference, earning him both the MVP and a win for his team.

The second game bans were pretty similar to the first game. Echo had a déjà vu Karrie first pick, while Team HAQ took away Chou and their effective EXP lane hero, Yu Zhong. Team HAQ made changes to their draft, prioritizing early game cheesy heroes like Fanny and Eudora, while picking Moskov to match Karrie's late game.

In contrast to the first game, the second game was pretty slow, transitioning to the mid game phase. Echo's engages were insane in the middle game, winning most of the trades, and by the 10-minute mark, Bennyqt managed to almost secure a Savage, but it was stolen and he settled for a Maniac. Just as the Lord spawned, Team HAQ tried to contest the objective, but ended up giving up four of their members and a Lord. With Echo getting so far ahead of Team HAQ, they were able to kill the newly respawned Team HAQ and destroy their Crystal Base, securing Echo's second win of the series.

The third game’s draft was like a fresh series draft. This time, Echo was on the Blue side, and banned out Karrie while Team HAQ respected Yawi’s Chou. A Joy priority to the side of Team HAQ while Echo stole Yu Zhong. Another cheesy draft from Team HAQ, picking both Kadita and Hilda to pick off Echo’s heroes.

The third game was still Minnn’s early aggressiveness with the Hilda invading Karltzy in addition to the Malaysian Swap with Claude in the EXP lane and the Lapu-Lapu to the gold lane in the first minutes of the game. Echo found themselves in a pinch as Team HAQ secured the first Lord that led them to call out the super minions in the middle lane. Great micro plays from Team HAQ punishing Echo’s lack of reliable wave clear. 15 minutes into the game, Echo tried to pick off the isolated Hilda but managed to buy time for his team. Just as everyone thought Yawi could pick off Claude, Natalia made a huge mistake and instead jump on the nearby creep. With Team HAQ having four of their members against Bennyqt, they managed to pull it off and kill Bennyqt together with the Crystal Base. They’ve been pushed to the edge, but they have comeback, Team HAQ had done it. It’s not over yet, the series goes on, 2-1.

As soon as we step into the fourth game, Karltzy was able to secure a first blood while Team HAQ invades his jungle. Despite the first minute lead of Echo, HAQ was still in control with the turrets they took down. Team HAQ snowballed while Echo’s saving grace were Bennyqt’s Harith and Sanji’s Yve, despite the phenomenal 1v4 plays from Bennyqt, he was not able to turn around the game. 17-minutes into the game, a Lord fight broke, Echo were pretty scattered while Claude was about to make the same play Echo did in the game number one. A middle lane front door push while Echo was in the Lord pit. A taste of their own medicine, Echo at the brink of a reverse sweep, Team HAQ equalizes the series 2-2.

Now that it comes to the fifth game, a best-of-one series with the Malaysian Treatment. Team HAQ went for a similar draft to their previous won games while we did not get to see the much-awaited Assassin Karltzy. Another Malaysian Switch in the first minutes of the game despite the losing match-up of Beatrix against SanFord’s Yu Zhong. 7 minutes into the game, Sanford engaged in a 2v1 survived but unable to secure any kill, but with the response from Sanji, the Sans Duo was able to kill both Garyy and Lolla. Despite having equipped with their best cheese strategy, Echo was just dominating. A 10-minute Lord take from Karltzy allowed Echo to crush Team HAQ’s Upper Bracket journey. Echo sealed the deal 3-2 against Team HAQ in just under 11 minutes.

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Post Game Results:

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MVPs

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