After taking a series loss against RSG in Day 2 of the opening week, NXPE seek to get their first win in the tournament against ONIC PH, who won against their MPL Season 8 rematch vs Blacklist in the opening day. The internet sensation NXPE have full hopes of their new roster as three fresh faces, including MP the King filling in the slot for H2WO in the jungle role, Ureshii for the Exp lane and Cadenza for the roaming role will be playing with their seniors YellyHaze and Hesa.

The presence of the new bloods proved to be one of the threats coming into the new season, as MP the King shows off his Karina in the game opener vs ONIC’s Ling on Killer Kairi. The beginning was a rollercoaster of action where Dlarskie(Yu Zhong) showed how the old dogs do it as he takes the early pressure against Ureshii(Gloo). But MP was at his MVP form as his signature Karina that allowed the other members to be activated and be influenced to be in their A Game as well. The kills and gold advantage were handled by NXPE all throughout the middle to later stages of the game as they were able to find multiple openings especially from Cadenza’s Ruby which pulled the trigger for YellyHaze’s Yve and Hesa’s Popol and Kupa for the final blows and take the first game in dominating fashion.

A battle of the draft made the difference for the second game where ONIC PH invested for a late game draft against the reactive draft ran by NXPE which went for a scaling composition that had multiple access to the backlines including the unforeseen Hilda pick from Cadenza.

Blood was slowly spilled in the Land of Dawn in Game number two because of the mobility of the compositions of both teams and the healing galing which was the other highlight of Baloyskie (Rafaela). A slow pace was also displayed where objectives were the primary objectives of NXPE in the start which gave them the snowballing opportunity against ONIC, who have taken kills to start the scoreboard to their favor. CADENZA (Hilda) and YellyHaze(Mathilda) were the walking wards for NXPE, providing space for the rest of the squad and assist in securing objectives. ONIC lost to the pressure of the split pushes from NXPE and gave up multiple turrets and halted their own opportunities to scale and give up the early pressure that they had held on, similar to what happened in their first matchup. Despite the feats scored by ONIC PH, NXPE sends a message to the whole MPL that they are also a force to be reckoned with, and will redeem themselves from the loss yesterday in a clean sweep against the veterans.

Game 1: ONIC PH 6 (L) V NXPE (W) 16 (18:12)

Game 2: ONIC PH 3 (L) V NXPE 8 (W) (14:26)

MVP:

Game 1

Game 2: