BREN Esports, the so-called titans, have shown their respect for the unknown playstyles and surprises that RSG PH may possibly take out of their pockets coming into their debut match for the MPL Season 8. An intense draft battle became the opener of this day’s match, but BREN’s Pheww and Ribo’s role switch--one of the biggest surprises this season--appeared once more and further proved its lack of efficiency and chemistry as of the moment. RSG PH was completely unpredictable especially for the first game of the series, whereas BREN Esports was obviously successful when it came to their early game aggressions despite their caution, but even RSG PH had their answers ready. It was an even ball game for so long in terms of gold, but RSG took their objectives cleverly and their coordination was unstoppable. Eventually, BREN fell into their hands with a score of 18-9 for game number 1.

Game 2 took back one of the biggest surprises we’ve seen so far, which was again, BREN’s Pheww and Ribo switching roles for this season. The “OG” BREN Lineup is back, and we see a sudden jump in BREN’s performance for game number 2 as they constantly dictated the flow of the game--making RSG PH all the more cautious of their decisions, especially with Ribo on the Kaja. RSG’s caution did not work in their favor as they were supposedly the aggressive lineup with their double assassin setup, allowing BREN Esports to take the lead. However, RSG’s Aqua made it impossible for BREN to put a quick end to the game after 2 successful lord steals, in hopes of buying enough time for RSG particularly Iy4knu on that Alice to scale up. Nonetheless, no time can stop BREN Esports from taking over that game, proving once more why they’re crowned the world champs. RSG, however, did not falter, and was able to bounce back proceeding into the third game: which was simply a game of dominance for RSG PH. They were effectively able to utilize their lineup to their advantage, which in turn made BREN’s Ribo find it difficult to scale up and show us the necessary damage he was expected to provide for his team to be able to fight against the sustain of RSG PH. Iy4knu and Nathzz were able to provide so much space, even beyond what was necessary for their team, and not even the world champs could bounce back from the dominance they’ve asserted--even keeping all of their towers intact after more than 15 minutes into the game.

In all, RSG PH has shown so much surprises apart from them being the surprises themselves, such as Heath being able to pull off a successful Ruby tank which did not make use of a single spell vamp or lifesteal item for its sustain, and which was rather focused on providing the necessary set-ups for RSG to take on BREN Esports despite RSG’s pick-off heavy lineup. Together with Coach Panda, they’ve shown their capabilities and just how promising they are in their fight against the world champs, and they’re definitely yet to show us more in the upcoming matches this season.

GAME 1:

Duration: 19:03

Score: 9-18 in favor of RSG

Match MVP: Iy4knu

GAME 2:

Duration: 18:21

Score: 21-4 in favor of BREN

Match MVP: Ribo

GAME 3:

Duration: 15:52

Score: 5-11 in favor of RSG

Match MVP: Aqua.