Photo: Moonton Games

By James Ajero 

Malaysia's SRG booked a ticket to the knockout round by beating tournament favorites Team Liquid PH in their best-of-three series at the M7 World Championships Swiss Stage Day 4 this Tuesday at XO Hall in Jakarta, Indonesia. 

The Malaysian side snapped Team Liquid's winning streak in a hard-fought series that pushed the Filipino squad to their limits.

The Philippine squad struck first in Game 1, closing out the opener at 18:46 behind an 18–15 kill score and a commanding 62,000 gold lead over SRG’s 53,000. Their early control proved decisive as they secured the series lead. 

Game 2, however, was all SRG. The Malaysians flipped the script with a dominant performance, racking up 22 kills while limiting TLPH to just 6. SRG amassed 49,000 gold to TLPH’s 41,000, with Sekyss’ Yi Sun-shin running rampant across the map to seal the win in just 14 minutes. 

The decider turned into a tense back-and-forth battle, with Team Liquid repeatedly fending off SRG’s offensive despite the Malaysians securing the Lord multiple times. Sanji’s Alice looked to mount a late-game comeback at the 27-minute mark, but a devastating four-man wipe by SRG seconds earlier shut the door. 

With momentum firmly in their grasp, the Malaysian squad closed out Game 3 to clinch the victory.

—JMS, Alta Sports