On the penultimate day of the M5 World Championship came two eliminations, some epic plays, and the grand finalists decided too.
headline images courtesy of Moonton
It has been an amazing M5 World Championship thus far, with a Wildcard Tournament, the Group Stage, and the Knockout Stage all showing us some of the best Mobile Legends: Bang Bang talent from around the globe. However, today we saw the second last day of action for this year, which came with two eliminations in the lower bracket, and the two grand finalists for this year getting themselves in place.
The end of the road
Things kicked off in the lower bracket with 
Blacklist International and 
Deus Vult taking to the Land of Dawn to fight for a spot in the Lower Bracket Final. Both teams seemed fairly set in in their ways for their picks, with Baxia, Terizla, Valentina, and Fredrinn all showing up throughout the series. Unfortunately for the CIS squad, their choices seemed to be a hindrance, and when the dust settled, it was the M3 World Champions that were left standing. It took only three games from the best-of-five, as the Agents pushed forward to await their next challenger.
That challenger would be none other than their Philippines brethren, 
AP.Bren, who went down to 
ONIC Esports in the upper bracket finals. It was quite clearly ONIC time, as the Indonesian Kings dominated in 3-0 fashion, even though Bren looked poised to take them down a peg in the first game. However, turning around a 14k lead seemed absolutely no issue for ONIC, as they became the first grand finalists for M5.
The battle for PH
With that, it was time for the second grand finalist to be determined, with a home-ground battle between the two PH teams, AP.Bren and Blacklist International. Both teams were eager to take another bite at ONIC, but only one would get the chance – and it seemed destined to be Bren. Right from the start, with the Hive buzzing behind them, Bren continued their warpath over Blacklist – as we saw at MPL PH Season 12. It was two one-sided games in the series that took Bren to match point, before closing it out in one final swoop.
Now all that is left to do is wait for the grand finals which will take place on Sunday, December 17, between ONIC Esports and AP.Bren. While the crowd will definitely be behind their hometown heroes, the Indonesians will be looking to finally put an end to the PH dominance in the M-Series.
