Fnatic ONIC drubs BTK to punch M6 knockout ticket; Aurora stays alive

Philippine bets Fnatic ONIC and Aurora took care of their respective foes to take key victories in the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang M6 World Championship Swiss Stage on Sunday in Malaysia. 

Fnatic ONIC, the reigning MPL Philippines champion, extended its perfect run so far by taking down another favorite in North America’s BloodThirstyKings (BTK), 2-1, to qualify to the knockout round and remain unbeaten three outings. 

The Filipinos made a surprise pick in the series opener with gold laner Duane "Kelra" Pillas debuting Layla in the M-series stage, which proved pivotal as they finished off the Americans in 20 minutes to draw first blood. 

Kelra ended up bagging the MVP honors with his five kills, including three pick-offs in the final clash that allowed Fnatic ONIC to complete a wipeout. Kelra also collected four assists to tally a perfect KDA. 

However, BTK banked on Filipino-Canadian midlaner Ziameth-Jei “ZIA” Caluya in equalizing the series as he dropped seven kills and seven assists on Bruno during Game 2. 

Displaying their championship poise, however, Fnatic ONIC made sure to get the job done with Kelra once again taking charge on his Irithel this time around, unloading a rare maniac at the 11th minute en route to the convincing victory. 

Kelra's heroics, which saw him post impressive 11 kills and 5 assists against just one death, propelled Fnatic ONIC to the next round as they inch closer to the coveted world title. 

Meanwhile, Aurora kept its M6 hopes alive after ousting Turkey's Ulfhednar with a clean 2-0 sweep in their do-or-die match early in the day. 

Aurora, which was coming off twin losses to Falcon Esports and NIP Flash, is now pitted against Indonesia champion Team Liquid ID on Wednesday with the winner advancing to the fifth round and the loser going home. 

"I think out key takeaways here are probably we clearly need to play our game, we need to show what we've practiced in the past few days that we've been here," Aurora coach Master The Basics said. 

"We need to show we can do."

—JKC, GMA Integrated News