By Peter Atencio
PHNOM PENH — The Philippine Sibol women’s team fell short of a gold medal after multiple attacks in the 10-minute mark of the last match allowed Indonesia to win a closely-fought Mobile Legends: Bang Bang best-of-five finals’ series, 3-2 (6-12, 12-5, 10-6, 4-14,5-13), Thursday night in the 32nd Southeast Asian Games at the NabaTheatre at NagaWorld 2 Integrated Resort here.
The Filipinas couldn’t go further a 4-all tie following their foes’ killing spree, led by Indonesian gamer Michelle Denise Siswanto.
This prevented the PH lady gamers from claiming the country’s first-ever women’s crown in esports at the end of their 15-minute battle with the Indonesians.
Mery Christine Vivero and her crew kept the Philippines in the thick of the fight with a double kill, with her efforts in the earlier stages of the tournament allowing the Filipinas to stop Malaysia, 48-19, 23-19, in the semifinals.
Indonesia made it to the gold-medal round with their 2-0 (28-10, 29-10) triumph over Vietnam.
Coach Abraham Unida said the squad was unfamiliar with Indonesia’s style of play, which why they lost the Game 1 in the finals.
Unida added that the Filipinas, also made up of Gwynette Diagon, Alexandra Dardo, Rica Amores and Kaye Alpuerto, managed to gain the upperhand, after getting to know Indonesia’s games better in Games 2 and 3.
But assaults by the Indonesians in the fourth and fifth games, saw the Filipinas falter again. On Wednesday, Team Sibol settled for the bronze medal in the Valorant PC mixed team event, following a gold-medal conquest in Mobile Legends: Bang-Bang, and League of Legends: Wild Rift, and a bronze in Crossfire.
