Host Vietnam denied the Philippines a third gold medal Sunday in the esports event of the 31st Southeast Asian Games at the Vietnam National Convention Center.
An effective buddy system allowed Team Vietnam to pull off a 3-0 sweep of their best-of-five finals showdown with Team Philippines-Sibol in the League of Legend finals.
Đỗ Duy Khánh, also known as Levi, took the best players in Games 1 and 2 after getting the most kills in their encounters with Sibol, which drew strength on the games of David Emmanuel Tapang and Andre “Calumnia” Soriano.
It was over in the 19 minute-and-16-second mark of Game 3 after Vietnam, behind gamers from GAM Esports, prevailed over Sibol, 21-15, handing the Philippines the silver medal.
Earlier, Singapore settled for the bronze with a 3-1 beating of Malaysia.
Vietnam’s three-game sweep was made possible following a 26-5 triumph in Game 1 and a 21-7 swamping of the Filipinos in Game 2.
The 24-year old Levi joined forces with Trần Đức Hiếu (alias Bie) in Game 3, using the Wukong the Monkey King avatar, and survived the fight with six kills and three assists.
Bie, using Gwen the scissor-wielding fighter, drew first blood on Tapang’s hero, Rell the Iron Maiden, a low level tank who went out on in the 2:19 mark.
A followup kill on Jan Edward Hortizuela’s avatar soon followed, and Vietnam began resorting to a buddy system, with twin slayings, and by attacking in pairs to gain the upperhand—an unreachable 13-3 edge at the 11:37 mark.
In Game 1, Levi registered 15 kills using Vex, a mage which immobilizes opponents and hits them with a mistral bolt afterwards.
And Tapang, with his Kai’sa marksman, could only make three kills during their almost 19-minute showdown.
Game 2 saw Kati, the alias of Đặng Thanh Phê, punching his way to six kills and five assists off his boxing character Sett the Bossman.
This time, it was Andre “Calumnia” Soriano’s time to shine for Sibol with Apehelios, a high difficulty level marksman, which sniped away five kills with his Callibrum rifle. But Aphelius got slain thrice in the game.