Claiming the crown from last year’s underdog champions, the School of Engineering and Architecture (SEA) Tigers wielded dynamic gameplay to sweep the School of Nursing (SON) Panthers 3-1 in the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) championship of Palarong Atenista 2022.

Panthers claimed victory in the first game and carried the momentum from the first blood to leading the jungle stats with a 6.5k gap in gold earned.

With hypercarry marksman Karrie damaging Tigers with a share of 12 kills out of 31, SON dominated the clashes, depriving SEA the opportunity to counter. The game ended 31-16 in kills, 8-1 turrets destroyed, and 3-0 lord slain, all in favor of the Panthers.

Using intel from the first game’s turnout, the Tigers, who got the first pick in game 2, contained SON’s potential by banning Cecilion and Valentina, who both incurred damage in the previous match alongside Karrie.

Refusing a setback, SEA slogged with different gameplay: double tank with Atlas and Akai, the latter as an additional jungler. Completing the Tigers’ matchup were marksman Beatrix, mage Xavier, and fighter Dyrroth, meanwhile SON Panthers proceeded with Franco as the tank, tank/mage Esmeralda, fighter Ling, marksman Karrie, and mage Chang’e.

Early in the second game, the Tigers made multiple attempts to steal the momentum away from SON. Despite the Panthers’ gold lead at the 12-minute mark, SEA won the crucial lord clash, got away with four kills, balanced the total jungle at 49k, and successfully wiped out SON, leading victory with 22-15 in kills, 2-0 lord slain, and 6-3 turrets destroyed in game 2.

Both teams approached the third match with a close fight, but SEA prevailed in the late game with lord-slaying, Karina’s consistent tower push, and the 7k advantage in gold. Powered by LanTzy’s triple kill, Tigers wiped out SON and swiftly destroyed their opponents’ base. 

Tigers steered momentum on their side of the battlefield all the way to game 4, surprise-picking Aldous as a fighter and Yve as a mage. Though Panthers did the same by debuting Moskov, SEA still secured the championship, topping 20-12 kills, 42.6k-39.5k total gold, and 6-4 turrets destroyed.  

SEA Tigers’ shot-caller aka commander of the team Zaideen Mlok (in-game name: z1zou) revealed, “We didn’t practice much, however, we trusted one another and had confidence in each other’s skills.”

“First strategy was to enjoy the game and focus. Second, I was assigned as the team’s shot-caller, the idea was for the team to follow my commands. Thankfully, the strategy worked because my teammates were attentive and took me seriously when I called the shots,” Mlok told Atenews.

Mlok’s teammate Mico Pagayon (IGN: Dauntless) added that they adjusted their gameplay after losing in game 1 without dropping the initial plan to depend on “what comfort role and heroes we have.”

Winning made the experience better for Mlok, whose first Palaro appearance was this season. 

Meanwhile, SON’s Stephen Canabre (IGN: T3pskie) shared that their team’s preparation was “not that good enough” for their standards due to the difficulty of balancing schedules between training and their duty.

Canabre admitted that despite picking some of the heroes wrong, they still tried their best to play the games.

The MLBB finals was streamed via SAMAHAN Palarong Atenista’s Facebook Page on August 5.