SINGAPORE – After RSG Slate SG secured their third consecutive Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League (MPL) Singapore title with a 4-1 win over Team Flash on Sunday, the team are hoping to build on their feat and win a medal at the Cambodia SEA Games in May.
At the Hanoi Games in 2022, Singapore bagged a bronze medal after beating Malaysia 2-1 in the third-place play-off following a defeat by eventual champions the Philippines and Bellamy “.Lolsie” Yeo believes they can match or produce an even better showing this time around.
He said: “This coming week we’ll be starting our training and we feel quite confident that the team can do well and the other teams don’t look as strong as compared to last season.
“We’ll definitely do our best to make Singapore proud. We don’t want other regions to feel that Singapore won’t do well at the international stage.”
With their victory at Suntec City, RSG Slate SG, who were formerly known as RSG before they partnered Slate Esports this season, also secured their spot in the MLBB Southeast Asia Cup 2023, which will also feature teams from North America, Turkey, the Middle East and North Africa.
They retained most of the squad that won the previous MPL Singapore title, adding Indonesians Fawzan “Okky” Herdiatna and I Nyoman “Lucianqt” Dehi Pranipata to their roster for the $100,000 tournament.
The team showed their strength once again, losing just once in the regular season to Bleed Esports, before going undefeated en route to Sunday’s grand final.
While Team Flash got off to a dominant start in the first game of the grand final, RSG Slate SG remained patient and took the first game in the best-of-seven series.
They went 3-0 up but had to fend off a fightback from Team Flash, who claimed the fourth game.
But RSG Slate made no mistake to win the last game and take home the winners’ cheque of $30,000.
Yeo “Diablo” Wee Lun felt the team did well to manage the expectations of being two-time defending champions, saying: “I would say the pressure is bigger each time you win, people have bigger expectations of you so it’s all about the mental side of things.
“We just kept calm and focused on the game, no matter the results we just did our best.”
While Team Flash, who were competing in their first MPL SG grand final, had hoped to win the competition, coach Eugene “Kayzeepi“ Kong was pleased with how the team had progressed.
He said: “We came into this season wanting to hold the trophy but we came short in every single game. It has always been the usual two titans (RSG SG and Bleed) in the grand final, but we achieved a breakthrough and had a good run.”
Team Flash chief executive Mark Chew added: “The team did relatively well.
“We came from the open qualifiers, then from there we went to the upper bracket, lost on the first day but came back so overall I’m really proud of the boys.”
