Lyceum sweeps way to inaugural collegiate league Mobile Legends crown

MANILA, Philippines — Lyceum of the Philippines University capped off its dominant run in the Collegiate Center for Esports (CCE) Mobile Legends tournament with the championship after blanking San Sebastian College-Recoletos in the grand finals at the SM Mall of Asia Music Hall on Thursday.

The Pirates manhandled the rest of the competition as they did not suffer a single defeat en route to the crown, becoming the first-ever champions of the collegiate esports tiff.

Mark Kenneth “Mark” Delos Reyes, Paul Adrienne “FAE” Huang, Remarch “LUST?” Eusebio, Ralph Joshua “ALAS” Eusebio, Alfonso Clemence “GARCI” Sales and sixth man Marc Joseph “Marc” Balcita went 9-0 in the elimination round before ekeing out identical 2-1 victories over Arellano University and San Sebastian in the first round and upper bracket finals, respectively.

San Sebastian, bannered by Jorenz Louie “pogi ako” Denosta, Antoine “sorry weak lang” Abcede, Miguel “Balagbag kay Maria” Diaz, Mark “Moonflower” Asuncion, Ken Ceron and Kiele Bien “KiBi” Marin got another shot at LPU after beating College of St. Benilde Astra in the lower bracket final, 2-1.

But LPU just could not be stopped. LUST?’s Claude (6/1/8 KDA) and Mark’s Karina (8/1/7) wreaked havoc in the end-game of the grand finals opener after a back-and-forth affair to propel Lyceum to a gritty win after 20 minutes of play.

In Game 2, the Pirates nearly ran out of steam from an early push following a good recovery from the Golden Stags before Lust’s Wanwan (12/2/4 KDA) came through with a crucial triple kill in the 16th minute that served as the dagger in the heart of their rivals.

Lyceum went on to wrap things off in 17 minutes as ALAS’ Diggie, Fae’s Xavier, Mark’s Akai and Garci’s Uranus plotted the stage for Wanwan’s finishing kick.

Mark was also awarded CCE Season MVP as the jungler provided steady contributions for his team throughout the tournament.

The Stags finished second while CSB, behind Leonardo “Lee” Sison, Yuri Efraim “K?äl?a?çh?ûc?h?ï” Casabuena, Kelvin Kurt “Vigor Dugjudy” Javier, Alexandre Gabrielle “AK” Laverez, Mark Jeffrey “Makuuu” Marjolino – Makuuu, Jeffrey “Jeffrey” Yu and Leonard “Bapskie” Van Jaboli, CSB finished third to complete the CCE podium.

CCE president Stanley Lao relished being able to wrap up the inaugural season of the league.

“Sobrang happy ko kasi parang panaginip ito na nagkatotoo. Nagkaroon na ng chance ‘yung mga students sa Esports. Masaya kami na nakita sila lahat na masaya,” beamed Lao.