MANILA, Philippines — ECHO Philippines opened its M4 World Championship campaign at Jakarta, Indonesia with a win over hometown powerhouse RRQ Hoshi, 18-7.
ECHO missed a key figure in its world stage debut. Tristan "YAWI" Cabrea was not present, and in the roamer role was Jaypee "Jaypee" Dela Cruz, which as Coach Archie “Tictac” Reyes explained in the post-match conference, was a team decision and that they were focused on the tournament.
Cabrea is currently facing cheating allegations after screenshots of supposed messages from the ECHO roamer to another player's partner were posted on social media Monday. Cabrea was previously linked to volleyball player Jen Nierva of National University.
But even with one of ECHO's key players missing, the Orcas controlled the map throughout the 18-minute, 37-second match thanks to Dela Cruz's 14 kill assists and the MVP heroics of Alston “Sanji” Pabico, who finished the game with eight kills and an 89% kill participation.
In the post-match conference, Reyes expressed delight with the win, especially since at the helm of RRQ was former ECHO head coach, Michael "Arcadia" Bocado. Back when Bocado left for Indonesia, the team and their former coach had promised that they would see each other again on the world stage.
"Masaya kami na nanalo pero group stages pa lang syempre dapat di magpakampante," shared Reyes.
ECHO will next face Middle East and North Africa champions Occupy Thrones on January 4 at 4 p.m. (Manila time) and Singapore champions RSG at 6 p.m.