MNL48's Team Padayon wins the first-ever Pokémon Unite AKB48 Group Invitational tournament after defeating two representative teams from Thailand in the playoff round last Sunday, January 16.
The remaining Filipino representatives scored a spot first in the said playoffs after sweeping their way to the Group B's Upper Bracket last January 9.
Semifinal round: Team Padayon 2-0 Very Vary
Their campaign towards championship victory started in their semifinal encounter against BNK48's Very Vary, who eliminated their fellow team representative, Stalwart League, to secure their own playoff spot.
In the first game of the said match against the first team of ladies from Bangkok, Yzabel Divinagracia, who is controlling Dragonite, secured a large number of points, as well as knockdowns, while rallying her teammates, who also have contributed number of goals, as well as securing the lanes in order not to let their opponents score one.
Miho Hoshino, who is controlling Crustle, went on the jungle zone to try delaying Suchaya "Jib" Saenkhot's plans to level up her own Dratini to evolve, which eventually worked, while Jem Caldejon, who is controlling Tsareena, are securing the bottom lane along with Klaire Presno amd her Wigglytuff. Completing their 1-2-2 strategy is Kath Apduhan, who is guarding the top lane with her Talonflame.
On the first minutes of the match, Very Vary tried to press the attack in the bottom lane in order to score their goals, but Yzabel and several of her teammates pushed them back while scoring their goals in the process.
What happened in the later minutes of match were became similar to what play style they did during their Group B campaign -- securing their objectives such as Dreadnaw's EXP bonus, as well as Rotom on the top lane, in order to have an advantage against Very Vary, while giving them the pressure as they are pushing them back.
However, the ladies representing BNK48 tried to secure the said objectives in order to gain points, which was answered back Padayon in a form of a four-Pokemon knock-down streak by Yzabel after defending their goal post in the top lane after the former got Rotom.
The ladies from Manila kept the said pressure with attempts of pushing their attack towards the unsecured goals of Very Vary, giving them a large point lead against them.
The said lead almost became smaller after Very Vary snatched Padayon's chance to secure Articuno's x2 Score Boost durimg the first "Final Stretch" of their match. Despite of this, Padayon kept on scoring while defending their own goal posts from Very Vary's attempts of using the advantage that they got. Eventually, Padayon got their first win of the day with 661 points, defeating Very Vary's 411.
In the second game, Miho tried to do her strategy again to disrupt Jib, but the BNK48 membee, who decides to play Talonflame, decides to thwart it after she overextends her stay in the Jungle despite of the low health.
This was the first among Very Vary's advances in attempts of stretching their match against Team Padayon towards Game 3, along with scoring number of goals while securing Dreadnaw's EXP Bonus during the first minutes of the match.
Despite of this, Yzabel and the rest of Team Padayon did manage to push back, scoring large amounts of points in return while pushing towards the lanes and the objectives.
On the later minutes of the second fame, aside from securing Rotom, Padayon also went all-in to their attacks towards Zapdos, while pushing back Very Vary's advances towards the same target.
But as the two teams clash for the x2 EXP Bonus, Jem and Miho decided to pull a "Fnatic VS Team Secret" moment and score a total of 188 points on Very Vary's Bottom Lane goal, increasing Padayon's chances to widen up the lead.
They eventually get the Zapdos bonus after Miho landed the final blow, giving them an opportunity to do a goaling spree during the final seconds of the match. Team Padayon finally won the match, 574-491, earning them a spot in the Grand Finals against fellow Group B participant, BNK48's Yummy Remote, who also secured a spot after defeating CGM48's Team SteZie in the first match of the playoffs.
In a post-game interview, Yzabel revealed to the shoutcasters, John Joshua "JJKun" Perez and Aaron "Qontra" Chan, that their hours of practice paid off as its fruits were shown through their teamwork.
She also said that despite of being far from each other due to the Covid-19 pandemic, they are still united in playing for the tournament as a team.
Grand Final: Team Padayon 3-1 Yummy Remote
In the Grand Final, which is a rematch of their January 9th encounter, Yzabel and her Dragonite went into the Jungle to secure a slow EXP advantage, while Jem and her Tsareen guards the Top Lane, and Miho, Klaire, and Kath are in the Bottom Lane, trying to stop the efforts made by Yummy Remote.
But in the early minutes of the game, the girls from Bangkok scored an early lead after knocking down Yzabel, Klaire, and Miho in a clash at the Bottom Lane.
However, despites of Yummy Remote's efforts to push them back, as well as securing the objectives, Padayon managed to bounce back and deliver a huge number of points. They eventually get Zapdos' x2 Score Bonus, and score number of points to give them an advantage in the late game, while Miho's Snorlax tries defend their middle goal against Yummy Remote's advances. This led to a Padayon's first victory in the best-of-5 series, 687 to 441.
The same thing happened in the second game, where both Team Padayon and Yummy Remote scored several victories in clashes in the Bottom Lane. The ladies from Manila then took the said match for their second win, 561-430.
In the third game, Team Padayon still went to their familiar aggressive playstyle, trying to clutch control in the Bottom Lane, however Yummy Remote pushed them back while giving them an advantage.
This was later foiled after Miho stole the EXP Boost from Dreadnaw for the team thanks to her Snorlax landing a successful Power Nap Unite Move.
However, this was not enough for Team Padayon, as Yummy Remote secured their first victory of the match, 606-566.
The said win, however, did not mattered to Team Padayon as they push through the fourth game with the same aggressive playstyle, while defending their goals, especially in the Bottom Lane. Jem, on the other, still guarding the Top Lane while scoring points to the opposite goal alongside Yzabel.
After securing both Rotom and Dreadnaw, Team Padayon went on the offensive, scoring points after points, while giving pressure towards Yummy Remote.
In the "Final Stretch" of the fourth game, Team Padayon answered the clash attempts of Yummy Remote in order to get Zapdos' x2 Score Bonus, and nabbing it in the process, causing them to score more points to further add the icing to their celebratory Championship cake. Team Padayon would eventually win the game and the tournament title, 756 to 315.
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Aside from the title, Team Padayon has also nabbed the opportunity to be the brand ambassadors of the mobile multiplayer online battle arena game. Furthermore, MNL48 secured its distinction of being the first Filipino idol/music group to win an international e-sports competition.
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