Natus Vincere Philippines (NAVI PH) and Team Liquid Aqua (TL Aqua) absorbed tough losses to miss out on a podium finish in the knockout stage of the MLBB Women’s Invitational (MWI) in the 2025 Esports World Cup (EWC) tournament in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The Filipino women’s squads aced their opening games and topped their respective groups, but they had a taste of their own medicine in the playoffs. They bowed out of the MWI in devastating defeats.

NAVI PH’s hopes for back-to-back MWI titles immediately dwindled in the first round of playoffs after a 0-2 beatdown from eventual grand finalist Gaimin Gladiators (GG) last July 17.

The North-American squad pulled off what seemed to be the biggest upset of the tournament—eliminating the defending champions. In last year’s MWI, they only managed to place 5th-8th under the banner of Cloud9 Female.

In the opening game, GG clobbered NAVI PH to win, 14-4, in just 15 minutes while only surrendering a single turret.

With their tournament life on the line, the Filipino women went roaring out the gates in Game 2—taking absolute control of the early and mid game with all three turtles and the first Lord to their name.

After destroying the first tier 3 tower of the game on the bottom lane, NAVI PH aimed for the second Lord while holding a comfortable 7K gold lead by the 13th minute and a 6-1 kill-score.

Both teams continued to partake in the Lord dance. Gaimin Gladiators caught NAVI PH gold laner Sheen “SHINOA” Perez’s Irithel overstepping her boundaries which led to a 4-for-1 trade and the second Lord in favor of the underdogs.

Things quickly started to spiral out of control for the champs as their gold lead flipped into a 1K deficit during GG’s siege.

In a desperate attempt to defend their top lane tier 3 tower, SHINOA got punished for her engagement. This ultimately spelled doom for the Filipino women’s dethronement.

PH’s last hope

With the No. 1 Philippine representative out of the picture, all eyes were set on Team Liquid Aqua to avenge their fallen comrades and keep the title for the country.

Despite the immense pressure, TL Aqua did not disappoint at all in their quarterfinals match against the home team Twisted Minds Orchid of Saudi Arabia with a dominant 2-0 drubbing last July 17.

The Irithel-Angela combo of Clarisse Nicole “CLA” Cordova and Zaira “Zaishii” Gilhang boosted TL Aqua’s efforts to a 17-3 victory in Game 1 as they posted 5/1/9 and 4/0/11, respectively, in 17 minutes.

In Game 2, the Filipinos went full gear, trampling Twisted Minds before their home crowd, 23-6, in less than 13 minutes off of a monster 16/1/5 showing from CLA’s Granger.

The cavalry’s march toward the crown was immediately halted, however, in the semifinals last July 18. The team encountered the impenetrable wall of Indonesia’s Team Vitality, which eventually became the tournament champions.

TL Aqua was swept by the MWI 2024 runner-ups, 0-3, to drop out of title contention. This sent the last Filipino women into a battle for third against Myanmar’s Terror Queens who handed them yet another 0-3 trouncing for a fourth place exit.

Team Liquid Aqua earned a total of US$30,000 (P1.71 million) while NAVI PH got US$20,000 (P1.14 million) for their performance.

Despite TL Aqua’s 4th place, the Philippines still managed to make it to the grand finals through Gaimin Gladiators who fielded Filipino EXP laner Jey Rose “JEWEL” Enriquez as substitute player and Filipino coach and caster Neil “Midnight” De Guzman as assistant coach.

GG took home a whopping US$90,000 (P5.14 million) cash prize.

Read more: 2 Philippine teams enter playoffs as top seeds in the MLBB Women’s Invitational 2025