Kiel Calvin “Oheb” Soriano and Karl Gabriel “KarlTzy” Nepomuceno held the frontlines of the cavalry as Team Liquid PH collected their first win against the Ultra Legends (UL) in the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Mid Season Cup (MLBB MSC) 2025 last July 23 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The Filipinos drubbed Egypt’s Ultra Legends, the MLBB Professional League’s Middle East and North Africa champion, 2-0, in Group A of the tournament. They face Onic Indonesia for a ticket to the knockout stage on July 25.

Jungler Karl Gabriel “KarlTzy” Nepomuceno sliced the competition with his signature hero Lancelot leading the way with a Kill-Death-Assist statline of 7/1/8 in winning Game 1.

Gold laner Kiel Calvin “Oheb” Soriano found the mark with a 10/1/11 Harith performance to close out the series in Game 2. “It was super fun; I was super excited in my first match, so it felt great,” he said during the postgame interview.

Team Liquid PH, the Mobile Legends Professional League (MPL) Philippines Season 15 champion, proved their status as the tournament’s top contenders, finishing Maps 1 and 2 within 13 and 11 minutes, respectively.

They broke Game 1 wide open at the ninth minute with a “Feathered Airstrike” from Alston “Sanji” Pabico’s Pharsa setting Nepomuceno up for a harrowing dive under the midlane tower.

Soriano followed up with Granger’s “Death Sonata” to tune out four members of UL en route to a Lord take.

The cavalry wasted no time as Nepomuceno pierced through the Ultra Legends backline with the follow-up combination of “Avatar of the Guardian” and “Dark Wave” from teammates Jaypee “Jaypee” Gonzales dela Cruz and Sanford “Sanford” Marin Vinuya.

Nepomuceno’s constant rotation for huge pickoffs made life hard for Throwboy’s Akai and other Ultra Legends members that enabled Team Liquid to roll to an 18-7 romp in just 13 minutes. The Young Goat racked up 7 kills and 8 assists with only 1 death as he dealt over 50K damage.

The Filipinos found a massive advantage to shift the tide in a seesaw second game as they wiped off Ultra Legends in a flawless 5-0 fight in the midlane off a three-man “Final Slash” stun from Vinuya six minutes in.

Their performance snowballed to a 10K gold lead along with a 22-9 kill score advantage and eventually taking the Lord at the tenth minute. As the Lord marched unto midlane, Nepomuceno slashed off UL’s jungler Saleh with the “Ougi: Shadow Kill,” allowing the rest of his team to finish off their opponents and secure the win.

A rich man’s world

Dubbed MPL Philippines’ “Rich Standard,” Soriano relished his return to the MSC stage after a four-year absence. The 20-year-old Filipino Sniper had his first taste of the Mid Season Cup in 2021 with Blacklist International, where they finished second behind another Filipino squad, Execration.

He shared his appreciation for the trust of his current squad, which he joined just five months ago: “They made me [feel] like I belong to the team.”

Facing off with the Indonesian powerhouse ONIC in the next round, Soriano left a banter for his gold lane counterpart Clayton “Savero” Kuswanto right before their match against CFU Gaming.

“Train hard, I’m not going to lose to you,” Soriano said. —WITH A REPORT FROM JOHN RENIEL MARTUS