Good morning MPL fans, looks like we’re nearing the ending of the Regular Season. It’s been a wild ride, and like any other tournament, some teams have risen while others have fallen. Week 5 was no exception, with lots of one-sided matches that handed out 2-0 wins like candy. Todak took its 2nd loss of the season, and EVOS continues to rise, with AXIS hot on their heels. Read on to know more!

Here are the results and standings chart.

 

A Loss of Momentum for Todak

At the beginning of the season, Todak was an absolute terror, tearing through every other team they faced with their unorthodox tactics and playstyle, claiming wins left and right.

To quote Soul from EVOS Esports SG, “From the start, we already knew they were strong based on their performance, and I will admit, their very unorthodox playstyle and picks have been working well against us.”

But now, after last week’s 1-2 defeat at the hands of XPAX X-Assins, Todak seems to have lost their advantage. In Week 5, they went down 0-2 against Resurgence, suffering their 2nd defeat of the season.

While it’s not something that’ll cripple Todak, since they’ve built up such a huge lead from their earlier victories and will most definitely remain in the upper bracket, suffering a major loss like this is bound to be bad for their morale. They’ve got two matches remaining in Week 6, versus Notorious Villains and Sabah Top Player, so let’s hope they regain their momentum.

EVOS Continues Pulling Ahead; XPAX and Notorious Villains Fall Behind

On the other hand, XPAX itself hasn’t been doing that well. While they managed to defeat TODAK last week, this week saw them lose badly (0-2) to EVOS, with only 3 wins under their belt so far, sitting at #6 in Week 4. XPAX isn’t likely to be eliminated, but this loss means it’ll be hard for them to climb out of the lower bracket, and that’s going to be a weight hanging over their heads as they end the season and enter the Playoffs.

EVOS, of course, has been steadily defeating their opponents, clinching another clean 2-0 win on day 2 versus Notorious Villains, a team which has their former star player Kolia.

It’s not their first time facing each other, since they did go head to head in Season 3’s Regular Season, but the question is whether we’ll get to see them face each other in the Playoffs.

(Kolia)

Last time round, Notorious Villains lost early on, while EVOS advanced to the finals and fell to Geek Fam, but maybe Kolia and his squad will have better luck this time. EVOS seems to be the better team overall, based on their performance this season, but Notorious Villains is no slouch either and can’t be written off easily. They were at #4 in Week 4, which isn’t too bad, though they could stand to be better.

Geek Fam Speeds Up

On the Malaysian side, Geek Fam, despite being last season’s champions, hasn’t been doing well. They entered the season with high confidence, fielding the new players OZORAVEKI and RUMPEL,

but that clearly didn’t pay off, and by Week 4, they were at #9, with only 2 wins. Fortunately, this week was a good one for them, and they managed to win both their matches, versus Shopee Bosskurr (2-0) and Louvre Esports (2-1). They’re teetering on the edge between the lower and upper bracket, with only 1 match left in Week 6 (versus XPAX), but at least it’s a second chance, and anything’s better than the humiliating experience of being eliminated from the Regular Season, especially when you won the previous season.

Louvre, Still Lagging

And speaking of Louvre, unlike Geek Fam, their persistence hasn’t paid off.

Despite having a few veteran Bigetron SG players in their ranks (·JasonKoh, their captain ·ly4ly4ly4, and ·wQxD), Louvre hasn’t made much of an impact in Season 4, and is in fact the worst out of all the Singaporean teams in this season, sitting at #8 by Week 4 (1 rank above Geek Fam) with only 2 wins. In Week 5, they lost both their matches to Geek Fam (1-2) and Axis Esports (0-2), dropping even further.

They only have 1 match left next week, and it’s against EVOS of all teams, so it looks like the end of the line for them. But then again, a cornered man fights the hardest, as Sun Tzu says, so maybe they could pull something off and barely cling on.

Axis Demonstrate Their Power

And of course, who can forget Axis? Playing as Saiyan Reborn, they were the ultimate underdogs in Season 2, rising from the brink of elimination to win the championship. While they didn’t manage to repeat that performance in Season 3, they still played well, and this season they’ve returned hungry for victory.

This was clearly demonstrated in their Week 5 performance, where they put on their best performance and didn’t slack, even against weaker teams like Louvre and Sabah Top Player (2-1), easily steamrolling them to climb even higher.