La Salle’s Viridis Arcus rules PCC

Viridis Arcus of De La Salle University reigned supreme in the inaugural Philippine Collegiate Championship (PCC), capping off a perfect playoff run with a dominant 3-0 sweep of University of Perpetual Help Laguna Saints in the grand finals at the Amoranto Sports Complex on Sunday, Dec. 3.

The crew, spearheaded by former Playbook Esports pro player Joshua “Aspect” Tating along with Journey “Jinx” Ong, Ryu “laytutu” Godoy, Clement “Clem” Chua, Francis “N4TSU” De Mesa and Emerick “Nec” Ching, emerged the best among top collegiate Mobile Legends: Bang Bang teams from all over the country to bag the PCC trophy and the P150,000 top prize.

Coming out strong in the National Capital Region qualifier, Viridis Arcus sustained its fiery form and did not even drop a single game in the sweep of all of its assignments in the two-day playoffs that also featured representatives from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao qualifiers in this tourney organized by the Collegiate Center for Esports (CCE) and sponsored by Converge, Xiaomi, Razer Gold, and Game Developers Association of the Philippines (GDAP).

Viridis Arcus first sent Dreamhigh Esports from Northeastern Mindanao State University packing in the quarterfinals with a 2-0 sweep before repeating the same scoreline against Sage Caritas of University of San Agustin in the semis to barge into the finale.

In the finals, a strong series opener set the tone for the rout as Viridis Arcus drafted a double-mage setup with a roaming Valir and midlane Yve. The ploy worked to perfection as it allowed them to dominate the early game en route to a 13-2 triumph in just 11 minutes of play.

There was no letup in the next two games for Viridis Arcus with Aspect stamping his class on jungle Martis with a 7-2-5 KDA in Game 2 before closing out the series with an impressive 13-2-8 tally on Roger in the title-clinching Game 3.

The Saints tried to gain footing in Game 2 behind their pick-off centric composition anchored on the Kadita and Franco picks but just couldn’t convert the early kills into objective takedowns no thanks to the superb jungle control of Aspect (Martis).

His activity around the map and during objective takes created enough space for the rest of Viridis Arcus, particularly Natsu’s Bruno, to reach their power spikes and secure a 13-7 win for a commanding 2-0 series lead.

It was pretty much the same story in Game 3 as Viridus Arcus only needed a five-man gank that erased three members of UPHSL on the non-turtle lane to seize full control of the contest and notch a 25-13 clincher.

UPHSL finished second in the tournament to take home a P75,000 prize while University of Southeastern Philippines Agila Esports ended up third to also pocket P25,000 in this tilt, which is also supported by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and E-Project by Moonton.

It was the crowning jewel of the two-day Campus Playfest which also featured a showmatch between Team Echo and three-time Collegiate Center Championship (CCC) kings LPU Pirate Esports.

CCE is looking to stage a bigger second season of the PCC, with Farlight 84 seen to be added among the games to join Mobile Legends: Bang Bang.