The MPL PH Season 17 playoffs opened yesterday at the FilOil EcoOil Centre in San Juan City. ONIC PH scraped through a five-game war against Aurora Gaming PH, while Omega Esports took down Twisted Minds PH in four. Aurora and Twisted Minds are eliminated. The bracket moves fast from here.
Today, May 28, two Upper Bracket Semifinal Bo5s decide who gets the inside track to the Grand Finals on May 31. Here’s what happened and what’s coming next.
๐ฎ ONIC PH 3:2 Aurora Gaming PH
Aurora, the reigning M7 World Champions and 6th seed (5-9 in the regular season), came into the Play-Ins as the most dangerous low seed in the bracket. ONIC, sitting at 3rd with a 9-5 record, were favored on paper. Aurora made them earn every win.
Map Breakdown
| Game | Map | Winner | Notes |
| 1 | Broken Walls | ONIC PH | ONIC picked. 18:05 game time. |
| 2 | Expanding Rivers | Aurora | Aurora picked. 16:39. |
| 3 | Dangerous Grass | Aurora | Aurora take the lead, 2-1. Quick 13:51 finish. |
| 4 | Flying Cloud | ONIC PH | ONIC force a decider. 14:24. |
| 5 | Expanding Rivers | ONIC PH | Decider. A long 21:50 grind to close the series. |
Aurora going up 2-1 after Dangerous Grass looked like the world champs were about to pull off the upset. ONIC flipped a switch in Games 4 and 5. Game 5 on Expanding Rivers ran nearly 22 minutes, and that kind of grind in a do-or-die scenario tells you ONIC had to dig deep for this one.
Savero, the Indonesian import in the gold lane, came into this series with the entire Filipino fanbase watching. Replacing Kelra on ONIC PH was never going to be quiet work. A five-game survival in the Play-Ins won’t win anyone style points, but ONIC live to fight another day.
For Aurora, the exit stings. You win the M7 World Championship in January, sweep Alter Ego 4-0 in Jakarta, and four months later you’re out of your own domestic playoffs in Round 1. The 6th-place regular season finish already told the story of an inconsistent split, and the playoffs confirmed it.
๐ฅ Omega Esports 3:1 Twisted Minds PH
The second Play-In series was more straightforward. Omega controlled the pace and won three out of four games.
Map Breakdown
| Game | Map | Winner | Notes |
| 1 | Expanding Rivers | Omega | Omega picked. Longest game of the series at 21:54. |
| 2 | Flying Cloud | Twisted Minds | TM picked. Only game they took. 14:37. |
| 3 | Broken Walls | Omega | 14:20 stomp. |
| 4 | Dangerous Grass | Omega | Series sealed. 14:21. |
Twisted Minds grabbed a game on Flying Cloud but never sustained pressure across the series. Games 3 and 4 finished under 15 minutes each, which means Omega was suffocating them in the early game. For a team that scraped into 5th place during a chaotic regular season, Twisted Minds can hold their heads up for making playoffs. But single elimination has no patience.
๐ What’s on the Line Today (May 28)
The Upper Bracket Semifinals are Bo5. Winners advance to the UB Final on Friday, May 29. Losers drop to the Lower Bracket Semifinal, where they still have a path to the Grand Finals, but the road gets longer and harder.
๐ 15:00 SGT โ Team Falcons PH vs ONIC PH
Team Falcons PH (#2 seed, 12-2) enter the playoffs after their best regular season in franchise history. Super Marco in the gold lane has been one of the most consistent carries in the league all split. Adding Hadji to the mid lane gave Falcons a level of strategic flexibility they lacked in previous seasons. KyleTzy in the jungle, FlapTzy on EXP, Owgwen on roam. Loaded roster, loaded experience.
The numbers tell you everything about this matchup: Falcons beat ONIC twice in the regular season, both times 2-1. They own the head-to-head. ONIC’s other concern? Fatigue. That five-game series against Aurora ended just yesterday. Playing back-to-back days in the playoffs is manageable when you sweep, but a full five-game grind takes something out of you mentally and physically.
Quick take: Falcons are the fresher team with the better record and the h2h advantage. ONIC need Savero and K1NGKONG to hit peak form early. If this goes long, ONIC’s gas tank becomes the question.
๐ 19:00 SGT โ Team Liquid PH vs Omega Esports
Team Liquid PH (#1 seed, 13-1) are chasing a three-peat. S15 champions. S16 champions. The Cavalry swept Omega in both regular season meetings without dropping a game. KarlTzy, Oheb, Jaypee, Sanji, Sanford, plus Indonesian import AeronnShikii as a rotation option. This roster has won everything MPL PH has to offer.
Omega (#4 seed, 6-8) got here by beating Twisted Minds yesterday, but the regular season matchup history against TLPH is brutal. Zero games taken. Omega’s only path is to find draft wrinkles and tempo disruptions that didn’t exist in those regular season meetings. Playoff momentum sometimes rewrites form, but TLPH at 13-1 is the most dominant regular season performance from any team this split.
Quick take: TLPH are heavy favorites. An Omega upset here would be the biggest story of the entire bracket.
๐๏ธ The Bracket Path
| Round | Date | Matchup |
| Play-Ins | May 27 โ | ONIC PH 3:2 Aurora / Omega 3:1 Twisted Minds |
| UB Semis | May 28 (today) | Falcons vs ONIC / TLPH vs Omega |
| UB Final | May 29 (Fri) | Winners of today’s matches |
| LB Semi | May 29 (Fri) | Losers of today’s matches |
| LB Final | May 30 (Sat) | Bo7 |
| Grand Finals | May 31 (Sun) | Bo7, 17:00 SGT |
The top two finishers qualify for MSC 2026, taking place in Paris as part of the Esports World Cup. That’s the secondary prize every team in this bracket is eyeing alongside the MPL PH trophy and the $35,000 champion’s share.
Five days. Six matches. One championship.
Catch the action live on the official MPL PH streams in Filipino and English.
