Fadhil Yunus
Brunei Darussalam e-sport team Buah Gaming roared back to title contention at the Southeast Asian Esports Championship (SEA EC) after finishing the second day in the finals stage of the PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds category in third place last Saturday.
The local representative made an inspired turnaround in one of the country’s finest moments in the e-sport regional scene having previously ended the first day of the final stage in 10th place.
Buah Gaming, which comprises players with the screen names Newbies, Piasau, Bear, Global and Kong, produced successive victories including a flawless run which saw all members avoiding elimination in the Sanhok round.
Unfazed by the top and experienced teams in the region, Buah Gaming took full advantage of having a full squad and obliterated the field with a near-perfect performance culminating in their final elimination of Malaysia e-sport team Geek Fam.
The double victory catapulted the Bruneian team into fourth place in the standings after accumulating 91 points heading into the last match in the second day of the final stage. The e-sport team’s performances earned them the Winner Winner Chicken Dinner’s (WWCD) titles and their fourth overall since their exploits in the group stage.
The in-form Buah Gaming also came close towards securing a third successive match in the final round, eventually won by Vietnam’s Eagle Esport.
Nevertheless, the Bruneians had plenty to cheer about as another solid round lifted them to third place with 102 points, thus knocking Thailand’s The Infinity to fourth place.
The sensational run allowed them an opportunity to vie for the title with leaders Thailand’s Faze Clan and second-placed Malaysia’s Geek Fam viewed as their direct rivals. In the list of top five fraggers, Buah Gaming’s Global was ranked third with 12 eliminations and 1475 damage with his teammate Newbies in fourth with 11 eliminations and 2,086 damage.
Another Brunei Darussalam’s e-sport team Auto Too Soon, who qualified to the finals alongside Buah Gaming, ended the second day in 14th place out of 16 finalists. Meanwhile in the Valorant category, local e-sports team Goodfellas Gaming picked up their first win in the group stage after defeating Laos’ Nine E-sports 2-0 in Group ‘A’. In Group ‘B’, Brunei’s W Key fell to a 2-0 loss to a strong Indonesian e-sport team Onic G.
Brunei e-sport drivers Md Mazdi Mardini and Mohd Norhafiz Razali began their campaign in the SEA E-Sports Championship Eracing GP.
