The Philippines defend their throne for MLBB men’s while MLBB women’s continue their journey towards the gold.
It was a show of force for the Philippines in MLBB as Team Sibol bagged gold and silver medals for MLBB men’s and women’s respectively at the 2025 SEA Games. This is the Philippines’ fourth gold in the men’s category and second silver for the women’s.
For Team Sibol men’s, they carried their dominance from the group stage all the way to first place. They only dropped one game in the entire tournament and that was against Indonesia in the semifinals. With a 3-1 victory over the Philippines’ closest rivals, Team Sibol put out all the stops against Malaysia in the grand finals to take them down 4-0.
“Syempre very honored kami kasi halos lahat kami first time maka-represent ng Pilipinas sa SEA Games,” said Team Sibol men’s Sanford Vinuya in an interview with the media. “Sobrang grateful kami na naging part kami ng history ng four-peat.”
“Sobrang saya, sobrang proud na pangalawang gold ko ngayon,” added Team Sibol men’s Karl “KarlTzy” Nepomuceno. He was part of the team that brought the Philippines’ first MLBB SEA Games gold back in 2019. “Kasi mas-iba na yung MLBB ngayon, mas-complicated. Mas-mahirap manalo ngayon kumpara nung dati.”
The men’s team’s results may look impressive but there were many close calls in their journey to the gold. Game three of their grand finals match in particular had them down 1-12 in kills and an almost 10,000 gold deficit against Malaysia. However, they managed to clutch out a win and they had their 6th Men in the crowd to thank for that.
“Sobrang nakaka-tulong sila sa momentum kasi sobrang nararamdaman namin yung support nila,” said Team Sibol men’s Kiel “Oheb” Soriano. “Kahit lugi kami, sobrang nabo-boost yung moral namin kasi yung crowd hindi sumusuko, so kami pa kaya na players.”
No Easy Paths to Victory
Team Sibol men’s coach Rodel “Ar Sy” Cruz continued to emphasize that the results don’t paint a full picture of the team’s efforts. Yes, dropping only one game is remarkable, but that doesn’t mean their road to gold was easy.
“Hindi talaga naging madali yung laban namin dito sa SEA Games kasi lahat [ng teams] pinaghandaan namin ng sobra,” said coach Ar Sy. “Pinagpuyatan namin to at nag-practice kami ng sobra. Masaya kami and proud sa isa’t-isa na achieve namin itong gold medal.”
Unfortunately, the other side of this coin goes to the women’s team as they fell short again from reaching first. They were on the same trajectory as the men’s team as they also defeated Indonesia in the semifinals. Then they ran into the wall that was Malaysia, where they dragged the grand finals to a full seven games. History repeated itself and the Team Sibol women’s team walked away with silver after an intense seven game series.
Regardless, both teams put all their effort in proving why the Philippines is number one in MLBB. Congratulations to the Team Sibol, you made us proud in the 2025 SEA Games!
Banner photo from SIBOL Media.
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