PUTRAJAYA: Malaysian side Team Vamos' decision to practice with Cambodia's CFU Gaming earlier in the competition backfired after losing to the latter in the Swiss stage of the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang M6 World Championship today (Dec 1).
Both teams entered the match at the IOI Grand Exhibition and Convention Centre with identical 1-1 win-loss records in the tournament.
Both sides needed a win to avoid dropping down to the 1-2 bracket where the likes of Selangor Red Giants (SRG) are lying in wait.
Vamos had early control in the best-of-one encounter but CFU were patient and waited until mid game to swing the momentum in their favour. Vamos failed to regain control and succumbed to their second defeat in the world meet.
Vamos's coach Khairul Azman Sharif, whose nickname is Pabz, said they had a practice match with the Cambodians earlier in the tournament.
"We are disappointed to lose, we tried to execute our gameplan but failed," said Khairul during the post-match interview.
"We practiced with CFU earlier in the tournament, but in the game just now we changed a few things.
"Maybe they saw something that we did not spot and used that to win."
CFU coach Gesang "T1m3go" Jia Cuo said that they learnt a lot from that one practice match against Vamos and were able to predict how the Malaysians would play based on their hero draft.
"Based on their draft today I guessed what they wanted to do and we set up traps that we used to fight against them.
"This win is so important, a lot of strong teams are in the 1-2 bracket and now we don't have to think about them.
"I 100 per cent trust that my team will advance to the knockout round," said Jia Cuo, who is from China.
Vamos could face SRG, the Mid Season Cup champions, in the next round. The draw will only be conducted after the conclusion of today's matches.