Day 3 of the ONE Esports Invitational kicked off with Aura PH defeating their MPL PH rivals, ONIC PH.

After the el clasico win, ONE Esports caught up with Aura in a post-game interview.

While the team suffered a loss in the first game, Aura PH knew exactly what went wrong with their gameplay.

“We lost in the sidelanes, said Greed_. “Even though we controlled the mid-lane in the beginning, their side-lane pressure aided their mid-lane in map control.”

When talking about the questionable Claude pick, Bennyqt explained that it was more of a trial character for him and he wanted to see if he could still implement it well into the drafted composition.

Despite game one being a blowout by ONIC PH, the Aura squad came back with an absolute nail-biter in game two. With Rafflesia and his team getting the W, coach Arcadia explained why they fielded a three-core composition with Brody, Lancelot, and Harith.

“It’s really just the new meta from how we see it,” stated the Aura coach. “We believe it’s a really common strategy in the pro scene, but teams don’t really put it out.”

With two cores in Hadess and Bennyqt, Jaypee took control of the position 4 Harith as a primary support player instead of an actual carry. The Harith pick was able to control the early to mid game to give enough time to the other cores to farm up.

Going up against ONIC young gun Kairi and his killer Benedetta, Rafflesia explained that they just needed to isolate the player in team fights. With the Akai pick, he was able to use his ultimate as a means to disperse crowded clashes and help single out the carry for the others to dogpile on.

Going into game three, Aura PH knew that they won the series because of their insane draft of Selena, Ling, and Natalia.

“We were expecting that ONIC PH would ban out the Selena so when she became available, we took the advantage,” said Rafflesia. “ONIC did not respect Greed’s Selena.”

While the El Clasico win sparks hope for many Aura fans, the squad didn’t really put much thought into fueling themselves emotionally.

“We didn’t have any feeling about it,” said Rafflesia. “We’re just playing the game and we didn’t expect to fight against ONIC once again so it’s just a game and we wanted to play.”

Although ONIC PH had some stellar moments throughout all three games, Aura PH always came through in the last two minutes. When asked about this late-game priority style, Rafflesia saw it as a simple technique that worked for the team.

“The team is strong in the late-game,” elaborated Rafflesia. “During the late-game, ONIC PH usually makes mistakes like overextending and micro-mistakes so we take advantage of that.”

Aura now heads into the quarterfinals where they will face MPL PH S6 champions, Bren Esports. As the team who stole Aura’s chances to a championship three-peat, Rafflesia and his team are putting their guards up in the showdown.

“I think that the series will be very challenging and it’ll be a worthy one to watch,” confirmed Rafflesia. “It might be hard, but yes, we’re confident in taking them down. May the best Philippine team win.”

READ MORE: Aura PH’s Rafflesia fires back at ONIC PH’s Jay: ‘Prove your talent’