Blacklist International was on the verge of suffering its first defeat in the MPL Philippines Season 7 when it battled the strong league rookie Work Auster Force last Sunday, April 18.
However, Work seemed to have forgotten that in Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, and in other multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) esports titles, taking the objectives is everything.
Work was already way ahead when Daniel "Chuuu" Chu on his Claude scored a double kill on Johnmar "OhMyV33NUS" Villaluna's Estes and Jayson "ESOS" Gerardo's Rafaela, giving his squad a 7-1 kill score lead and a 2K gold advantage just six minutes into the deciding Game 3.
Instead of taking advantage of the pickoffs by securing objectives, Chuuu went for a recall celebration in front of Kiel "OHEB" Soriano's Alice at the tier two bottom lane turret.
Chuuu got punished for his shenanigans as OHEB joined forces with DJ "Wise" Del Rosario's Granger to slay him as well as Dylan "Unravel" Catipon's Angela.
It proved to be the turning point of the crucial game as Work went downhill from there even as Blacklist started to pile up the lead en route to a 12-7 triumph in 12 minutes and celebrated it by running around the Base.
Blacklist kept its unbeaten streak in five matches and remained atop Group B with 13 points while Work saw its three-game winning roll end and fell to No. 2 in Group A with 10 markers.
Just a few moments after the series, Blacklist coach Kristoffer "BON CHAN" Ricaplaza made his thoughts known through a post on his Facebook page.
"Lesson for today: Ano kailangan gawin 'pag naka-pick off? Mag-TP-TP (teleport/recall) kaysa mag-objectives. Ayun GG (Lesson for today: What do you need to do after getting a pickoff? Recall celebration than take objectives. GG)."
BON CHAN later on expounded the importance of getting objectives against scoring kills in the Blacklist Bulletin post-match press conference.
"Isipin nyo na lang 'yung feeding Diggie (strategy). Mahalaga ba kung magkaroon siya ng madaming death? 'Di ba hindi? 'Di ganun kahalaga magkaroon ng sobrang daming kills kung 'di niyo naman maiko-close 'yung game (Think of the feeding Diggie strategy. Is it important that he has many deaths? Getting many kills is not that important if you can't close out the game)," he said.
"Kasi 'yung objective sa ML, ano ba 'yung mga objective sa ML edi mabasag 'yung final tower (Base). Hindi naman paramihan ng kills. Buti sana kung objective dun magparamihan ng kills hanggang maubos 'yung oras edi dun tayo sa kills (The objective in ML is to destroy the Base, not getting more kills than your opponent)," he added.
Besides that, Blacklist's win also serves as a reminder to professional players and even casual gamers not to celebrate too early. As what they say in sports and even esports, it's not over till it's over.