Blacklist International proved once again that it is the undisputed master of drafting so far in the MPL Philippines Season 7 as it swept Cignal Ultra, 2-0, highlighted by an astonishing second game comeback to keep its undefeated record on Sunday, April 25.
The breakthrough win-seeking Cignal gave Blacklist a taste of its own medicine in Game 2 by picking the latter's comfort heroes Estes, Harith and Popol & Kupa on top of a Bruno.
But the boys of coach Kristoffer "BON CHAN" Ricaplaza and analyst-sixth man Dexter "DEX STAR" Alaba know too well how to counter their own strategy by securing Atlas for Jayson "ESON" Gerardo and Luo Yi for captain Johnmar "OhMyV33NUS" Villaluna.
Cignal actually went on a searing 7-0 start and seemed poised to force a deciding game when it tore down all the turrets of Blacklist and was knocking at the Base in the 14th minute.
However, ESON came through with a clutch Fatal Links as Blacklist picked off Janus "JANUS" Badando's Bruno for a successful Base defense.
ESON and the crew picked off two more Cignal heroes at the river area and took the Luminous Lord kill in the 15th minute, allowing them to even up by demolishing all the enemy turrets.
Once again, ESON came up with a huge Fatal Links play that resulted in a pickoff on DJ "ImbaDeejay" Astibe's Estes and eventually two more kills to seal the 18-minute comeback.
Blacklist easily won Game 1 with the perfect execution of its draft anchored on OhMyV33nus' Mathilda and ESON's Angela.
Edward "EDWARD" Dapadap's Barats, Kiel "OHEB" Soriano's Alice and DJ "Wise" Del Rosario's Granger led the charge for the Tier One Entertainment-backed squad en route to a 15-2 rout in 15 minutes.
Blacklist stayed atop Group B with its seventh straight series victory for 18 points.
For its part, the struggling Cignal stayed at the bottom of Group A with a 0-8 series win-loss slate and three markers.