Blacklist International staved off Bren Esports' furious fight back, pulling off a vengeful 3-2 win to enter playoffs upper bracket finals in the MPL Philippines Season 7 late Thursday night, May 27.
After Bren came back from an early two-game deficit, Blacklist got its bearing back in the deciding Game 5 with captain Jonmar "OhMyV33nus" Villaluna's Popol & Kupa and Edward "EDWARD" Dapadap's Paquito spearheading the "ultimate bonding experience" strategy powered by Jayson "ESON" Gerardo's Rafaela en route to a 16-4 rout in 17 minutes.
Dominating the early game proved to be the winning formula in the thrilling series and the regular season's best team did just that as OhMyV33nus' PNK and EDWARD's Paquito ensured team fight victories with damage and crowd control to shut down Karl "KarlTzy" Nepomuceno's signature Lancelot.
Danerie James "Wise" Del Rosario's Yi Sun-shin and Kiel "OHEB" Soriano's Harith provided the much-needed physical and magic damage in clashes and in taking down objectives.
A full-five man wipe that saw the "V33Wise" duo each hit a double kill in the 16th minute turned out to be the final nail in Bren's coffin.
With the win, coach Kristoffer "BON CHAN" Ricaplaza and sixth man-analyst Dexter "DEX STAR" Alaba's Blacklist arranged a match against fellow top seed Aura PH for the first ticket to the best-of-seven grand finals.
Bon Chan's squad also exacted a sweet revenge for its lone defeat in the regular season inflicted by the reigning MPL-PH and world champion team.
The Francis "Duckey" Glindro-coached Bren slid to the lower bracket where it will lock horns with Work Auster Force on Friday.
Blacklist was poised to score an easy sweep after seizing the first two games behind EDWRD's Benedetta and OhMyV33nus' Mathilda.
But Bren unleashed KarlTzy's world championship Lancelot in Game 3 and he never disappointed as he came through with a phenomenal performance to lead the 19-2 massacre in 15 minutes.
The M2 world champions took another quick 11-minute triumph in Game 4 on the back of veteran tank Allan "Lusty" Castromayor's Khufra.
However, OhMyV33nus and the Blacklist crew secured their comfort picks in the winner-take-all game to close out the series.