Blacklist International captain Jonmar “OhmyV33nus” Villaluna took offense in Bren Esport’s move to skip the banning phase of the draft in the Game 2 of their series in the MPL Philippines Season 8 on Sunday, October 10.
Bren, who played with their second group led by Mico “Coco” Sampang, EJ “Ejhay” Sambrano, and Raven “L3bron” Alonzo, did not ban any heroes during the draft in the second game, much to the dismay of “The Queen” who aired his sentiments when asked during the team's post game interview.
Blacklist was left puzzled by the move but still went on and took the game seriously nonetheless.
“Nung una nagulat kami kasi hindi sila nag-ban. Kinontak agad namin yung marshal tinanong namin kung remake ba ‘to or tuloy pa ba and then yung pangalawa and pangatlo na wala pa rin silang ban tinanong na namin yung marshal kung allowed ba yung ganito,” OhmyV33nus said during the team’s post-match presser.
“Sinabi naman ng marshal and nung head ng MPL na allowed daw so siyempre wala naman kaming say dun.”
The defending champions went on and beat Bren in a 2-0 fashion but the move didn’t sit well for the veteran support.
“For me personally, medyo disrespectful siya sa league kasi parang for me a, sa buong career ko sa MPL, parang ngayon ko lang ‘to na encounter and ngayon ko lang din nakita so nung una hindi ko alam yung magiging reaksyon ko,” explained the other half of the VeeWise tandem.
Bren and Blacklist played in a non-bearing match with the former already eliminated and the latter already secured with the top seeding in the standing. But still, OhmyV33nus felt the move was uncalled for and while some may find it humorous, he felt it was disrespectful to the league.
“Mukhang nakakatawa siya sa paningin ng mga manonood and sa iba pero for me disrespectful siya in a way na puwede kasing magkaroon ng impact sa mga susunod pa na mga matches in the future na puwede siyang maging example or puwedeng gayahin ng ibang teams,” he added
“I think una pa lang siya ginawa. Even sa ibang MPL parang walang gumagawa nung ganun kasi para sa akin puwede ka namang mag-enjoy nang hindi ka gumagawa nang ganung klaseng act.”
Bren, meanwhile apologized to those offended by the "strat" and clarified that it asked permission to the game marshals before doing the move
"We would like to apologize to those who got offended by the "no ban strat". Just to clear things out, the team asked for permission and received a go signal from the ref in-charge before the draft started," Bren said in of its comments on its posts in Facebook.