Duane “Kelra” Pillas and Christian “Raizen” Sumagui provided the Omega Esports the deadly one-two punch as they took down rival Blacklist International, 3-1, to set up an upper bracket finals date against Onic Philippines in the MPL Philippines playoffs on Friday, October 22.
After surrendering the series opener to Blacklist, the killer duo of Kelra and Raizen took over in the next three games to drop the defending champions to the lower bracket.
Raizen continues to prove his worth after taking over the place of Kiel “Kielvj” Hernandez as the team’s jungler as he put up an exceptional performance on his Lancelot in the three games that Omega won. The Omega rookie was a steady force for his team as he unloaded 9-1-4 KDA in Game 2, 3-4-5 in Game 3 and 3-1-2 in the series clinching Game 4.
Raizen’s early game aggression set the tone for Omega as he imposed problems to the Blacklist side which was missing the services of star gold laner Kiel "Oheb" Soriano. Raizen’s stellar showing gave space for Kelra who was left uncontested in his farm with his signature late game heroes. Kelra was unstoppable for OMG as he finished with 4-5-8 and 6-1-3 KDAs on his Aldous and Alice picks in Games 2 and 3 respectively before following it up with a 2-2-3 performance on his Claude in Game 4.
Kelra also pulled off a crucial back line dive with his battle mirror image (BMI)-blazing duet combo during the final Lord dance in Game 4. He took down Jonmar "OhmyV33nus" Villaluna's Angela in the process and gave Raizen the space to secure the Luminous Lord. That proved to be the nail on the coffin for Blacklist as Omega ended the huge come-from-behind Game 4 win, still trailing in the final tally, 6-9 in 13 minutes of play.
Omega head coach Jomie "Pakbet" Abalos also worked his magic during the draft as he secured the Rafaela in the first picks in Games 2 to 4 which proved to be key in OMG's three straight victories.
The clash of the two kings was as good as advertised with the MPL season 7 kings drawing the first blood behind its double marksman set up of Danerie “Wise” Del Rosario’s Kimmy and Salic “Hadji” Imam’s Claude.
Joshua “Ch4knu” Mangilog’s Grock and Raizen’s Lancelot tried to delay Wise in his jungle rotation but Edward “Edward” Dapadap on his Paquito held the early and mid-game for the defending champions. That allowed Blacklist's core heroes to reach its power spike and take the series opener, 13-7 in 18 minutes of play.
Edward was hailed MVP in Game 1 with his 4-1-4 KDA.
Omega retaliated in the second game as Kelra on his Alice took over to help the MSC champions pull off a 16-7 victory in 13 minutes to even the series. Raizen on his Lancelot took control in the early game with the near-perfect performance, all while giving space for Kelra’s Alice who dominated in the late game.
Omega kept its momentum going in Game 3 as it hacked out a 22-14 comeback win to move to match point. It wasn’t an easy win for Omega as it had to survive a death push from Blacklist at the 15-minute mark.
It was a showdown between Kelra’s Aldous and Edward’s Esmeralda from that point as the two carried their respective squads in the late game. Omega’s Lord Take at the 21-minute mark proved to be the deciding clash as it took down three heroes to the side of the defending champions to seal the win.
Blacklist tried to make some adjustments in Game 4 by putting Hadji on the jungler role with his Karina and Wise on the gold lane with his Aldous. That ploy, however, did not work as the Raizen-Kelra duo won the series for OMG.
Blacklist will face Nexplay Evos, which lost earlier to Onic, in a do-or-die best-of-five series in the lower bracket.