Blacklist International showed no rust in its first game back since winning in the MPL Philippines Grand Finals as it demolished Bigetron Alpha with a 2-0 sweep in the quarterfinals of the ONE Esports: MPL Invitational on Friday, November 5.
The MPL PH back-to-back titlists methodically dissected Bigetron in the dominant two game stretch to set up a titanic clash against MPL Indonesia second placers RRQ Hoshi in the semifinals.
The Filipinos actually had to endure an aggressive start from their Indonesian counterparts but the two-time MPL champions were simply unrattled.
Blacklist’s composure was in full display in Game 1 as it fell behind early with Maxwell “Maxx” Alessandro’s Fanny getting two crucial pick-offs on Jonmar "OhmyV33nus" Villaluna's Estes. Matthew “Matt” Geraldo' Aldous also imposed early problems for the Filipinos with his split push, allowing the Indonesians to get a 6K gold lead.
Blacklist, however, easily erased the lead following a huge clash in the top lane that went to its favor. The Filipinos carried out a well-executed sandwich play near BTR’ second tier turret to take out four heroes to the side of Bigetron.
It was all Blacklist from that point as it took over Bigetron's jungle camps, freely taking the objectives including three Luminous Lords. Bigetron showed solid base defense anchored on Mohammad daffa “Gamora” perkasa's Pharsa in the first two Lord marches but the Indonesians faltered in the third death push from Blacklist, ending Game 1 in 25 minutes with a 14-7 tally.
The sidelane duo of Edward on Khaleed and Oheb on Alice provided the one-two punch for Blacklist with an impressive 7-1-4 and 6-1-6 KDAs respectively.
The Filipinos kept their feet on the gas pedal in Game 2 as they only needed 17-minutes to finish off Bigetron on a 9-2 tally.
OhmyV33nus on the roaming Rafaela and Hadji on the mid lane Chou provided the early game pressure for Blacklist, allowing Oheb’s Harith and Wise’s jungle Aldous to get the space they need to farm.
The two quickly snowballed for the Filipinos as they dominated every team fight for Blacklist. The Filipinos ended the series after a huge team fight on Bigetron’s top lane that saw Wise’s Aldous almost killing Gamora’s Pharsa in just one hit. That final clash resulted to a three man wipe of the Indonesians as the Filipino succeeded in taking down Bigetron's base tower in the following sequence.
Oheb and wise both finished unscathed with perfect 4-0-4 and 2-0-7 KDAs respectively.
RRQ made quick work of Onic Philippines in the second round before disposing Malaysian champions Team SMG in the quarterfinals.