BloodThirstyKings pulled off the biggest upset so far in the Mobile Legends Bang Bang: M3 World Championships as it dropped Blacklist International to the lower bracket after a 3-2 victory in the first round of the upper bracket playoffs in the Suntec Singapore Convention Centre on Saturday, Dec. 11.
The North American squad proved its worth in the tournament as it pushed the heavy favorites to a five-game nail-biter before coming through with a 12-4 romp in the winner-take-all to move to the next round of the upper bracket.
BTK’s Filipino player Zia on the Pharsa and Victor on the Esmeralda showed nerves of steel in the final game as they powered the NA squad to a victory after trailing 2-1 in the series. Zia had a perfect game of 0-0-8 KDA while Victor held his own with a 4-1-4 line for BTK.
Blacklist, which now dropped to the lower bracket and will face the winner between Team SMG and Onic Indonesia, had the chance to close out the series in Game 4 but the Americans endured the early game onslaught from the Filipinos to notch a come-from-behind 14-7 win.
Zia shone once again on his Yve as he conspired with Shark’s Lolita to punish Blacklist during team fights and force the series to a jugular Game 5.
Mobazane also bucked a slow start on the jungler Granger to still finish with an impressive 8-2-5 line despite the early pressure from the Filipinos.
BTK started off the series with guns blazing as it stunned Blacklist in the series opener behind its lineup centered on the AoE setup and damage from the Lolita, Lylia and Beatrix picks. That ploy worked to perfection as it shut down the patented Estes-Bane combo of Blacklist to complete a 14-5 shocker in first game.
Mobazane also shone on the surprise jungle Saber pick with a 9-0-3 KDA.
Suffering its first loss in the world meet, Blacklist put up a huge retaliation in Games 2 and 3.
Blacklist’s double tank setup anchored on a jungle Hylos from Danerie “Wise” Del Rosario and Edward “Edward” Dapadap’s Barat proved to be impenetrable, allowing its carry heroes on Salic “Hadji” Imam’s midlane Beatrix and Kiel “Oheb” Soriano’s gold lane Alice to snowball.
Hadji unloaded a 5-0-4 KDA while Oheb took over in the late game finished with a clean 9-0-2 KDA.
Blacklist then overcame Mobazane’s havoc on the Karina in the early game to complete a 15-14 comeback behind the late game heroes of Wise on the Aldous and Oheb on the Lunox to notch its second point of the series.
Hadji on his signature tank Chou also had his moments as he put the clamps on Mobazane and Zia’s Pharsa in the crucial Game 3.
Blacklist, however, failed to sustain the momentum and wasted an early lead in Game 4 – something that BTK took advantage of as it stunned the PH champs in the next two games.