Blacklist International Ultimate owned the throne as kings of Asia as it ruled the Call of Duty Mobile Championship East Finals with a 3-2 win over ALMGHTY on Sunday, Dec 12.
The PH bets settled an old score against the team that beat them in the Garena Qualifiers, returning the favor this time in the world stage and with the East finals crown at stake.
With the Finals series tied 2-2 and the Filipinos trailing 1-4 against ALMGHTY in Search in Destroy in the Crossfire, Blacklist Ultimate showed grit and heart as it tried to stage a comeback and cut the deficit to just one, 4-3.
ALMGHTY moved to a series match point with a huge win in Round 8 to take a commanding 5-3 lead. The Filipinos however refused to go down as it collected three straight victories to pull off a 6-5 come-from-behind win and bag the title and the $300,000 (P15 million) top purse.
Blacklist and ALMGHTY traded wins in the first four maps with the Filipinos winning Hardpoint in Summit, 150-84, and Domination in Standoff, 150-120. The Singaporeans meanwhile took Search and Destroy in Raid, 6-5, and Hardpoint, 150-134 in Firing Range.
It was a total team effort for the Filipinos but Averson "Skred" Salaya was brilliant all-tournament long en route to the Xperia tournament MVP citation.
"It was an intense match against one of our fiercest opponents this whole tournament. ALMGHTY is truly one of the premiere CODM organizations in the world, and I’m so grateful to have gone against them in this fierce final," said Skerd moments after the win.
The PH squad that featured John "JaBen" Benedict Julio, Edgar Martin "Tin" Yap Motoza, Neil Isaac "F1ex" Perez, Kenn "Kensh1" Ortiz and Abraham Jose "Eiji" Agbing dominated their way to the Grand Finals, beating Qing Ju Club in the upper bracket semis and dropping ALMGHTY to the lower bracket in the upper bracket finals.
ALMGHTY set up a rematch against Blacklist in the Finals after beating VrillianOwlX in the lower bracket finals only to get denied by the Filipinos in the title round.