Onic Philippines had two things in mind before coming into Sunday's playoffs: Go all-out against RSG Singapore to continue its upper bracket run and give the Filipino fans something to cheer for after Blacklist International's upset loss to BloodThirstyKing on Saturday.
Gerald “Dlarskie” Trinchera admitted that Blacklist’s loss added extra motivation for the squad to perform well and clinch a spot in the upper bracket semis.
“Isa ‘yun sa mga naging motivation namin kasi gusto naming ibawi (ang bBacklist). Marami kaming nakikita na mga Filipino fans na sumusuporta sa amin, nalulungkot sila. Gusto namin sila bigyan ng sigla na di pa natatapos yung laban,” said Dlarskie who was joined by Ian “Beemo” Serio and Kairi “Kairi” Rayosdelsol during the presser.
That motivation was in full display in their match against RSG SG with Dlarskie at the forefront of the attack for Onic with his unkillable Uranus.
Dlarskie proved to be one of the biggest thorns to the side of the host team as it struggled to take down his Uranus in Games 1 and 2. Dlarskie even survived five-man ganks unscathed just to buy time and create space for their carry heroes on the hands of Kairi and Jaylord “Hatred” Gonzales.
RSG SG seemed to find the answer in Game 3 after banning Dlar’s Uranus and picking a Lolita to counter the double-marksman setup of Onic but a clutch Kairi on the Natan came through in crunch time as he scored a timely Maniac, and eventually a team wipeout on RSG to close out the series.
With one PH squad now secured a spot in the upper bracket semis, Onic’s focus right now is to keep it that way as it is set to face either Todak from Malaysia or RRQ Hoshi in the next round.
Onic, though, expressed its confidence that the two-time MPL champions can power through the lower bracket.
“We shouldn’t get affected by Blacklist loss because we are different teams and our bracket is different. There’s still a chance for Blacklist that they can get to the Finals and we can still meet in the Finals,” said Kairi.
“Kaya pa ng bBacklist bumawi at ipapakita rin namin kung gaano kami kagaling at paano namin itataas yung bandera ng Pilipinas,”said Dlarskie.