Duane “Kelra” Pillas completed the first Savage of the MPL Philippines Season 9 to power Omega Esports’ reverse sweep of Blacklist International on Saturday, March 12.
Down by one series after Omega absorbed a 9-0 beatdown at the hands of Blacklist in the opener, Kelra carried the squad on his shoulders as he spearheaded the equalizer in Game 2 with a perfect 4-0-2 KDA on the Claude before capping the night with a Savage on his Beatrix to finish with an 8-0-1 KDA in the series clinching Game 3.
Omega endured the early game onslaught from Blacklist in the winner-take-all as the M3 World Champion focused on taking down enemy towers and securing major objectives.
However, Omega was able to hold the fort against the Blacklist pressure until its double marksman setup with Christian “Raizen” Sumagui on the surprise jungle Claude and Kelra on the gold lane Beatrix reached their power spikes.
With the tides turning to Omega’s favor, Blacklist gambled for a Lord contest at the 15-minute mark, setting up the table for Kelra's five-man wipe to take a one-sided 10-4 Game 3 win.
Omega showed resilience in the series as Blacklist drew the series’ first blood with a 9-0 Game 1 win behind the scintillating performance from Kiel “Oheb” Soriano on the Beatrix. He finished with a 7-0-2 KDA on a 100 percent kill participation as Blacklist precisely dissected Omega lines for the emphatic win.
That, however, hardly affected Omega as it returned the favor in the second game with the duo of Raizen on the Ling and Kelra on the Claude leading the attack.
Raizen prevailed in his jungle showdown with Blacklist rookie Kent “Kevier” Lopez, unleashing a 5-1-5 KDA to support Kelra’s Claude while Renzio also added a quiet 3-0-4 showing on the Esmeralda.
Omega bounced back from its shock loss to Bren Esports on Friday to improve to a 3-4 win-loss record while Blacklist fell to a 1-6 standings.