The one-season hiatus made by Jonmar “OhmyV33nus” Villaluna and Danerie “Wise” Del Rosario keyed Blacklist International’s return trip to the M-Series Worlds and the MPL Season 10 title conquest possible according to team co-owner Tryke Gutierrez.
Fresh from a series of dominant runs last year that saw the team bag three titles in total in the MPL Seasons 7 and 8 and M3 World Championship and runner-up finishes in MSC 2021 and MPLI 2021, the decision of the dynamic duo came as a shock which reverberated to the whole MPL community.
Blacklist eventually missed the playoffs of Season 9 and relinquished its MPL title to MSC 2022 king RSG Philippines.
It was later revealed that the move was just part of the organization’s decision in its bid to get a shot at history to be the very first team to win back-to-back titles in the M-series Worlds in MLBB Esports history. The move then went on to bear fruit as Blacklist also became the first team to get a chance to defend its world title.
“Yung foresight namin dun when we talk to them was baka ito na yung perfect to rest muna in Season 9 kasi kailangan na rin naman na talaga nila so that actually everybody is ready to go again pagpasok ng season na ito and going to the M4,” explained Tryke, recalling the decision prior to the start of Season 9.
“Our goal was really a back-to-back World Championship, yun yung personally nakita kong direction for them,” he added.
Having been in the esports scene for quite a long time now, the Tier One executive said he already saw many teams strive and win a series of championships only for the same squad to collapse when it failed to reach lofty expectations – something that he wanted to avoid which led to the decision to rest V33wise for one season.
“Ako, personally talaga when we decide to rest V33wise during the Season 9 feeling ko it was a pivotal decision for the whole of the team because I've been in esports for a long time now and I've seen teams like fail because there are always certain cap to the pressure,” explained Tryke.
“There's always a certain cap to the arguments that happen in a day-to-day. Iba yun eh so parang ako sa Dota 2 experience ko ang dami kong nakita na raratsadang team after manalo ang taas ng pressure papasok sa isang bagong season tapos matatalo tapos magkakaron ng fallout tapos maghihiwalay,” he added.