Blacklist International got off on a wrong foot but managed to secure the second seed in Group A and the upper bracket slot following a victory against Incendio Supremacy in the tiebreaker match in the M4 World Championships at the Bali United Studios on Tuesday, Jan. 3.
Playing with their hopes to secure an upper bracket slot on the line, Kiel “Oheb” Soriano provided the MPL PH Season 10 champions a huge lift in the final game of the tiebreaker to secure a tight 19-16 win over INC.
Oheb showed great poise to finish with an impressive 8-2-6 line on the signature Wanwan pick although the team needed a huge three-man pickoff in the Lord dance at the 20th minute to come out of the group stage barely clinging to the second seed.
Blacklist is set to face the top seed of Group D where South American team RRQ Akira is currently leading with a 2-0 record.
The Filipino champions actually had the chance to sweep the group stage and book an outright spot in the upper bracket but Falcon Esports played spoiler and wielded the huge upset axe against the defending champions.
The Burmese team coached by Filipino tactician Steve “Dale” Vitug shocked the Filipinos with its relentless pressure put by the Natalia pick along with the peeling abilities of the gold lane Lunox against Blacklist’s tanky frontline in the EXP lane Uranus and jungle Baxia picks.
In a stunning fashion, Falcon soared past Blacklist with a 16-3 win forcing a triple tie for the top spot with Incendio Supremacy with identical 2-1 records.
Blacklist met Falcon again in the round-robin tiebreaker which pretty much ended the same way in the first game. While the Filipinos managed to put up more fight, the pickoffs from Franco’s hooks of Naomi opened up the Blacklist defense to score a 22-10 victory that also nailed their place in the upper bracket.