Gilang “Sanz” and Muhammad "Butsss" Sanubari took over in the deciding Game 5 as Onic Esports dropped Blacklist International to the lower bracket with a thrilling 3-2 victory in the first round of the M5 World Championship at the EVM Convention Center on Saturday, Dec. 9.

With both teams tied two games apiece, Sanz and Butsss set the tone in the decider with the former putting up a perfect 6-0-6 line on the Valentina pick while the latter finished with a 1-0-9 tally on the Terizla.

More than that, the activity of the two around the map disrupted the early game rotation of Blacklist, allowing the Indonesian champions to secure almost every major objective in the contest to close out the series with a masterful 12-2 win.

It was Blacklist which actually drew first blood in the series, taking a 16-7 win after a grueling 30-minute contest. It was a back-and-forth affair in the series opener before the Codebreakers got a window of opportunity to end the game when they took down three Onic heroes during the 29-minute Lord dance.

Onic, after absorbing its first game loss in the tournament, made sure to fight back in the next two games to take the series lead. The MSC 2023 titlist notched a 15-9 equalizer in Game 2 before pulling off a stunning comeback in Game 3.

With Blacklist marching into the Onic base, Kiboy initiated with a timely ultimate from his Minotaur and caught five Codebreakers’ heroes inside the turret. A followup from Butsss’ ultimate of his Terizla further clamped down Blacklist and allowed Onic’s damage dealers to burst all five players for a complete wipeout.

With the series on the line, the Codebreakers fought back and dominated Onic with a 10-1 win to force the decider.

With the win, Onic is set to face Deus Vult in the upper bracket semis while Blacklist is taking on FireFlux – the only team that defeated them in the group stage – in a do-or-die match.