Bren Esports head coach Francis “Duckeyy” Glindro offered no excuses in his team’s 3-1 upper bracket loss to Blacklist International, simply noting that the MPL Philippines defending champions just found its groove in time for the playoffs.

Blacklist International upsets top seed Bren Esports in the upper bracket semifinals. (MPL Photo)

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“I feel nahanap na ng Blacklist yung groove nila from Season 7 to the regular season. May mataas na chance na sila ang makakarating sa grand finals because of their performance,” said Duckeyy after the series.

Interestingly, it was Bren, after finishing the top seed in the eliminations, picked Blacklist in its bracket in the playoffs, confident that it had the answer to M3 world champions’ patented UBE strategy anchored on their signature Estes pick.

The M2 titlists even dared Blacklist to pick Estes in three of the four games – a ploy that Duckeyy admitted backfired to the team. 

"It was a misread from us dahil nung regular season di nila masyado ginagamit yung Estes. We assumed akala namin kaya namin yung Estes unfortunately 'di talaga namin yung healing galing ni momshoe (OhmyV33nus),” added Duckeyy.

For Blacklist’s part, the adjustments from the regular season were mainly on the team’s mindset.

“Before pa kami sumabak sa playoffs, mindset na namin na ano man ang result, game 1, game 2, ang focus namin ay kung paano mananalo sa series. Kapag natalo, focus agad sa next game para maka recover,” said Blacklist head coach Aniel “Masters the Basic” Jiandani