By MARK REY MONTEJO

ECHO asserted its mastery over Blacklist International, coming away with a 2-0 victory to open the MPL Philippines Season 12 in a rousing fashion at the Shooting Gallery Studios in Makati on Friday, Sept. 8.

The defending champions made its title-retention bid apparent as Karl "Karltzy" Nepomuceno set the tone for the dominant win for the Orcas who played without Tristan "Yawi" Cabrera.

Yawi's absence, however, was hardly felt with veteran Jaypee "Jaypee" Dela Cruz amply dictating the tempo for the M4 world Champions

KarlTzy displayed impeccable jungling prowess as he led the relentless map pressure from ECHO to build a gold lead that went to as high as 10k.

Karltzy finished with a 7-0-1 KDA as ECHO drew the series first blood with a 9-5 Game 1 win in just 14 minutes of play.

Picking up from the strong start of Karltzy was Sanford "Sanford" Vinuya who ushered the team’s rally in the second game.

Unlike in the series opener, Blacklist showed some fight in Game 2 dragging the match to the late game.

Sanford, however, on his signature Yu Zhong pick led the final push for the ECHO to finish with a 4-1-3 KDA.