The first round of the Mobile Legends Bang Bang Pro League Philippines (MPL PH) playoffs has ended with little to no surprises. After defeating Omega Esports and Onic Philippines yesterday, Blacklist International and RSG Slate Philippines advanced to the upper bracket semi-finals.
Prior to yesterday’s playoff, a number of viewers have expressed their doubts regarding Blacklist International’s status as one of the best during the final week of MPL PH S11 regular season. They believed the team was in crisis, following a losing streak in the regular season. In addition, fans are concerned at the absence of ace Kiel “Oheb” Soriano and their game plan, which have been criticized as boring and predictable.
Facing against Smart Omega, Blacklist finally tweaked their strategy. The king and queen of MPL PH decided to drop a surprise package in game one. Danerie “Wise” Rosario opted to play Lancelot, while Johnmar “OHMYV33NUS” Villaluna picked Faramir as roamer.
The combo proved to be a pain for Omega to handle. Even though there weren’t a lot of kills in this round, Blacklist played well and won most of the objectives. Wise frequently cornered Omega players and assisted his squad in critical teamfights. By 19 minutes and 30 seconds, Blacklist won the game one 14-6.
In the second game, Omega dominated the map in the first 13 minutes and it looked like they would equalize. But Blacklist didn’t panic and patiently waited for Omega to overextend.
Blacklist’s youngster Kenneth “Yue” Tadeo, who was quiet in the early game, launched his attack after 14 minutes. The reigning PH champs managed to turn things around and win game two with a score of 14-10 in 19 minutes.
Wise and V33NUS decided to use their favorites in the final game. Wise took Akai and V33NUS took Mathilda. Meanwhile, Yue decided to utilise Valentina, one of the current meta’s favourites. What happened in the next 14 minutes was a total annihilation. Raking up 11 solo kills, Yue was untouchable and terrorised his opponents at every corner. The final game ended with a 20-2 landslide victory for Blacklist.
It was the same story with RSG Slate Philippines, who played on the same day. They defeated Onic Philippines convicingly with a total of 47 kills. RSG’s Nathanael “Nathzz” Estrologo, who won the MVP award in Week 4 of Regular Season S11, showed up and went on a rampage.
Both of them will face very tough opponents in the upper bracket semifinals this evening. RSG Slate PH will face Echo while Blacklist will go against Bren Esports.
