Blacklist International remains one of the most successful teams in the MPL Philippines, having qualified for the grand finals in each of the last three seasons or in five of the last six title matches.
The Codebreakers will enter the playoffs as the fifth seed and will have to face two do-or-die best-of-five series to reach the upper bracket, where defending champion AP.Bren awaits them.
This is no stranger to the three-time MPL PH champions, as they also had to survive the play-ins in the past two seasons before making deep runs into the grand finals of Seasons 11 and 12.
Coach Dexter “Dex Star” Alaba admits they really struggled early this season, winning only two matches in their first eight matches, as the team tried to find their identity after losing their main roamer from the previous season.
“Nuna una nakita naman ng lahat, sobrang struggling talaga kami lalo sa identity at chemistry ng team tapos kung sino talaga yung lalaro between Kimpoy and Hadji,” he said.
It all took an all-important coaching meeting to finally make a massive reversal in the second half of the season.
“Nung nagkaron kaming mga coaches ng meeting kung paanong playstyle yung gagawin namin, na-pull off namin siya. Big statement din na after ng second, lahat ng nakalaban namin nung first half is nabawian namin,” DEX STAR claimed.
They only lost once in their last six matches and defeated upper bracket teams ECHO and RSG Philippines, which was a testament to how the team is peaking towards the playoffs.
And exp laner Edward “Edward” Dapadap agrees.
“Siguro po papunta na kami dun. Last season din yung ECHO di namin natalo nung regular season pero nung playoffs tinalo namin sila so baka yun din yung mangyari sa laban namin versus Bren,” Edward said when asked where they are in terms of their playoff form.
With the team’s main five all oozing with international experience, Blacklist will remain a dangerous threat come the playoffs.
