Blacklist International stopped the bleeding with a much-needed 2-0 sweep of TNC Pro Team in Week 5 of the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League (MPL) Philippines Season 11 on Saturday.
After losing three of their last four matches, Blacklist’s victory improved to a 5-4 record with 15 points. That has helped them take a temporary lead over RSG Slate Philippines (5-2) who has 14 points.
According to Head coach Aniel “MasterTheBasics” Jiandani, it was the team clinging onto the winning conditions that helped them shrug off their early game deficits and score the sweep.
“Sa ginagawa kasi namin meron lang kaming condition na hinabol dun eh. And once na mahit namin yun, tsaka lang kami aano. Kumbaga, expected na namin yung ganung playstyle,” he said.
In Game 1, TNC controlled the majority of the early game courtesy of Ben “Benthings” Maglaque’s (Faramis) exploits but Blacklist threaded beautifully during the first lord fight, forcing the Phoenix army out of position.
With the Cult Altar already burned, Edward “EDWARD” Dapadap initiated a backline attack and scored three kills during the 5-1 wipeout that quickly ended the opener in the 12th minute.
TNC though responded tremendously in Game 2 with John Vincent “Innocent” Banal (Moskov) leading the way to establish a sizable 5k gold lead after the 10th-minute lord fight.
Blacklist, however, managed to take some breathing room after Jon Redick “Super Red” Bordeos (Melissa) notched a double kill late in the 11th-minute inhibitor turret defense.
With TNC’s positioning collapsing during the 16th-minute lord dance, Innocent tried to execute a hail mary split push in the bot lane only for EDWARD (Arlott) to unleash a pinpoint Final Slash on the minion wave. That negated the win and touch off a reverse base turret push on the top lane with the lord.
