Blacklist International swept Smart Omega 3-0 in the lower bracket of the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League (MPL) Philippines Season 11 playoffs at the SMX Convention Center, Pasay City on Thursday.
Edward “Edward” Dapadap was the MVP for Games 1 and 2.
It was the third time that Blacklist defeated Omega in the playoffs, having also won in the Season 7 grand finals and Season 8 lower bracket finals.
Blacklist head coach Aniel “MasterTheBasics” Jiandani was surprised with how one-sided the series went as he knows Omega has historically never gone down without a fight against his team.
“Alam talaga naming magiging close fight to. Specially Omega yan. Alam naming maraming bago or marami kaming unexpected na gagawin nila. Kaya hindi talaga namin na-expect na magiging 3-0 yung game,” he said on their sweep.
In Game 1, Blacklist picked a jungle Lancelot for Danerie James “Wise” Del Rosario, who scored a 2nd-minute 1-0-2 KDA to lead Blacklist’s 3-1 early game spread.
In Game 2, Blacklist caught Omega’s Dean “Raizen” Sumagui out of position during a 14th-minute skirmish and erased their 4k net worth deficit.
Lee Howard “Owl” Gonzales (Karrie) and Kenneth Carl “Yue” Tadeo (Yve) finished with 5-0-6 and 5-1-8 KDAs respectively, pushing Blacklist to match point, 2-0.
Yue (Valentina) took a triple kill in the 2nd minute of Game 3, helping Blacklist establish a 7-0 spread after the 4th-minute turtle fight, leading them to victory by the 14th minute.
“Lahat ng ginawa namin nung regular season talaga is para makapagprepare para dito sa playoffs. So kung anuman yung mga naging pagkakamali naming ginawa nung regular season, inalis namin yun. Tas yung mga tama, yun yung plano naming gawin ngayong playoffs,” continued MasterTheBasics.
Blacklist will next face Bren Esports, who swept them in the regular season, to dispute a spot in the upper bracket finals tomorrow.
Omega’s loss marked their first back-to-back first-round exit in the MPL PH playoffs after finishing runner-up in Season 9.
