Aside from the ‘Nice One, Baby’ meta that the team popularized, Blacklist International was also responsible for putting Aldous, a hero that was rarely seen in the professional ranks, back on the map.
Blacklist International’s schemes were so effective to the point that they played a crucial part in determining the winners of three of the four Mobile Legends: Professional League.
EVOS Legends – the first-ever Mobile Legends world champions – used the ‘Nice One, Baby’ strategy to win MPL-Indonesia grand finals against Bigetron Alpha. The Popol and Kupa of Gustian “REKT” Hidayat and the Estes of Maxhill “Antimage” Leonardo proved to be the deciding factor of the title-clinching Game Six.
Meanwhile, MPL-Singapore inaugural champion EVOS SG brought out Aldous in the Game One of the grand finals against RSG SG. There, Andrew “Potato” Lim delivered one hell of an Aldous performance which set the tone for the rest of the series.
And just last Sunday, the team that molded these unorthodox strategies finally claimed the MPL-Philippines championship – reminding everyone that sticking to the status quo isn’t always the best way to go.
While we all know where the healing strategy originated, fans never really knew where on Earth that Aldous pick came from. Fortunately, Danerie “Wise” Del Rosario finally shed light on the matter.
He first got the idea when he was playing ranked games with captain Johnmar “OhMyV33NUS” Villaluna. The V33Wise duo got teamed up with an Aldous main who has almost 5,000 matches under the hero.
Instead of the usual damage items, the Aldous player went for the Beast Killer, Thunder Belt, Oracle, and the game-changing Courage mask as his core items. At first glance, Wise never really liked the idea. But once he emulated the player’s item build on Aldous, he became an instant fan.
“Alam niyo ba yung item [build] na yun, nakuha ko lang yun nung nag duo kami ni Vee sa ranked games. May nakakampi kaming Aldous na 5k matches, tapos jina-judge ko pa siya nung una kasi sabi ko, ‘Ba’t ganto yung item neto tapos naka mask pa?” shared Wise during the MPL-Philippines grand finals press conference.
“Tapos tinry ko, pinagtripan ko sabi ko, ‘Coach! Gusto ko ‘to! Gusto ko ‘to! Favorite ko na’to.’ Kaya shoutouts doon sa Aldous na nakakampi namin. Thank you, thank you!”
