Blacklist secures upper bracket spot with rout of Incendio Supremacy in tiebreaker

Reigning champion Blacklist International overcame early hiccups to secure an upper bracket ticket in the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang M4 World Championship late Tuesday in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The Philippine bets first fell victim to Falcon Esports of Myanmar in their tiebreaker match with Min "Naomi" Ko Ko punishing the Filipinos with an impressive 3/3/13 KDA line to earn himself the MVP plum and more importantly, put Blacklist on the brink of dropping to lower bracket.

The loss came just minutes after Blacklist absorbed a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Falcon in their group stage match, which forged a three-way tie in Group A and a tiebreaker round robin.

But Blacklist found its groove back in the second and last tiebreaker match against Incendio Supremacy of Turkey to finally secure the last upper bracket slot in Group A.

Kiel "Oheb" Soriano (Wanwan) showed the way with eight kills and six assists against two deaths to help the Codebreakers eke out a 19-16 kill spread and the victory.

Blacklist will finish second in its group and will face the top seed in Group D in the knockout stage. Both Incendio and Burn X Flash, meanwhile, will drop to the lower bracket.

Johnmar "OhMyV33nus" Villaluna said their back-to-back losses to Falcons could be a blessing in disguise as it helped them prepare for the long haul.

"To be honest I don't feel that much. I'm not that sad that we lost twice to Falcon. I think it could be a blessing in disguise," the veteran shot caller said.

Danerie James "Wise" Del Rosario added: "For me being in the group stage, your number one priority is to be in the upper bracket which we got so I don't care if we lost to Falcon." -- BAP, GMA Integrated News