Blacklist moves past Omega to notch back-to-back MPL PH grand finals appearances

Blacklist International survived a resilient Omega Esports and avenged their upper bracket loss via a 3-1 win to take the last slot to the grand finals of the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League (MPL) Philippines Season 8 playoffs on Sunday.

It was the 4th playoff date between the two teams where Omega came out on top during the last two outings, the MLBB Southeast Asian Cup grand finals and the Season 8 upper bracket semifinals.

The Tier One-backed squad jumped the gun early in Game 1 and established a 3k gold lead by the 6th minute on the back of a 2-0-3 Johnmar “OhMyV33nus” Villaluna (Rafaela) KDA.

After taking the lord in the 10th minute, Blacklist did not waste time finishing off their rivals with a 4-1 wipe in the 13th minute to lead, 1-0.

They did not let up in Game 2 as they easily posted a 5-1 kill spread by the 6th minute and managed to expand their gold lead to 5k by the 10th with a 10-3 kill spread spearheaded by Kiel “OHEB” Soriano's (Alice) 3-0-4 KDA.

A sudden midlane clash in the 12th minute resulted in a 5-1 wipe for Blacklist that put them up 2-0. OHEB finished with a 5-0-6 KDA.

It looked like a sweep was on the way after a 3-0 wipe scored by Blacklist in the 7th minute followed by 4 unanswered kills in a 9th minute turtle fight.

But 2021 MSC champs displayed mechanical brilliance in the 13th minute to score a 4-0 wipe that abruptly ended the game, 2-1.

With momentum on their side, Omega used the Selena and Grock picks to lord over the map in the early game and take pickoffs after pickoffs.

But Salic “HAD JI” Imam (Chou) caught an out of position Duane “Kelra” Pillas (Alice) in the 12th minute that led to a 2-0 wipe plus the luminous lord.

It was Blacklist's for the taking from there as they used another luminous lord take in the 17th minute to finish off Omega.

—JMB, GMA News