Blacklist suffers reverse sweep to Onic in MPLI finals

Blacklist International failed to capitalize on their opening win and succumbed to a 3-1 loss via reverse sweep against Indonesia's Onic Esports in the Mobile Legend: Bang Bang Profesional League (MPL) Invitational 2021 on Sunday.

The MPL PH Season 8 champs duplicated the feat achieved by Bren Esports in the MPLI 2020 when they also finished second behind Indonesia's Alter Ego.

Blacklist International drew first blood after they took Game 1 in dominant fashion, not surrendering any turret to the Indonesian champions, and finishing off Onic in just 14 minutes.

Kiel “OHEB” Soriano (Lunox) lorded over the goldlane as he outplayed Calvin “CW” Winata (2-3-3 KDA on the Bruno) thoroughly with a 7-0-3 KDA.

It looked like a shutdown was on the way after Blacklist scored 7 unanswered kills and established a 2k gold lead by the 8th minute of Game 2 but a crucial pick off on Danerie James “Wise.” Del Rosario (Bane) in an 11th minute jungle invade led to a Sanz "S A N Z" Gilang (Yi Sun shin) triple kill that turned the game around.

Another 3-0 wipe in the 14th minute helped Onic to equalize, 1-1.

In Game 3, both teams engaged in a close early game but Blacklist miscalculated in an 8th minute ambush that led to a 3-0 turnaround wipe as Onic Esports wrestled control of the match.

S A N Z (Yi Sun Shin) easily snowballed with clutch pick offs and outplays, finishing with a 5-0-5 KDA to bring his team to championship-point, 2-1.

Both teams engaged in a nip-and-tuck Game 4 where Onic scored a 5-0 and almost completed the win in the 15th minute but Edward (Paquito) scored a double kill in a crucial defensive stand to extend the match.

But Blacklist miscalculated the midlane base turret push a minute later and was punished by a Muhammad Satrya "Butsss" Sanubari (Esmeralda) double kill that proved to be the final nail on the coffin.

Blacklist has one more chance to get back at Onic Esports in the M3 World Championship where they will represent the Philippines along with Onic PH.

—JMB, GMA News