No pressure for heavy favorite Blacklist ahead of M3 World Championship, says team manager

SINGAPORE — All eyes will be on Blacklist International when the highly-anticipated Mobile Legends: Bang Bang M3 World Championship rolls out on December 6 here.

The Philippine bets, however, said there will be zero pressure on their shoulders heading into the tournament.

"We try to ease things up since this is M3 and this is far different from the other championships we had in the local [scene]," Blacklist International team manager Rovin Manapat said in Filipino during a virtual press conference Wednesday.

"This is already the world [tournament]. No pressure."

Blacklist is among the most-feared squads in M3.

Bannered by Johnmar "OhMyV33nus" Villaluna, Danerie James "Wise" Del Rosario, Kiel Calvin "OHEB" Soriano, Edward Jay "EDWARD" Dapadap, Salic "Hadji" Imam, and Dexter Louise "DEX STAR" Alaba, Blacklist is tipped to be a strong title contender.

In fact, the team is still on a high after notching back-to-back local titles with a dominant performance in the recent Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League (MPL) Philippines Season 8.

Its magical run, though, was halted when Indonesia's Onic Esports defeated the squad in the Mobile Legends Professional League (MPL) Invitational grand finals early last month.

Aside from living up to the hype, Blacklist also has a chance to duplicate what another Philippine representative, Bren Esports, did in the previous edition of the world championships.

Bren, whose core delivered a gold medal for the Philippines in the 2019 SEA Games, defeated Myanmar's Burmese Ghouls with a dramatic 4-3 victory to emerge as M2 champions earlier this year.

But with a lot of expectations from them, the Filipinos said they will have the same mindset and approach come M3.

"We'll just play our game. What we have been doing in the past, we will just continue it because it's all working for us," said Manapat.

—MGP, GMA News