Onic PH asserts mastery over Blacklist International to take 5th win

Onic Philippines swept its regular season series matches against Blacklist International with a 2-1 win in Week 5 of the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League (MPL) Philippines Season 9 on Friday.

The Coach Yeb-mentored squad had to endure a resilient Blacklist squad in a lengthy Game 3 before letting Kairi "Kairi" Rayosdelsol bail them out with clutch displays for their fifth win in eight matches.

Onic now has 13 points to tie RSG at third place in the season standings while Blacklist went down with their seventh loss against a lone win for eight points.

In Game 1, Blacklist played like a well-oiled machine taking objectives and pickoffs after the other to take a slim net worth lead culminating in a 9th minute 5-2 wipeout that gave them the first lord of the match.

The defending champions almost had the win in the bag after Kent Xavier "Kevier" Lopez (Lancelot) throttled his way to a double kill to lead a 3-0 wipe but a just respawned Mark Christian "Markyyyyy" Capacio (Clint) clutched his way through a final base turret push defense with a 2-0 pick off.

This helped Onic take the 12th minute luminous lord and seize control until Allen "Baloyskie" Baloy (Franco) executed a perfect Iron Hook on Kiel "Oheb" Soriano (Kimmy) that touched off a 3-0 wipe giving Onic the opening win.

In parallel with Game 1, Blacklist once again took a slim lead from the early to mid game of Game 2 owing to superior macro strategies.

By prioritizing objectives over kills and protecting Oheb (Kimmy) at all times, Blacklist secured all lord takes and easily choked up Onic's map leading to a 15th minute equalizer, 1-1.

Salic "Hadji" Imam (Chou) displayed pivotal initiations to finish with a 1-0-7 KDA. He combined with Dexstar Louise "Dex Star" Alaba (Jawhead) to provide Kevier (Ling) and Oheb with excellent set-up plays and protection against Onic's aggression.

The M3 runners-up then opted to unleash Baloyskie's roaming Natalia pick that gave Blacklist problems early in Game 3 with his overall presence leading to a 8-2 kill spread by the 7th minute and a 3k gold lead.

But the reigning world champions showed composure in surviving five lord takes and extended the match deep into lategame.

Kairi (Ling) had to clutch steal the luminous lord, the sixth of the match, in a 30th minute clash then followed it up with a pick off on Oheb (Beatrix) to finally put away the pesky Blacklist squad.

He finished with an immaculate 6-0-4 KDA in the decider.

—MGP, GMA News