PH's Blacklist upset by BTK, crashes into lower bracket of MLBB M3 World Championship

Disaster struck as Blacklist International suffered a gut-wrenching 3-2 loss against USA's Blood Thirsty Kings (BTK) to fall into the lower bracket of the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang M3 World Championship on Saturday.

Although they were tentative in the Game 1 loss, Blacklist almost had it in the bag after going up 2-1 and controlling the tempo of Game 4 before committing consecutive errors that led to the unexpected reverse.

The North Americans surprised everyone in Game 1 with a Saber pick as their jungler and despite the unorthodox pick, BTK made their composition work like a well-oiled machine.

They started off with a first blood in the 1st minute then followed up with a 2-1 exchange in a 2nd minute turtle fight that helped Michael "MobaZane" Cosgun (Saber) to snowball right away. He zoomed to a 6-0-0 KDA tear by the 6th minute to lead a 7-3 BTK kill spread.

Another pick off on Wise in the 12th minute totally shattered Blacklist's defense and conceded the opening match, 1-0.

Kiel "OHEB" Soriano was shut down in the match as he was limited to a paltry 1-4-0 KDA despite playing his signature Harith in the goldlane. MobaZane on the other hand went on a rampage with a perfect 9-03 KDA.

Blacklist responded strongly in Game 2 as they unleashed the Hylos jungle pick, their first ever to date, despite facing natural counters against BTK in Lunox and Pharsa.

The Tier One-backed squad briefly conceded the lead in the early game after they lost in the orange buff invade and succumbed to a 1-2 exchange but the retaliation was prompt as they easily scored a 3-1 wipe during the 2nd minute turtle fight moments later.

It was all Blacklist from there as they completely controlled their rivals, including the flaunting of OHEB's (Alice) mechanical prowess when he outplayed two BTK aggressors and reversed the ambush instead with a triple kill. He finished with a 9-0-2 KDA.

The domination was very apparent in the kill score as Blacklist posted a 15-3 rampage in less than 12 minutes  of play.

It once again looked dangerous for Blacklist in the early to mid game of Game 3 as FwydChickn (Beatrix) successfully controlled OHEB (Lunox) in the gold lane to set the tone for BTK's fluid rotations.

MobaZane (Karina) then rampaged for a triple kill in the 12th minute that helped the Americans take the first lord of the match.

But with a late-game tailored draft, Blacklist found their chance in the 14th minute, where they scored a 3-0 take down then followed it up with a shut down on Victor in the 15th minute, to secure the luminous lord and reach match point, 2-1.

Blacklist was then able to control the majority of the match in Game 4 but a miscalculated overaggression by Johnmar “OhMyV33nus” Villaluna (Mathilda) and Wise (Hylos) in the 10th minute caught them out of position and led to a 4-1 exchange that turned the game around.

It was a standstill for some time until BTK took the luminous lord and executed a 3-0 takedown in the 15th minute to force the decider, 2-2.

BTK, who were playing without a coach, zoomed to an early 3-0 kill lead in Game 5 and successfully prevented OHEB and Wise to snowball that helped them dictate the tempo.

The Filipinos tried to mount a comeback as they forced a clash in the 5th minute, but BTK's magnificent display of mechanical skills forced a reset and the Americans scored a 5-0 wipe out in the ensuing play to successfully takedown the MPL PH heavyweights.

—JMB, GMA News