Blacklist takes down title favorites Onic Esports in MLBB M3 World Championship lower bracket playoffs

Blacklist International got their sweet revenge on the grandest stage as they survived Indonesia's Onic Esports to keep their hopes alive in the lower bracket of the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang M3 World Championship on Tuesday.

The win allowed them to avenge their loss to the Indonesian champions who took the MPL Invitational 2020 title via a 3-1 drubbing of the Filipino squad.

Onic ID opted for an early game aggressive draft in Game 1 taking Selena and Hylos which proved effective as they established a 6-2 minute lead by the 6th minute.

But Blacklist came knocking as they took three unanswered kills en route to a 10th minute lord take to seize control of the match.

It was a close fight from there until a Blacklist won a 21st minute lord fight that Kiel "OHEB" Soriano (Beatrix) followed up with a triple kill in the ensuing clash to spearhead a close out 5-2 wipe, 1-0.

Blacklist looked on the verge of a sweep as they established a 5-1 kill spread by the 9th minute and a 4.5k gold lead courtesy of Salik "Hadji" Imam's (Chou) perfect set-ups of the Way of the Dragon.

But the Philippine champions started to lose grip when Danerie James “Wise.” Del Rosario (Kimmy) was picked off followed by another pick off on OHEB (Beatrix) in the 15th minute as the Indonesians started to make their move owing to their superior late game composition.

Onic ID's Sanz "S A N Z" Gilang (Natan) then executed a superb mechanical display as they survived a 20th minute ambush from Blacklist then scored a 2-0 reverse for the equalizer, 1-1.

But with the series reaching the rubber match, Blacklist stuck to their strengths and relied on their tried and tested macro plays as they slowly choked up Onic ID and took objective after objective. They went up by 5k in the net worth by the 8th minute despite a combined three kills from both teams at that point.

A crucial pick off on Nicky "Kiboy" Fernando (Rafaela) helped the two-time MPL winners to secure the lord in the 10th minute then took down all Onic ID inhibitor turrets as they widened the gold lead to 10k.

It was only a matter of time from there as they cruised to an easy Game 3 win.

—JMB, GMA News