Onic opens MPL PH S9 with revenge win over Blacklist

Onic Philippines gained some measure of revenge for their M3 World Championship loss to Blacklist International as they opened their Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League (MPL) Philippines Season 9 campaign with a 2-1 win on Friday.

It was a close win for the perennial MPL powerhouse, needing to weather some strong contention from Blacklist, which was missing the services of key duo Johnmar “OhMyV33nus” Villaluna and Danerie James “Wise.” Del Rosario after the two decided to skip Season 9.

The M3 runners-up banked on an early-game superior draft in Game 1 that led to pesky invades on the opposing jungle helping Kairi “Kairi” Rayosdelsol (Lancelot) establish a 3-level lead on Blacklist's debuting jungler, Kent Xavier “Kevier” Lopez (Balmond).

After scoring a 3rd minute first blood, Gerald “Dlarskie” Trinchera (Phoveus) followed it up with a double kill in a 4th minute 2-1 midlane clash. Kairi continued the Onic rampage with a triple kill moments later during a tumultuous turtle fight as the Season 8 runners-up established a commanding lead.

A 12th minute luminous lord take, coupled with a 13th minute wipeout gave Onic the lead in a dominating Game 1 win, 1-0.

Blacklist quickly came back in Game 2 with Edward Jay "Edward" Dapadap introducing the Dyrroth + petrify spell into the Season 9 meta. His exploits completely shutdown Kairi (Paquito) who went from a 5-0-2 KDA by the 7th minute to finishing with a 5-4-7 KDA.

The M3 champions took control of the match from the 8th minute after a shutdown on Kairi until Onic succumbed to a 27th minute loss after a lengthy lord fight left their base open to the marching super minions, 1-1.

Edward finished with a 5-3-4 KDA, including two crucial pickoffs on Kairi, while MPL rookie Kevier (Yi Sun Shin) finally took his debut win with a 1-0-5 KDA.

The three-time MPL runners-up then reintroduced the Fanny jungler into the MPL PH meta in Game 3 as Kairi's prowess was on full display in the early game, taking a 5-0-1 KDA by the 8th minute.

Despite Blacklist successfully extending the match into the late game, Onic refused to crumble with a 23rd minute luminous lord take and a 3-2 exchange in a base turret push to take the series win.

—JMB, GMA News