MANILA, Philippines — Mission accomplished for Blacklist International as they have reclaimed the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League Philippines (MPL PH) crown after overpowering ECHO, 4-2, in the Grand Finals of Season 10 at The Blue Leaf Cosmopolitan at Quezon City Sunday.
In the previous edition of the league, the three-time champions faced early elimination during the regular season as the Agents missed key players Johnmar "OhMyV33nus" Villaluna and Danerie "Wise" Del Rosario, who took a season break to focus on the Southeast Asian Games.
With the return of the "V33Wise" duo, the agents secured top seed after the regular season in Season 10 to be one step closer in reclaiming their crown.
One team stood in their way: the Orca Super Team, ECHO.
Knowing the strength of their opponent, Blacklist International started strong with a 13-5 win in just under 16 minutes to begin their best-of-seven series.
Del Rosario's Valentina was in full force with 92% kill participation, giving him MVP in the game.
But ECHO had a secret weapon, the season debut of the hero Valir in the capable hands of ECHO's romaer, Tristan “Yawi” Cabrera, giving the orcas Game Two to equalize.
Game Three saw the tides turn as it gave ECHO the lead, 2-1, but Blacklist International was quick to answer back with a dominant Game Four outing to once again equalize the series, 2-2 with a 22-6 victory.
Blacklist International knew they could not make any more mistakes and continued with their aggressive play, wiping out the side of ECHO within the first eight minutes of the Game Five with the heroics of Salic "Hadji" Imam on the Pharsa.
Now at match point and motivated to reclaim their spot at the MPL PH summit, Blacklist International waited patiently to force ECHO to make a mistake and just as both teams moved to take the lord, the Agents made their move to close out ECHO in Game Six.
With the win, Blacklist International makes history as the first team in MPL PH to take home their third MPL PH crown overall.
They also take home the lion's share of the prize pool, $35,000 (approximately Php 2,060,625.00).
The Agents, along with ECHO, will head to Jakarta, Indonesia for the M4 World Champions next year where the former are the defending champions.