Blacklist International enters M4 upper bracket after thrilling tie break

MANILA, Philippines — Blacklist International secured a twice-to-beat advantage after finishing second in the M4 World Championship group stages in Jakarta, Indonesia with a late-night tie-break.

Having won the very first match of the competition on New Year's day against Turkey's Incendio Supremacy, the defending world champions were in for a tough day as they were to face two Filipino-helmed teams: Burn X Flash and Falcon Esports.

In their second group stage matchup, the agents faced Cambodia champions Burn X Flash, whose Filipino coach, John "Zico" Dizon, was guiding them virtually after testing positive for COVID-19 over the weekend. Blacklist controlled the game from the first minute, scoring an near-perfect game, 15-1.

The last test for Blacklist in the group stages was Myanmar's Falcon Esports, a dark horse and fan favorite of the competition. Leading the Burmese squad was another Filipino coach, Steve "Dale" Vitug, who aided Sibol in winning the first gold medal in Mobile Legends during the 2019 Southeast Asian Games in Manila.

Falcon Esports lived up to their reputation as they dealt the defending champions a heavy blow, coming out on top on every team fight throughout the game. Though Blacklist managed to defend and prolong the game to 16 minutes, the agents were outplayed by Falcon Esports, 3-16.

The loss also meant that Group A would head into a best-of-one round robin tie breaker with three teams — Blacklist, Incendio Supremacy and Falcon Esports — all ending the group stage with a 2-1 record.

Falcon Esports managed to avenge their earlier defeat at the hands of the Turkish team and repeat their domination against Blacklist, securing a 10-22 victory against the Filipinos to push themselves at the top of Group A.

With one upper bracket slot remaining, Blacklist scored another victory against Incendio Supremacy, 19-16, thanks to game MVP Kiel “OHEB” Soriano's Wanwan securing eight kills and Johnmar “OhMyV33NUS” Villaluna's 13 assists.

Blacklist will go up against the top-ranked team of Group D in the upper bracket of the knockout stages at 7 p.m. on January 8 (Manila time).