Day two of the ONE Esports MPL Invitational kicked off with Blacklist International emerging victorious over MPL MY/SG team RSG.
After the game, ONE Esports was able to catch Blacklist International in a post-game interview to discuss the team’s renewed dynamics.
Though the team faced a blowout by RSG in the first game, coach Bon Chan knew what aspects were lacking in their team play.
“We came up short on objectives,” said the Blacklist coach. “We needed to get early game objectives done like tower breakdowns and Lords. We also had some miscommunications along the way that broke our execution.”
Blacklist went in with the same approach in game two, but their draft had some significant characters added in. With the failed Diggie strategy, BLCK utilized Yi Sun-shin and OhMyV33NUS’ trademark Estes as their main supports to the Pharsa comfort pick.
While the Estes pick was a questionable one due to RSG having both in-meta heroes with Brody and Barats, it came to be an essential factor to Blacklist’s sustaining presence in the late game.
“We wanted to prioritize the early clashes,” said Bon Chan. “As for the Estes pick, we know that the meta has changed frequently, but opponents don’t know that we have the queen of Estes.”
As for the final game, the players knew that their team composition could withstand RSG’s early game domination with enough farming and map control.
“We were pretty confident in the late game because of our composition,” stated OhMyV33NUS. “We knew that we would have enough damage output in any given clash and the Harith pick was the key playmaker there.”
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With OhMyV33NUS and Wise joining the team just a few weeks before the competition, the support player expounded that the transition was fairly easy.
“For me, the transition was super smooth,” said V33NUS. “We’ve known them for a long time and we’ve fought with them before so we’re very familiar on how their team works.”
With Geek Fam ID as their next opponents, the team said that they’re still savoring the victory against RSG and will still take some time to study the rising ID team.
“We usually just work for coach’s analysis and see how we can approach the team,” said team captain DEX STAR. “But we’d rather take on the teams one at a time than study them all at once.”
Blacklist will be the final PH representative on the RRQ and Todak side of the bracket, but the pressure of country representation doesn’t really hinder their mindsets.
“There’s no pressure,” said Bon chan. “We’re just enjoying our time in the competition and we’re doing everything that we’ve practiced to win.”
To conclude the interview, the coach challenged their next opponents of Geek Fam ID in a jokingly manner.
“Prepare for trouble and make it double,” stated Bon chan.
READ MORE: Blacklist International win a 2-1 thriller over RSG
