With the M3 World Championships moving into its playoff stage, Blacklist International and BloodThirstyKings were the first to fight.
While the group stage of the M3 World Championships had come to an end, it was time for things to move into the playoffs, as teams were ready to fight for their chance to claim the crown. The upper bracket would be where things begun, as those teams that fought valiantly in the group stage were first up, but it was far beyond the best-of-ones, as the upper bracket would be a best-of-five, with new strategies and huge plays coming out.
Decoded, Destroyed, Dominated
One of the tournament favourites were first up to play, with Blacklist International taking to the stage. Their first opponents were the North American challenger that surprised us all as they worked their way into the upper bracket, ready to show that their region was not to be counted out. Game one was absolutely crazy, as the NA squad managed to tear the Philippine’s champions apart. A Sabre at their core was all it took for BloodThirstyKings to absolutely dominate the Blacklist squad, taking a huge first win.
However, OHEB’s Alice would be the factor that brought the MPL PH champions back into the game, going 9/0/2 in game 2, shutting down his opponents with ease as they tied up the series. BTK were not about to give up on their brilliance, as they went into the next game looking amazing. The NA squad gave Blacklist a huge challenge in the early game period, finding some great pick offs, but being the champions of their region, Blacklist held strong and, with the help of OHEB again, and took the series lead.
While they were on the backfoot, BTK were not down-and-out just yet. Blacklist had an early game advantage in the next game, but they did not expect a fight back from their NA opposition. BTK’s fantastic formula managed to defeat the comfort picks from Blacklist, which included an OhMyV33nus Mathilda. In a massive swing, BTK managed to turn the game around, taking the win and moving the first series of the M3 World Championships to a decisive game five.
A series that we never expected to go this far had made it to a fifth and decisive game, as BTK took Blacklist to the limit. The fact that BTK had already taken Blacklist to their limit meant that they were not about to give up at all, as the final game in the series saw the NA team absolutely dominating the MPL Champions, pushing them back to their base and ticking off the objectives across the map. Although Blacklist tried their best, somehow, the NA team were able to decode everything that they had, taking a massive win.
An upset is not even a way to describe this, as the North American Challengers take down a team that are tournament favourites, winning the series 3-2, and moving forward in the upper bracket. For Blacklist International, the lower bracket is where they will look to create chaos, after an extremely poor performance in their opening series.