Another year, another chance to tell the world that: 'Pinas lang malakas.
The Philippines is set to make noise again in the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang scene of the booming esports industry. The country's two representatives, MPL Philippines champion Blacklist International and runner-up ECHO, both advanced to the upper bracket playoffs of the M4 World Championship, where the best teams around the world compete.
This is familiar territory for the Filipinos. Blacklist International is the defending champions of the global tilt, winning the M3 World Championship, but they weren't the sole Pinoys on top back then. They went against ONIC Philippines in last year's all-Filipino finale.
This year, ECHO took the slot of ONIC to represent PH, and they hope to replicate their predecessor's path to the Finals. They have started well, actually.
ECHO’s Impressive Group Stage Run
ECHO had a convincing run in Group C after sweeping their opponents, Indonesia’s RRQ Hoshi, RSG Singapore, and Egypt’s Occupy Thrones, for a 3-0 record.
Controversy, however, struck the team when management decided to bench Tristan Cabrera in their first two matches. Cabrera, better known as Yawi, has been in hot water over an alleged cheating scandal while being in a relationship with Jennifer Nierva of the NU Lady Bulldogs.
In his return to ECHO’s third and final game in the group stage, Yawi proved that he is a star roamer indeed, recording 1 kill and 10 assists as ECHO dominated RSG Singapore, a two-time MPL Singapore champion.
ECHO is set to begin its upper bracket run on Saturday, January 7, as it faces TEAM HAQ in a best-of-five series for a spot in the upper bracket semifinals.
Blacklist shakes off rocky start
Blacklist International was also able to get the job done in qualifying for the upper bracket of the M4 World Championship, however, their run wasn’t dominating, which is what fans have grown accustomed to seeing after they won the MPL PH title in Seasons 7, 8, and 10.
In what many consider as the “Group of Death,” Blacklist, along with Indonesia’s Falcon Esports and Turkey’s Incendio Supremacy, finished with a 2-1 record in the group stage.
Falcon finished on top of the group after defeating Blacklist twice. The defending champions, though, secured second place after beating Incendio in their match.
Back at M3, Blacklist were stunned by North America's BloodThirstyKings in the first round of the Knockout Stage. While they did end up winning M3, the Filipino squad knows that there’s no room to be complacent, especially with more talented rosters across the board this time around.
With a few days to rest and practice, Blacklist will have enough time to game plan as they face Brazil’s RRQ Akira in the quarterfinals on Sunday, January 8.
Will there be an all-Filipino Finals repeat at M4?
Given their seedings in the playoffs, Blacklist and ECHO do not have the do-or-die burden like the teams in the lower bracket. That is an advantage that can solidify their chance to replicate last year's PH vs PH Finals. It's a long way ahead, but fans are locked in and ready to cheer their hearts out.
Let's go, Philippines!