JAKARTA, Indonesia – One down, three more to go.

Blacklist International inched closer to defending its throne in the Mobile Legends M4 World Championship after overcoming Brazil’s RRQ Akira to reach the upper bracket semifinals on Sunday, January 8.

Going back to the drawing board after twice losing to Myanmar’s Falcon Esports in the group stage, Blacklist avoided a repeat of its M3 campaign when it slipped to the lower bracket after the first round of the knockout stage.

“We just went back to basics,” said Blacklist head coach Kristoffer “Bon Chan” Ricaplaza. “We did not want to complicate things for ourselves. We stuck to our strengths.”

Salic “Hadji” Imam showed the way for Blacklist as he earned the MVP honors twice in the best-of-five duel, capping his impressive series with 5 kills and 13 assists against 1 death on Pharsa in the clincher.

RRQ Akira avoided a sweep with a crucial Game 3 win, but that only delayed the inevitable as Blacklist wrapped up Game 4 in just 14 minutes.

Kiel “Oheb” Soriano lived up to his moniker as the “Filipino Sniper” with a game-high 7 kills along with 2 assists against 1 death on Beatrix, while Edward “Edward” Dapadap tallied 5 kills and 5 assists against 1 death on Benedetta.

Johnmar “OhMyV33nus” Villaluna also shone on her trademark hero Estes with a perfect outing of 1 kill and a game-high 17 assists against 0 deaths in Game 4.

Up next for Blacklist is Indonesia’s RRQ Hoshi, which earlier swept past Malaysia’s Todak to stay in the upper bracket.

While Blacklist gave RRQ Hoshi the boot in M3 on the way to the championship, star jungler Danerie James “Wise” del Rosario said that win is already a thing of the past.

“Last M3, we beat RRQ. But right now, it has been a year so we do not know what will happen, but we will do our best,” said Wise.

It is essentially the Philippines versus Indonesia in the upper bracket semifinals as the other pairing pits Echo against Onic Esports.

Blacklist gets the first crack at a spot in the upper bracket finals when it faces RRQ Hoshi on January 11 before Echo tangles with Onic Esports on January 12. – Rappler.com