MANILA, Philippines – Blacklist International marched into the grand finals of the 2022 Sibol Mobile Legends National Team Selection after a flawless performance against RSG Philippines on Saturday, January 29.

The reigning world champion, Blacklist lived up to its billing by sweeping the best-of-five upper bracket finals, 3-0, to move one series win away from representing the country in the Southeast Asian Games.

Recruited by Blacklist for the Sibol qualifiers since Kiel “Oheb” Soriano and Edward “Edward” Dapadap did not meet the age requirement, Lee Howard “Owl” Gonzales and Kyle Dominic “Dominic” Soto exceeded expectations in the romp.

Owl particularly shone in the series with no deaths throughout all three games as he utilized Brody to its full extent, tallying 3 kills and 5 assists in Game 1 and accounting for all of their 9 kills in Game 3.

Blacklist blanked RSG, 10-0, in a shutout Game 1 victory, which set the tone for the rest of the series that saw the reigning two-time Mobile Legends Professional League Philippines titleholders finish all matches in under 16 minutes.

With RSG unable to contain Owl, Blacklist wasted no time to wrap up the upper bracket finals with a swift 13-minute win in Game 3.

Salic “Hadji” Imam (Chou) backstopped Owl in Game 3 with 8 assists, while Danerie James “Wise” del Rosario (Kimmy) churned out 5 assists.

Blacklist has lost only one game in the SEA Games qualifiers after toppling Bren Esports, 2-1, and making quick work of Nexplay EVOS, 3-0.

RSG, meanwhile, still has a chance to reach the grand finals as it faces the winner between Nexplay and Onic Philippines in the lower bracket finals on Sunday, January 29. – Rappler.com