THE INTERNATIONAL
It was through this dream that Blacklist’s Dota 2 roster was formed. On paper, they were the ultimate Filipino dream team consisting of stars from the former TNC Predator’s golden years.
But it was a dream yet to realize as the team struggled to find their groove in Tour 1 before ultimately losing gas in back-to-back tiebreakers for the last two spots to the Lima Major.
Tour 2 saw Blacklist hire Michael “ninjaboogie” Ross Jr. as a coach to avoid that last-minute collapse in Tour 1. Unfortunately, the team still lacked the missing piece in tour 2 as they finished 5th once again denied a spot to a major.
Finally, things needed to change in Tour 3.

Preparing for Tour 3
In an exclusive interview with SPIN.ph during the MPL Season 11 playoffs, Blacklist CEO Tryke Gutierrez revealed some of the work they did prior to the start of tour 3.
“After the last major meron kaming na-identify na dalawang problems talaga ng Dota 2 team. The first one is leadership and the second one is yung composition ng tatlong core namin, medyo resource heavy,” Gutierrez said. “Somebody has to give in terms of the resources available in the map diba?”
It was this learning that prompted the team to move Carlo “Kuku” Palad to position 5 (heavy support). For Tryke this was hitting two birds with one stone.
“What we were looking for is leadership. The problem really is sinong position 5 ang ilalagay mo para sumunod yung apat na players. Diba? You don’t have a lot of leaders in SEA. So Kuku is someone na leader na talaga nung group, parang mas madaling magtransition na ng 5 because he will have more bandwidth to command and decide.”
Bringing in a “Pinoy” Import
With Kuku moving back to support, Blacklist needed someone who can fill the role of Offlane whose playstyle would match the team’s needs. Enter Damien “kpii” Chok.
Kpii is no stranger to the Southeast Asian Dota 2 scene, playing with Mineski in 2018 along with ninjaboogie. The Australian would then play for TNC Predator from 2019 to 2021 before moving to Talon and then most recently Fnatic.
It was his time with TNC that endeared Kpii to some Pinoy fans as he was part of the team that lifted the organization’s first Major Trophy during a dominant run at the Chengdu Major in 2019. It was this, and his familiarity with the rest of the Blacklist player that made Gutierrez joke that Kpii was a Pinoy.
“Now the reason why we got Kpii is because si Kpii is not a resource-heavy core. So hopefully with that adjustment mag-iba yung dynamic nung timpla ng team. And pinoy si Kpii ah,” he gleefully shared.
He further shared that it was this familiarly that gave Kpii the edge during the brief tryout Blacklist conducted during the break between Tour 2 and 3.
“To be honest, nagtest kami ng dalawa pang players bukod kay Kpii, hindi kami namili lang. We had them audition (try out) for the team and siya yung pinaka-nagclick for some reason.”
“Kpii is one of many talaga. And I think, sabi ko nga, bagay yung playstyle niya. Resource heavy kasi, I mean there’s not enough gold in the room for all of our cores before. Kay Kpii hindi siya masyadong resource heavy na core eh”
That said, he also revealed that it was just the offlane that was tried with the team, testing out other players and roles prior to the roster move.
“Hindi ko sinasabi na hindi ok yung playstyle ni Kuku ah. Kung iba yung mid ok lang din, kung iba yung safelane ok lang din. Somebody had to adjust and unfortunately it was Kuku.” He explained.
Why ninjaboogie remained as a coach instead of playing
In the world of Dota 2 esports its also common to see coaches suit up when the team wanted to try out new roster. So it begged to be asked didn’t Blacklist switch Ninjaboogie and Eyyou. As it turned out, it was also Tryke’s decision to keep ninjaboogie as the coach instead of having him suit up.
For Gutierrez Ninjaboogie’s coaching style was more important for the team than him playing.
“If we moved him to 5, then who coaches? And ilan lang din kasi yung coach na available who doesn’t impose their philosophy on the game.”
“I’m not sure if you know… yung other coaches out there, meron silang brand of Dota na gusto nila laruin ng team. Pero in our team kasi hindi pwede yung ganoon eh. Hindi mo pwede sila diktahan na ito yung laro. Kase that was one of their concerns when they joined us. ‘Na parang gusto namin malaro yung laro namin.’ So kailangan ng ko ng coach na kaya makinig sa kanila and kaya mag-verbalized nung players verbally sa kanya. So another practical decision.”
After their second-place finish in Tour 3, Blacklist still has a mountain to climb to earn their spot in Seattle this October.
The team currently has 380 points and is 20th in the overall DPC ranking. Five teams have already secured their direct invites to TI, meaning Blacklist needs to win the Bali Major. They still need to have everything going for them in terms of the other team’s placement in order to break into the Top 12 TI invitees.
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