FROM THE very first day of the Mobile Legends: Southeast Asia Cup, Blacklist International were steamrolling the opposition.
No one could seem to find a kryptonite to their “ultimate bonding experience” strategy. Even the best teams in the region — EVOS Legends, Bigetron Alpha, Resurgence MY — thought they were able to find a solution only for them to miserably fail.
And then Blacklist encountered local rivals Execration.
In their previous meeting in the local championships, Execration had the upper hand with only one game remaining, but stumbled in the rest of the series, leading to Blacklist lifting the MPL-PH trophy.
But in the MSC, Execration were finally able to slay their misfortunes by dominating Blacklist in 4-1 series win.
A key cog to their success was their choice of bans. They allowed Blacklist to utilize their signature tactic, but they also negated the biggest threats that make the strategy impenetrable — namely Mathilda, Estes, and Aldous.
In fact, Execration banned all three heroes in all games except the second, as Joshua “Ch4knu” Mangilog was given the opportunity to play the Swift Plume.
So why did Execration ban these three heroes? Let’s study how crucial these three heroes are to Blacklist’s overall strategy, and how banning them — coupled with Renz Errol Salonga “Renzio” Cadua’s crucial plays — became the key to Execration’s victory.
Grounding Mathilda Airlines
When Blacklist International gets the opportunity to play Mathilda, the Filipino casters would oftentimes scream the following phrase at the top of their lungs: “THE MATHILDA AIRLINES! THE MATHILDA AIRLINES!”
Johnmar “OhMyV33nus” Villaluna’s mastery of this hero has always left a lasting impression on everyone. We’ve always been amazed at how he single handedly dismantled Bren Esports during the MPL-PH season 7 playoffs, and how he made a fool out of Ahmad Zaki “Zacus” Ibrahim during Blacklist’s domination of Resurgence MY.
Mathilda serves a lot of purposes for Blacklist International. First, she can instantly weaken Execration’s early game, as her poke damage, combined with her surprise entrances and the damage outburst from her teammates, can either starve Kiel VJ “Kielvj” Hernandez or Duane “Kelra” Pillas.
Second, her surprise entrances can also force Execration to immediately unleash their abilities, which will allow Danerie James “Wise” Del Rosario to counter-engage in teamfights.
Third, her presence could instantly annihilate key members from the squad. Losing Ch4knu or Renz Errol “Renzio” Cadua would be crucial as Execration might not have some safety net options if ever things go wrong in a teamfight.
Ultimately, Mathilda negates every counter-initiation or snowballing opportunity for Execration.
Eliminating Estes
Mathilda wasn’t the only OhMyV33nus specialty that’s worth eliminating from the equation. Estes has also been an integral piece in Blacklist’s roaming strategy.
It can be argued that banning Estes isn’t really a factor as Blacklist can just use Rafaela as an alternative. However the Moon Elf King has proven to be more decisive in bonding strategies over the Archangel. The former has two healing abilities that, when combined with support items, could further enhance the sustainability of Blacklist’s “ube” strategy.
Plus, he could also slow down the members of Execration, which is definitely a detriment to them once their mobility and damage abilities have been exhausted.
Given that Blacklist is known to select Kiel Calvin “OHEB” Soriano’s Harith, who can sustain himself with shields and who can also slow down Execration’s mobility through his Zaman Force, it’s best to limit his capabilities by denying the healing factor from Estes.
Anti-Aldous
Patrick James “E2MAX” Caidic said it best during the post-match press interview: Blacklist loves to weaken the assassin meta and they do so by abusing Aldous.
Ling may be considered to be the most mobile of heroes. However, his mobility can be countered by Aldous launching his Contract: Chase Fate ability. It also doesn’t help that Aldous’s damage outburst can instantly kill assassin-type heroes as they don’t have the sustainability to absorb his Soul Steal and Explosion combination.
Plus, among all of Danerie James “Wise” Del Rosario’s hero pool, Aldous provides him the opportunity to play very aggressive in the early game. The sustainability and damage allows him to engage in early skirmishes, which bodes well with OHEB’s Harith and any of OhMyV33nus’s hero pool. Every kill that Wise accumulates would snowball until the late game, making him a one-punch machine that will force teams to tremble in agony.
Denying Aldous meant that Wise was left with Granger, Yu Sun-Shin, and Brody, which forces him to simply take objectives and play conservatively.
But Aldous wasn’t the only factor in limiting Wise. Execration put the final nail in Execration’s coffin by denying Bruno, who could allow him to slowly establish a high critical damage output in the latter stages of the game.
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