ALL streaks come to and end, and this time, it was Blacklist Ultimate’s turn to have their code broken, after five Call of Duty Mobile championships in nine dominant months.
Smart Omega announced their re-entry atop the PH CODM pro scene as they upset heavy favorites and reigning champions Blacklist Ultimate to win the CODM Garena Masters Season 2.
The former ‘kings of Garena’ ascend to the peak of CODM once more after an absence of almost two years.
Smart Omega has broken the code which has puzzled so many teams for so long, including powerhouses ALMGHTY of Singapore and DG Esports of Indonesia. They stopped Blacklist on their tracks and denied them a sixth straight championship.
Smart Omega vs Blacklist: A tale of two halves
Before clinching the championship, the boys donning the green, black, and blue battled through a chain of adversities before achieving their goal. Earlier in the day, Blacklist trounced Smart Omega 3-1 to send them into the lower bracket, where Omega had to face their old nemesis, ALMGHTY from Singapore.
Despite dispatching the Singaporean squad 3-1 to face Blacklist again, they were now in a twice-to-beat disadvantage scenario.
Smart Omega fought hard but lost two close games in Hardpoint at Raid (144-150) and Search and Destroy at Standoff (3-6) and then delivered a performance for the books, winning three straight games in Domination at Firing Range (150-110), Hardpoint at Summit (150-114) and Search and Destroy at Raid (6-4), forcing a bracket reset and reverse sweeping Blacklist Ultimate in the process.
Blacklist, flustered from that first series loss, looked flat at the start of the second series. That was all Smart Omega needed to go all the way, never looking back for a second. They clinched the championship via wins over at Takeoff Hardpoint (150-76), Standoff Search and Destroy (6-3) and Summit Hardpoint 150-101, and denied Blacklist Ultimate their chance at a six-peat.
In regional CODM, Blacklist has found a worthy counterpart in a fellow Philippine team, and the PH is now arguably the strongest region in Garena CODM right now. Moreover, Smart Omega’s road to redemption is finally complete, after almost two years of heartbreak.