Blacklist International continued to show why they were once the best in the world with a swift victory over Fire Flux Impunity.
headline photo courtesy of Moonton Games
Only one non-Southeast Asian team remained in the first Mobile Legends Southeast Asia Cup to feature teams from outside the region, as Fire Flux Impunity flew the Turkish flag into the Knockout Stage. Unfortunately for the team, they were drawn to face off against the M3 World Champions, Blacklist International. During the M4 World Championships earlier this year, a few of the players from FIMP had faced Blacklist in the Group Stage, so they knew what they were heading into.
Continuing on their dismantling of teams which we saw during the Group Stage of MSC 2023, Blacklist went into the series with vigour, leaving the Turkish squad to pick up the pieces. From the Wise Fredrinn to Yue’s Valentina, Blacklist controlled the first two games, and at match point, it seemed unlikely for FIMP to find their way into the series. However, with Fredrinn finally banned out in game three, and elimination on the cards, FIMP looked to turn things around.
In game three, the Turkish squad finally seemed to find their footing, matching their opponents blow for blow, and even having a small lead at one stage of the early game. But, when the first Lord spawned, that was when Blacklist struck and claimed complete control of the game. From then on it was all downhill for FIMP, as the Agents moved between objectives and cut their opponents off from the map.
Sadly, for Fire Flux Impunity, they could not withstand the power of the once-world champions, as they went down 0-3 and were summarily eliminated from MSC 2023. For Blacklist International, with another victory under their belt, they move forward into the semi-finals, where they will face off against an extremely strong BURN x FLASH. With that, Day 1 of the MSC 2023 Knockout Stage comes to an end, with two clean-sweep victories. Tomorrow we return to quarter-final action, beginning with ECHO and TODAK going head-to-head.
