Blacklist International and Fire Flux Esports were the first two teams on the chopping block in the Knockout Stage of the M5 World Championship.
headline images courtesy of Moonton
Everything was beginning to heat up at the M5 World Championship Knockout Stage, as today saw the first two eliminations since the Group Stage. The first two teams to fight for their tournament lives in a best-of-five series would be one of the hometown heroes, 
Blacklist International, and Turkey’s fantastic representatives, 
Fire Flux Esports. During the Group Stage, Blacklist was massacred by 
Ahmet “Rosa” Batir Lylia and Valentina, no they would be hoping to avoid that.
While Blacklist took a superb lead in the series, with Yue’s Valentina showing up big, it was the second game of the series when FF came to life – drafting similarly to how they did during the group stage. With Sidar “Tienzy” Menteşe on an absolutely brutal Leomord, Blacklist was destroyed once again as the series was tied up at 1-1. But the series was far from over for these two teams, and game three was another epic battle between these two juggernauts.
FF began building up a head-of-steam shortly before the third Turtle, as Tienzy’s Helcurt began to turn out the lights and the Turkish squad utilised their lineup to find the best pickoffs possible. However, the first Lord dance was where things went dreadfully wrong, with 
Kenneth Carl “Yue” Tadeo stealing the Dark Night Falls, and Stephen “Sensui” Castillo grabbing the Lord for his team – turning the game around instantly. With a 2-1 lead, the M3 World Champions now searched for a crucial series win.
When it came down to it, not even the Leomord or Lylia could counter the experience of Blacklist. The MPL PH Season 12 runners-up allowed their opponents to draft some of their favourite heroes, and punished them for it at every turn, having learned how to deal with it. Methodical in their play, Blacklist shut FF out, finding a 3-1 series win and knocking their opponents out from M5.
In the post-match interview, Fire Flux coach, Sacit “Badgalseph” Arslan had the following to say when talking about his team during M5,
We had some issues in gameplay and some in draft too, and Blacklist were just better on the day, as they read our picks and plans. We did not reall expect to go out this early and were looking at a top 4 finish, but we tried our best and now look forward to 2024."
After playing an amazing tournament, FF will sadly be eliminated in seventh/eighth place at the M5 World Championship, while Blacklist International look to make another epic lower bracket run.
