After two weeks of intense action, Filipino eSports team Blacklist International took the crown of the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) M3 World Championship 2021, after beating its fellow country team ONIC PH (Philippines) eSports 4-0. Blacklist International also took home the top prize money of US$300,000.
If you have been playing MLBB, you probably heard of M3, its international flagship tournament hosted annually. Into its third iteration this year, there are 16 teams across the globe that came to Singapore two weeks ago to compete for the coveted title and a combined prize pool of US$800,000.
While last year’s M2 was held behind closed doors due to Covid-19 measures, this year’s M3 was held at the Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre. However, there are limited seats for the finals. Only 178 lucky fans are present to witness the scintillating final, but they are all excited and fired up.
Not only did Blacklist International successfully claimed back-to-back MPL PH champion title this year (Season 8), their victory in M3 defended Philippines’ dominance in the MLBB scene. It has eliminated strong opponents such as Indonesian teams ONIC esports and RRQ Hoshi in the earlier part of the playoffs.
During the group stages, Blacklist International faced-off with the supposedly “easier” opponents. However, their journey was a hard-fought one, as they got knocked out into the lower bracket by underdogs BTK eSports (North America) on the first day of playoffs.
Blacklist International’s co-founder Alodia Gosiengfiao told SGEEK: “No words can explain how happy I am of this world championship win. I can’t believe that it is just been a few days since we fell to the lower bracket.”
Having climbed their way back eventually, Blacklist International met BTK again in the semi-finals. But this time, they exacted revenge with a 3-1 win, booking their place in the final showdown against ONIC PH.
“We had to go through the best teams in the world to get to this point and finally, we are the world champions!” Ms Gosiengfiao said.
Here’s a quick recap of the final standings in the MLBB M3 World Championship 2021: –
Champion: Blacklist International (Philippines)
2nd Place: ONIC PH (Philippines)
3rd Place: BTK (North America)
4th Place: EVOS SG (Singapore)
5th – 6th Place: Todak (Malaysia), RRQ Hoshi (Indonesia)
7th-8th Place: Vivo Keyd (Brazil), NaVi (CIS)
9th-12th Place:
- ONIC ID (Indonesia)
- SeeYouSoon (Cambodia)
- BEDEL (Turkey)
- RSG SG (Singapore)
13th-16th Place:
- Malvinas Gaming (Argentina)
- Team SMG (Malaysia)
- Red Canids Kalunga (Brazil)
- GX Squad (Saudi Arabia)
If you missed the action, you can always tune in to Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Official YouTube channel and rewatch the livestream.
Additional reporting by Trevor Tan
