Blacklist International proved to be too much to handle for Onic, only dropping one game in the grand finals en route to be recognized as the second team to win back-to-back trophies since Sunsparks did the feat back in MPL Seasons 4 and 5.

“Lagi kong sinasabi kay V33 na magcha-champion kami na hindi siya malungkot. Masaya ako kay Hadji kase since Season 2 pa si Hadji at kahit mabait na player siya, hindi pa siya naka-champion. Pero ngayon champion na,” an emotional Wise said.

The team’s head coach, Kristoffer “BON CHAN” Ricaplaza, expressed gratitude and bared the feat as significant in their history. 

“Sobrang napaka-importante itong championship na ito kase nahirapan kaming kunin yung respect na deserve ng mga players ko, yung respect na deserve namin. Nahirapan talaga namin kunin. Eto na yun, eto na yung sinyales na please ibigay niyo na yung deserve namin na respect,” he averred.

It was not an easy journey for the Codebreakers as they fought their way to climb back to the Grand Finals through the lower bracket after losing to their rivals Omega Esports, 3-1, in their upper bracket match.

Come the finals, the two teams both displayed grit in the first two games of the best-of-seven series.

Hadji became instrumental in Game 1 with his KDA Machine form on his mid-lane Yve, steering the team fights and finishing with an impressive 3-1-15 KDA and helped Blacklist draw first blood in the series with an 18-9 victory in 23 minutes of play.

Game 2 favored Onic with Marky “Markyyy” Capacio rallying his team to a successful team fight at the 15-minute mark where he chipped in a triple kill and led a four-man wipe of Blacklist to help seal the match, 16-14, and tie the series. 

Johnmar “OhMyV33nus” Villaluna set the tone in Game 3 after securing Mathilda that pulled off an early five kills including a solo kill against Kairi’s Lancelot in the top lane.

It was all Blacklist at that moment as the defending champs managed a superbly dominant Game 4 performance with an impeccable 17-0 performance and finished the match in just 11 mins.

The momentum was carried by Blacklist in Game 4 with Wise’s Bane spearheading the attack with a perfect 10-0-5 KDA, finishing off Onic with a 19-10 Game 4 win to cap a back-to-back championship title.

Blacklist will take home a cash prize of $35,000 and will represent the Philippines in the upcoming M3 World Championship alongside 1st runner-up ONIC PH.