Blacklist International to Focus on Team Chemistry Before Aiming for Victory

Blacklist International had a rough start in the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League (MPL) Philippines (PH) Season 9. The defending champions could not secure a single win during the first week of the tournament following a huge upset against ONIC PH and TNC Pro Team. Through a post-match press conference, the team’s head coach Kristoffer “BON CHAN” Ricaplaza revealed that he predicted that the team would struggle in the first two weeks of the tournament. He added that fans should give Blacklist International some time to work on its team chemistry as the members are still trying to adjust to the roster revamp.

Blacklist International struggles in the first week without the V33Wise duo

As revealed by Blacklist International in its previous post-match interview for the MPL PH Season 9, the team chemistry felt shaky without its former team captain, Jonmar “OhmyV33nus” Villaluna.

The team lost against ONIC PH with a final match score of 1-2 in the opening match of the tournament. Following this upset Blacklist International continued its losing streak with a 0-2 defeat against TNC Pro Team.

In a post-match interview, after a huge upset against TNC Pro Team, the team’s head coach said that he predicted this would happen in one of the vlogs posted by the co-owner of Blacklist International, Tryke Gutierrez.

“I said it before then, when MPL starts, you can expect in the first two weeks that we (Blacklist International) will be struggling,” he said.

Despite this, BON CHAN is still hopeful and believes that it will not take more than two weeks for his team to properly adjust and build its team chemistry. The team’s analyst and sixth man Dexter “DEX STAR” Alaba assured fans that the members have all the moral support they need. Blacklist International just needs a bit of time to sort things out.

“There are people that support us, we have MTB (Master The Basics) and Boss Rada (Elrasec "Radacars" Ocampo) to tell us what we are lacking. Just give us a chance,” said DEX STAR.

The assistant coach, MTB, echoed that Blacklist International will need to focus on improving the team first before aiming at winning the upcoming matches.

“So, we are more focused on that, the win-loss is expected so we’ll focus more on improvements,” he said. “When the time is right. That’s the time they can expect to win.”

Blacklist International will have its chance at redemption in the second week of the MPL PH Season 9 on 25th Feb against Nexplay EVOS.

Keep up with the live scores, schedule, stream links, and more with AFK Gaming's hub for the MPL PH Season 9.

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