BON CHAN Explains Blacklist International's Questionable Drafting Against ECHO

Blacklist International’s coach, Kristoffer “BON CHAN” Ricaplaza, explained the questionable draft made by the team during its match against ECHO in the sixth week of the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League (MPL) Philippines (PH) Season 9. The coach stated that the issue could have been avoided but he chose to take a chance. This led to the team losing against ECHO with a final score of 0-2. Bon Chan also clarified that his facebook post was not directed toward any of the Blacklist International members. He added that the team wouldn’t be able to win the M3 World Championship without its assistant coach and analyst, Aniel “Master The Basics” Jiandani.

BON CHAN clarifies the issue regarding Blacklist International vs ECHO draft

During the sixth week of the MPL PH Season 9, fans witnessed unusual drafting by Blacklist International. Hadji opted for a Yve pick and the rest of the members picked durable heroes, resulting in the final lineup lacking in damage potential.

The team had high survivability during team fights but it wasn’t long until ECHO’s Karl "KarlTzy" Gabriel Nepomuceno was able to snowball every skirmish. The match resulted in a 20 kill gap between the two teams.

Through a vlog, Blacklist International's coach clarified that the questionable drafting phase was due to him opting to let the players choose their own preferred heroes.

“If you noticed yesterday (During the match against ECHO), our comfort heroes were open but never picked. During that time, I was considering the feelings of the players who will use it,” he said.

He added that he let the players choose if they wanted to use a particular hero or not. BON CHAN did not expect the final drafted lineup to be unviable in the match against ECHO.

"I agreed on what they wanted to use, without knowing that it was going to end up with that lineup,” BON CHAN explained.

The head coach clarified that it was his fault and not the pro players who suggested the heroes that they wanted to use. This issue could have been avoided but he chose to take a chance and that led to an unbalanced lineup.

“That’s where I’m annoyed, it can be avoided but I didn’t do anything,” BON CHAN said. “We couldn’t afford to lose and we needed that one point, but I made a mistake and that’s what annoyed me.”

BON CHAN blames his frustrations which resulted in a controversial Facebook post

On 27th March, the Blacklist International coach made a post revealing his frustrations over the team’s drafting during the second game against ECHO in the MPL PH Season 9.

Some fans think that the coach was trying to convey that the drafting disaster was his members' fault. However, he later clarified that that was not the case.

“If you noticed yesterday, I posted something alarming. It looked like I was blaming someone else but I will never do that,” the coach stated. “I will never blame my teammate or anyone.”

He continued by saying that if he would blame someone, it would be himself as he was not able to manage the drafting properly.

BON CHAN also defended the team’s analyst and assistant coach, Master The Basics, as he thinks the team owes the analyst a lot, especially during the M3 World Championship.

“You know guys, here’s what I’ll say. We would never have been champions during M3 (World Championship) without MTB (Master The Basics),” the coach said. “So those who are blaming him for our losing streak, have some shame. He’s good, we wouldn’t choose him if he wasn’t.”

Blacklist International is still struggling to secure a playoffs spot. The team still has a chance at redemption as they will be facing Bren Esports on 2nd April.

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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