Mirko Thinks Blacklist International Held Back During the MPLI 2022
Blacklist International suffered a surprising 0-2 clean sweep defeat at the hands of Geek Fam in the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) Professional League Invitational (MPLI) 2022. While the reigning world champion's head coach admitted that the Geek squad was simply the better team that day, many fans speculate that the Codebreakers were simply holding back their best strategies in preparation for the M4 World Championship. One of the fan-favorite casters in the Mobile Legends Professional League (MPL) Indonesia (ID) Season 10, Frederick "Mirko" Loho believes that all M4-qualified teams were holding back their finest tactics and only ONIC Esports Indonesia (ID) was taking the MPLI 2022 seriously.
Mirko gives his take on speculations of Blacklist International holding back in MPLI 2022
In the latest episode of the SarCast YouTube series, Mirko shared his thoughts regarding the M4 teams, especially Blacklist International’s performance in the MPLI 2022.
“This is the big question that a lot of people have, including the Blacklist fans or the agents, right? Did Blacklist hold back?” said Mirko
According to him, the world series teams weren’t playing at their peak performance as they are preparing for the upcoming M4 World Championship.
“When we’re talking about the M4 teams, I think every single M4 team except for ONIC ID did not go all out,” said the MLBB caster.
“RRQ Didn’t even send their roster. They sent their MDL roster. Burn x Flash went with their secondary jungler XEON. Then we obviously saw ECHO, first-round exit against EVOS Legends. And then, we have Blacklist, that’s it, and obviously [Team] HAQ and Todak,” he added.
Mirko continued that Blacklist International’s drafting style during the MPLI 2022 was not akin to the usual tactics that the reigning world champion normally tends to pull off.
“We didn’t see the usual creative Blacklist International that we’ve seen in MPL [Philippines] PH Season 10,” the caster explained, “So, in the drafts, I think they did [hold back].”
The MPL caster clarified that he was merely speculating and they have no confirmation from the teams whether that was the case.
“Looking at it at face value, I would say that in terms of the draft, we didn’t see anything too crazy, we didn’t see that ‘Blacklisty’ draft, the Guinevere, the Valentina in the jungle,” said Mirko. “But the way they played, I feel was just Blacklist”
The MLBB caster also praised Geek Fam’s surprising resurgence in the MPLI 2022.
“The pick and fights incoming from Geek Fam were just on another level in MPLI, especially against Blacklist,” said Mirko. “I was so shocked when I watched it”
The M4 World Championship will kick off on 1st January 2023. It shall most certainly be a spectacle to see all the qualified teams go all out against each other in the upcoming world series event in a bid to win the championship title and the lion’s share of the $800,000 USD prize pool.