Cover-Credits:
The showmatch during the Realme Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Cup (RMC) Season 6 finals featured the North American (NA) team BloodThirstyKings (BTK) and the Gold Medalist Blacklist International Sibol squad. However, the iconic duo of Johnmar "OhMyV33nus" Villaluna and Danerie "Wise" del Rosario was not able to play in the exhibition match. Fans began speculating on what could possibly be the reason for the duo’s absence. One of BTK’s pro players Ian "FwydChickn" Hohl explained the reason as to why the V33Wise tandem was not able to join the Sibol squad in the RMC Season 6 showmatch. According to him, it was due to brand contract issues preventing the two players from participating in the match.
BTK thought they were up against Sibol with V33Wise
Through a livestream, the NA team’s Gold Laner explained that BTK also did not know there was going to be a roster change until a few hours before the match started. “We had fully believed that we were going versus V33Wise and their actual whole Sibol lineup,” he explained.
Following this, BTK were informed by Setsuna “Akosi Dogie” Ignacio that the dynamic duo could not participate in the showmatch due to their contract as brand ambassadors for Oppo. This forced the Sibol squad to make a roster update by signing its young prodigy Kiel "OHEB" Calvin Soriano to fill in the missing slot.
“We didn’t know we were going up against that lineup two hours before the actual match,” said FwydChickn.
He added that they had to make changes to how they would handle the showmatch due to the absence of Wise and OhMyV33nus in the Sibol squad. “Our draft was [messy] because we had to come up with it on the spot,” FwydChickn said.
The match concluded with BTK scoring a 3-2 victory against Blacklist International’s Sibol lineup. While some fans celebrated their favorite NA team’s victory, Mobile Legends personalities such as Handy "Mirko" Loho believe that the exhibition match can not be used as a basis to gauge which team is stronger. Needless to say, BTK has undoubtedly improved a lot since its debut back at the M3 World Championship.
