Blacklist Rivalry advances to Elite League round-robin stage

MANILA, Philippines – Blacklist Rivalry has reached the second stage of the Elite League after winning three of their five matches in the tournament's Swiss Stage.

The Filipino-laden squad saw a slow start after losing against OG, 1-2, but was able to bounce back with 2-0 sweeps against Rest Farmers and Team Secret.

A win away from securing its spot in the next round, the team saw powerhouse Tundra Esports as its opponents. An intense hour match-up saw the Filipino team take a 1-0 lead, but the European squad made quick work of Blacklist in Game 2, forcing a decider in under 20 minutes. The decider saw Blacklist Rivalry unable to bounce back from the quick loss and would fall to Tundra, 1-2, with one last chance to move on to the next stage of the competition.

In a do-or-die for qualifications to the next round, Blacklist Rivalry was up against Russian team Virtus.pro. Game 1 saw a tight match-up between the two teams, but a huge team fight by the 29th minute ended with four players down on the side of Virtus.pro to give them the enough advantage to close out the game by the 35th minute.

The same story was seen in Game 2 as both teams were equally matched and trading objectives until a costly mistake on the side of Virtus.pro as they tried to invade Blacklist Rivalry's side of the map led to a teamwipe, prompting the Filipino team to march to the base and add on to their lead and eventually take the game, 2-0.

The win sees Blacklist Rivalry move on to the Elite League's Round Robin stage, beginning today, April 5, where they are Group B along with Aurora, Tundra Esports, Boom Esports, Team Liquid, BetBoom Team, Gaimin Gladiators and Xtreme Gaming. 

The teams will compete in best-of-two matches, with the top two teams from each group advancing to the Upper Brackets of the playoffs while the third and fourth place team advancing to the lower brackets.