EXECRATION won the 2021 MLBB Southeast Asia Cup (MSC) title on Sunday and the team did it at the expense of previous conqueror Blacklist International.
An all-Filipino finals affair, Execration completed an upset of Mobile Legends Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League-Philippines Season 7 champion Blacklist, winning, 4-1, to be crowned ML champ in Southeast Asia this year.
Execration saw the rug pulled from under it by Blacklist in the MLBB-Philippines finals late last month, losing, 3-4.
In their championship reengagement, Execration made sure there would be no repeat of that, staying the course when it got the momentum to book the championship and exact payback.
Blacklist drew first blood in their best-of-seven final, winning a low-scoring series-opener behind Danerie James “Wise” Del Rosario’s Brody.
The match would be levelled by Execration in Game Two before it fashioned out an impressive charge back in Game Three to take a 2-1 lead.
Blacklist held sway in the early goings of Game Four until Execration’s Grant “Kelra” Duane Pillas stepped up with his Lunox to give his squad momentum in a team fight which they eventually won.
A win away from the title, Execration went for the closeout in Game Five, led anew by Kelra.
For his steady performance in the tournament, Kelra was adjudged 2021 MSC most valuable player.
Making Execration’s title conquest all the more impressive was that they came from the lower bracket and made their way up.
Execration, which also has members Renz “Renzio” Errol Cadua, Patrick “E2MAX” James Caidic, Kiel “Kielvj” VJ Hernandez, Joshua “Ch4knu” Mangilog, and Billy ”Z4pnu” Jazha Alfonso, became the second team from the Philippines to with the MSC after Bren Esports (then known as Aether Main) bagged the title in 2018. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo