M5 World Championship: Blacklist International, Deus Vult advance to lower bracket semifinals

The final weekend of the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) M5 World Championship has kicked off and four teams fought for their tournament lives at the lower bracket quarterfinals to continue their quest for the world title on Friday (15 December)

In the end, it was the Philippines' Blacklist International and Russia's Deus Vult that came out on top after defeating Indonesia's Geek Fam ID and Cambodia's See You Soon, respectively.

Here's how all the action in day one of the M5 World Championship Finals Weekend went down:

Blacklist 3-1 Geek Fam ID

Blacklist dropped to the lower bracket after losing to Indonesia's ONIC Esports, 3-2, in the upper bracket quarterfinals. They then defeated Turkey's Fire Flux Esports, 3-1, in the first round of the lower bracket to make it to the lower bracket quarterfinals.

Meanwhile, Geek Fam ID defeated Myanmar's Burmese Ghouls, 3-2, in the upper bracket quarterfinals. However, they were then defeated by Filipino juggernauts AP.Bren, 3-1, and were dropped down to the lower bracket quarterfinals to face Blacklist.

Geek Fam ID were the first to strike in the opening game, where they overpowered Blacklist in less than 15 minutes.

However, Blackklist bounced back in the second game and tied up the series at 1-1 after a dominant 20-minute win. In the pivotal third game, the Filipino squad found themselves in a pinch during the early game but turned things around later on to take a commanding 2-1 series lead.

Geek Fam fought back in the fourth game in a desperate bid to force a decider. However, it was not enough and Blacklist were able to set up a comeback that allowed them to close out the 3-1 series victory in another 17-minute rout to move forward to the lower bracket semifinals.

Renejay "Renejay" Barcase and Stephen "Sensui" Castillo were notably given the MVP honours for their playmaking that turned the tides in favour of Blacklist, with Renejay taking MVP nods for games two and four while Sensui was named game three's MVP.

Deus Vult 3-2 See You Soon

See You Soon dominated the opening game, taking down DeusVult in 14 minutes. They continued this momentum in game two to take what looked like a decisive 2-0 lead over Deus Vult after a 14-minute encounter.

However, the Russian squad roared back into the series in the third game, blowing things wide open in the midgame and defeating See You Soon in 15 minutes. Deus Vult showed they were not done yet in game four, swiftly defeating their Cambodian opponents in just 11 minutes of action.

Deus Vult had all the momentum in the world in the decider, routing See You Soon in another 11-minute stomp to secure the series victory in an incredible 3-2 reverse sweep.

German EXP laner Kemiran "Sunset Lover" Kochkarov, Russian jungler Eduard "Magistor" Rukosuev, and Norwegian-Filipino gold laner Carl "Carvi" Tinio were instrumental in snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, as they were named the MVPs of games three, four, and five, respectively.

Blacklist International and Deus Vult will face off at the lower bracket semifinals on Saturday (16 December).

Meanwhile, Geek Fam ID and See You Soon end their M5 run in 5th-6th place and will take home US$40,000 in consolation.

The M5 World Championship Knockout Stage will follow a double elimination format with all matches being a best-of-five except for the Grand Finals, which will be a full best-of-seven series.

The Knockout Stage will be held in two phases. The first phase will be held in the EMV Convention Center from 9 to 12 December and includes the upper bracket quarterfinals (9 to 10 December), the first round of the lower bracket (11 December), and the upper bracket semifinals (12 December).

The second phase of the Knockout Stage will be held in the Rizal Memorial Coliseum from 15 to 17 December. It will include the lower bracket quarterfinals (15 December), the lower bracket semifinals and upper bracket finals (16 December), as well as the lower bracket finals and Grand Finals (17 December).

For everything you need to know about the M5 World Championship, check here.

Anna is a freelance writer and photographer. She is a gamer who loves RPGs and platformers, and is a League of Legends geek. She's also a food enthusiast who loves a good cup of black coffee.

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