Blacklist International’s iconic coach Kristoffer “BON CHAN” Ricaplaza revealed the reason behind the team’s current Mobile Legends Professional League Invitational (MPLI) 2023 lineup. The coach shared how they intend to give the main lineup some time to prepare and rest for the upcoming M5 World Championship. This move strategically taps into the lesser-exposed talents from the team’s bench, a cadre that played a subdued role during the MPL Philippines (PH) Season 12 campaign.
Aside from sharing the reason behind the team’s current lineup, Coach BON CHAN also offered insights into the team’s performance in the invitational event and the specific areas they aim to refine.
Why did Blacklist International not use its MPL PH Season 12 lineup in MPLI 2023?
Through a post-match interview on the first day of the MPLI 2023, Coach BON CHAN answered the question as to why the team used a secondary lineup instead of its main squad. According to him, there are multiple reasons why.
Firstly, as one of the franchise teams in MPL PH, Blacklist International faces restrictions from Moonton, disallowing their participation in unofficial events. The long-awaited MPLI 2023 provided the opportune platform to test their secondary team’s mettle.
Expressing the team’s anticipation, Coach BON CHAN stated, “We’ve been waiting for this for a long time because, first, our initial plan is to join other tournaments while our main five is to focus on MPL, but unfortunately, we are prohibited to join other non-Moonton hosted tournaments, so we’ve been really waiting for a tournament where our second unit can play.”
The second compelling reason lies in providing more preparation time to Blacklist International’s core quintet for the upcoming M5 World Championship. Coach BON CHAN elaborated, “The MPLI is just for the first five to rest and prepare for the upcoming M5. Last MPL PH, we came short, especially in the hero pool; [AP]Bren locked us out. So that’s what we did. They are currently preparing for M5 by expanding their hero pool and creating some other strategies while we are doing this tournament [MPLI 2023].”
He added that he is quite satisfied with the performance of the current MPLI 2023 lineup. However, there are slight issues with team communication while in the game that the team are looking to fix in soon.
Despite this strategic shuffle, Blacklist International clinched a commendable victory against MENA (Middle East and North Africa) representative Team Falcons in a Bo1 series.
