Blacklist International Emerges Victorious At The Dota 2 Asia Pacific Predator League

Famous gaming brand Acer hosted a short Dota 2 tournament from January 10 to 14. The event followed a LAN format and was held in Manila, Philippines. It boasts a respectable prize pool of $100,000, which is impressive considering the tournament would only run for four days. 

The event featured ten participants, with all of them being Asian teams. Some notable names included Blacklist International, Execration, Aster.Aries, IHC Esports, and Team 747. 

The 2024 Asia Pacific Predator League has two phases: the Group Stage and the Playoffs Stage. 

Group Stage

The Group Stage divided the ten teams into two groups of five. This phase followed the Round Robin format, and only the top two teams from each group would advance to the Playoffs. 

Blacklist International and Execration, two full-Filipino teams, demolished Group A to secure themselves a spot in the Semifinal. Since they were in the same group, they would be on opposite sides of the Semifinal bracket.

On the other side, Group B was a much closer affair as four of the five teams remained competitive. Ultimately, the Chinese team Aster.Aries and Mongolian representatives IHC Esports took the top two places in the group. 

With these group stage results, the Semifinal matchups were set:

• Blacklist International vs. IHC Esports
• Aster.Aries vs. Execration

Semifinals

Due to schedule constraints, the Semifinal matches were Best of 1 Single Elimination. At the same venue, Acer was also holding a Valorant version of the Predator League, which is why this brutal format was used.

The Semifinal results pleased the home crowd, as Blacklist International and Execration won their respective matches, setting up a full Filipino Grand Final matchup. 

Grand Final

Almost all Dota 2 tournaments use a Best of 5 format for a Grand Final, but we only got a Best of 3 format for the Asia Pacific Predator League. Still, this was much better than a Best of 1, and considering the tight scheduling, it was enough to put on a show. 

In the first map of the Grand Final, Blacklist International took complete control of the game starting at the 9-minute mark. With their Alchemist lineup, the Blacklist side continued building their lead and converted it into an easy Game 1 victory. 

The second map was much more exciting than the first, as both sides went back and forth. Despite Execration’s efforts, the experienced players on the Blacklist side eventually took the lead and closed the game at 37 minutes to end the series 2-0.

Undefeated all the way until the end to claim our first Dota 2 title and the first for Blacklist this year.

APAC PREDATOR LEAGUE 2024 CHAMPS 🏆 #BlacklistRivalry pic.twitter.com/IgtNdTRpKo

— BLACKLIST INTERNATIONAL 👑 (@BLACKLISTINTL) January 14, 2024

With this clean sweep in the Final, Blacklist International has claimed their first title since entering Dota 2 a year ago. Apart from the trophy, Blacklist also took home $65,000, which is a considerable sum of money considering they only had to work for four days. Execration was also rewarded $20,000 for their efforts. 

Header: Blacklist International