Blacklist captain Johnmar Villaluna (Photo courtesy of MPL Philippines)
MANILA – Moonton, the developer of Mobile Legends Bang Bang (MLBB), announced a ban on using support hero Diggie for any MLBB event until May 16.
According to Moonton, the "auto-ban" had something to do with a bug it noticed during recent games involving Diggie.
"We have observed a visual bug related to Diggie's lock settings and Young Again's passive ability, allowing the user to see the opponent outside its vision range," Moonton said in a statement on Thursday night.
This means the ban will continue until the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Phnom Penh, Cambodia where Bren Esports will represent the Philippines under the Sibol banner.
The SEA Games MLBB event runs from May 12 to 14.
"This measure was implemented to maintain tournament integrity and fairness – all teams have been informed ahead of the matches," Moonton further said.
Interestingly, the statement came after Blacklist captain Johnmar Villaluna said the team was essentially blindsided by the ruling.
Villaluna said they were only notified of the ban a few hours before they began their campaign in the MLBB Professional League (MPL) Philippines playoffs.
"To be honest, nabigla kami kasi 12 midnight lang kami na-inform (we were surprised because we were only notified by 12 midnight)," said the support player better known by in-game name OhMyV33nus, baring that Blacklist practiced for the playoffs with hero quintets that include Diggie.
"Wala na kaming time para mag-prepare para i-adjust yung pinaghandaan namin buong araw na drafts, so talagang napunta kami sa (We had no more time to prepare to adjust the drafts we have already geared up for, so we were put at a) disadvantage," Villaluna added. "First time yata ito nangyari na nagkaroon ng auto ban sa playoffs. Parang weird. (I think this is the first time an auto ban happened in the playoffs. It's somehow weird)."
Luckily, Blacklist swept archrival Smart Omega, 3-0, in their playoff tie at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay on Thursday.
Blacklist is playing Bren in the upper bracket semifinals as of posting.
In the other playoff first-round action, RSG booked its own place in the Final Four with its own 3-0 sweep of Onic Philippines.
RSG will battle Echo later Friday in their own upper bracket semifinals. (PNA)
