Earlier this week Blacklist Rivalry went down to a four man roster after parting ways with Polo "Raven" Fausto.

Unfortunately for the Southeast Asian team, the busy qualifier schedule in the first month of the new year hasn’t given them the time to find a full time replacement for Raven, whose departure was announced on Monday, January, 22.

With the ESL One Birmingham 2024 SEA closed qualifiers set to begin this coming weekend, on the 26th of January, Blacklist Rivalry will try to redeem themselves with former Execration carry Jinn Marrey "Palos" Lamatao standing in.

Additionally, the team is heading into the ESL One Birmingham qualifiers battle with a different coach as well. Kim "DuBu" Doo-youn will be taking on the coaching duties, replacing Chai "Mushi" Yee Fung, who’s been with the team at ESL One Kuala Lumpur in December of last year.

This would be the third qualifier campaign this month where Blacklist Rivalry will try to clinch a spot to a $1,000,000 tournament. They failed in SEA closed qualifiers for both BetBoom Dacha Dubai 2024 and DreamLeague Season 22. Although no details were shared by either party, Raven’s departure earlier this week is most likely directly connected to the team’s performance.

In the post TI2023 shuffle, Blacklist Rivalry signed some of the biggest names in the scene, bringing back home Abed Yusop and Kim "Gabbi" Santos. But despite building a SEA dream team, the results never came. ESL One Kuala Lumpur, from mid-December last year, marked the debut for the all-star roster, however, their tournament run ended with a disappointing 9th/10th placement. Following the performance in Kuala Lumpur came the two qualifier losses.

ESL One Birmingham SEA closed qualifier brings another shot for Blacklist Rivalry to find their footing in the region and change the narrative for themselves. Their first series is scheduled to begin at noon, SGT time/07:00 CET in the upper bracket rounds against MAG.Indonesia. 

By the end of the weekend, the qualifiers will be done and dusted and one team will have claimed its tickets to the UK.

 Blacklist Rivalryroster for ESL One Birmingham qualifiers

Jinn Marrey “Palos” Lamatao (stand-in)
Abed Azel “Abed” Yusop
Kim Villafuerte “Gabbi” Santos
Timothy “TIMS” Randrup
Carlo “Carlo” Manolo