Three-time Mobile Legends Professional League Philippine champion Blacklist International refused to underestimate the matches that await them in Group A of the M4 Mobile Legends World Championship set from 1 to 15 January in Jakarta.

Blacklist, also the defending M3 Mobile Legends world champion, will parade its battle-tested roster of Johnmar "OhMyV33nus" Villaluna, Danerie James "Wise" del Rosario, Kiel Calvin "OHEB" Soriano, Edward Jay "EDWARD" Dapadap, and Salid "Hadji" Imam against the John "Zico" Dizon-led Burn x Team Flash, Myanmar's Falcon Esports and Incendio Supremacy.

Blacklist head coach Kristoffer Ed "BON CHAN" Ricaplaza said they will treat the tournament with extreme caution knowing that other teams are out to claim their scalps.

"We expect the unexpected in our upcoming matches. We have learned our lesson in the M3 World Championship against BTK (BloodThirstyKings)," BON CHAN said.

"Now, we can probably say that the teams in our bracket are practicing and I am sure they are looking at us. They are thinking we are the team to beat so we have to prepare really hard."

It can be remembered that Blacklist dominated the group stage in the last installment of the M-Series world championship and was a heavy favorite against the unknown North American squad BloodThirstyKings in the Playoffs.

Blacklist, however, stumbled in the upper bracket quarterfinals and was sent crashing back to earth by its counterparts when BloodThirstyKings pulled off the biggest upset of the tournament via a 3-2 victory over the Filipinos.

While Blacklist is not taking any of its upcoming matches for granted, BON CHAN said there is one specific team in Group A that earned their team's attention.

"We used to play with Falcon Esports back in Season 7. They kept practicing and doing scrimms amid the troubles in their country to the point that we asked them what it was for," BON CHAN said.

"Now they have tournaments again in Myanmar and they even made it to M4, they are certainly dedicated and they are a team we must respect."