Cover-Credits:
The head coach of ECHO Steven Dale "Dale" Vitug bid farewell to his team following the conclusion of the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League (MPL) Philippines (PH) Season 8. Through a social media post on 28th Oct 2021, ECHO officially announced the departure of its head coach and thanked him for his contribution to the team. Dale is one of the pioneers of the Mobile Legends esports scene in the Philippines. He and his team, Sibol PH, won the gold medal in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games held in Manila, Philippines, in the Mobile Legends esports category.
ECHO released its head coach Dale from its Mobile Legends roster
After finishing 5th place in the MPL PH Season 8, ECHO announced the departure of its head coach Dale. The head coach had been with the team since Season 7 when it was previously called Aura PH before being rebranded to ECHO.
The big announcement was made through the official social media handles of ECHO, thanking the coach for his continued guidance to the team.
“In all the games we went through together -- the wins and losses. You have been a huge part of our recent seasons, and we're grateful for all that you did for us,” captioned ECHO.
Dale responded to the post by thanking everyone for the fond memories during his journey as a Mobile Legends coach.
“Thank you very much for all the memories Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and to all my friends/org/teammates that I can’t mention one by one,” captioned Dale.
Neither the organization nor Dale himself officially revealed that he is retiring. However, he responded to one of the comments stating that he is retiring.
According to a news article from Tiebreaker Times, the team manager of ECHO Mitch Liwanag confirmed that Dale is retiring.
“Yes, confirmed. He’s retiring,” stated Mitch Liwanag, as quoted by Tiebreaker Times.
Dale is one of the pioneers of Mobile Legends esports in the Philippines
Dale began his career as a Mobile Legends esports coach way back during the 2019 Southeast Asian Games when he led his team, Sibol PH, in taking the gold medal in the esports category. The coach then went on to continue his career under Omega Esports where he led the team to the M2 World Championship, finishing in a respectable 5th-6th place.
He was then recruited to AURA PH back in MPL PH Season 7 where his team finished 4th place. The team soon rebranded to ECHO for Season 8. Unfortunately, during Season 8 the team met with issues in the boot camp due to the pandemic. This hampered their performance but they still managed to finish 5th place in the season.
ECHO will be participating in the upcoming MPL Invitational (MPLI) 2021 which is scheduled to kick off on 2nd Nov 2021. It will be interesting to see how the team will perform in the tournament without their head coach, Dale.
