Coach Pauloxpert Thinks The Valley Is the Dark Horse of M4 World Championship

Bren Esports’ assistant coach Jian "Pauloxpert" Munsayac believes that the North American (NA) team, The Valley, may be the dark horse team in the upcoming M4 World Championship. According to him, all the members of the team have enough experience in both local and world-stage competitive play and are capable of going up against the top teams in the upcoming world series event. Coach Pauloxpert also emphasized that the team is strong as it possesses two prodigies of MLBB esports in NA.

The Valley earned its ticket to the M4 World Championship after dominating the North America Challenger Tournament (NACT) Fall Season 2022 after scoring a 4-1 victory against The Simpsons in the grand finals match. 

Coach Pauloxpert shared his thoughts about The Valley

The North American (NA) squad, The Valley, is one of the non-Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League (MPL) teams being discussed by the community. The team is comprised of three former BloodThirstyKings (BTK) members - Michael "MobaZane" Cosgun, Ian "FwydChickn" Hohl, and SHARK. It also bears Peter "Basic" Lozano, a Filipino player, and a Korean MLBB prodigy, Seonghun "Hoon" Jang. 

Through a YouTube video, Bren Esports coach Pauloxpert shared his power rankings for the M4 World Championship. In the ranking, he placed The Valley in seventh place, just above popular teams like RRQ Akira, Burn x Flash, Team HAQ, and RSG Singapore (SG). According to the coach, the NA squad may just be the dark horse of the upcoming world series event, similar to last year.

“So, what is the reason for me, putting The Valley here in [top 7]? The reason why is because of their M3 performance, right?” explained coach Pauloxpert.

The coach was referring to the iconic BTK squad that shocked the fans during the M3 World Championship by finishing in 3rd place. 

He further explains that all of the members of The Valley have been on an international stage. 

“Zane, Shark, and Chickn, they already have world experience [in M3], they got top 3,” said coach Pauloxpert. “That’s pretty darn good for a non-MPL region.”

“Basic already has [experience] in MPL PH. He qualified for MPL PH and stayed here for a month,” he continued. 

The coach further added that back when the MPL PH was still holding qualifier stages, the competition was unforgiving and very hard. This means, Basic has been through the struggle and qualified during Season 5.

“There are some players that tried, three qualifiers, and failed. Where Basic only tried it once, the first time, and made it, right?” said coach Pauloxpert.

As for Hoon, the Bren Esports coach explained that the Korean prodigy has experienced the world stage in another game which is League of Legends: Wild Rift. The pro player competed under Immortals during the Icons Global Championship 2022 where the team finished in 12th place.  

Hoon is also a former teammate of coach Pauloxpert back when he was still playing under Team Gosu. The squad won a ticket to the M1 World Championship but due to unfortunate circumstances, Hoon was not able to join the competition.

“I’m actually quite happy that Hoon could finally show his potential and his gameplay on the world stage of ML because he’s really good,” said coach Pauloxpert.

He further elaborated that he considers both Hoon and MobaZane to be the MLBB Prodigies of NA.

“These two, right here [Hoon and MobaZane], the two prodigies of NA. I don’t even know how old they are but they were like the top players in NA at that time,” said coach Pauloxpert. “They are the dark horse for the tournament, I would say.”

It will be interesting to see how The Valley performs on the international stage in the upcoming M4 World Championship.