Dogie Responds to Hate Comments and Exposes Nexplay Evos’ Internal Issues

Nexplay EVOS’ talent Setsuna "DOGIE" Ignacio broke his silence and responded to the criticisms blaming him and the esports organization for the stagnant growth of its players. The team had one of its most upsetting runs during the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) Professional League (MPL) Philippines (PH) Season 10, finishing in only 7th place on the regular season leaderboard. Through a lengthy Facebook post, the popular MLBB celebrity explained what was happening in the Bootcamp behind the scenes, during the league event, and how he never forced the players to remain on the team just because they “owe” him gratitude for their career opportunity.

Dogie claims he has been pushing the players to grow outside Nexplay

The Nexplay EVOS management has a good eye for talented players. However, fans believe that no matter how talented their roster is, these players can only find growth outside the team. 

A good example is Burn x Flash’s pro player Jhonwin "Hesa" Vergara and coach John "Zico" Dizon who spearheaded the squad to win the MPL KH Autumn Split 2022 and will now be heading to the M4 World Championship. The same thing can be said for Tristan "Yawi" Cabrera and Sanford "SanFord" Vinuya who are currently playing for ECHO.

This led fans to criticize the team and its iconic talent, Dogie, alleging that the esports organization has a “toxic environment” and the players are afraid to leave the team.

Through a very lengthy Facebook post, Dogie shared his side of the story, explaining that he never forced any of the players to stay just because they “owe” him a lot.

“I never said to them that they owe me a lot because it’s their lives and they need to think for themselves before anybody else!!” explained Dogie.

He further elaborated that he has always pushed the players to go the distance even if it meant leaving Nexplay EVOS in hopes of improving their performance as pro players. 

“Me, meddling [with their decisions?] Since after Season 7, I wanted them to transfer and explore. Only Yawi talked to me and I even called [Coach] Duckeyyy if they would want Yawi in because he wanted to join there,” said the Nexplay EVOS talent. “But Yawi stayed until Season 8. After that, I made him choose because I was in talks with ONIC and ECHO and ECHO acquired him.”

Dogie exposes coaching problems of Nexplay EVOS

One of the criticisms from the fans is the coaching tactics of Nexplay EVOS. In the post, Dogie addresses this concern.

“S10 came and so did our new coach, then he decide to use a performance base [in selecting lineups]. Four teams were in the tryout and three Pos 4 players were chosen to be in one lineup,” said Dogie.

Nexplay EVOS signed Paolo "Pao" Villanueva as its new coach for the MPL PH Season 10. While the post never mentioned his name, the statement may be referring Coach Pao who allegedly ignored most of Dogie’s suggestions.

“Me and Dale [Lopez] said that it would be a problem if ever 10 players would play but the 2nd team didn’t get to practice because it lacked a gold laner. I said to the coach back then not to sign me in the lineup, but instead, put Kzen so they can practice. RENEJAY, Dale, and Sir Alan were there. But the coach’s decision went through with the three Pos4 team,” explained Dogie.

He further added that another of his suggestions was ignored which resulted in the acquisition of Karl "Micophobia" Quitlong. 

“I said we should acquire Minana’s [Esports] tank because at least he has statistics compared to Mico who didn’t play during Season 9,” stated Dogie.

Dogie explains why he played against Blacklist International during MPL PH Season 10

Continuing about the coaching issues that Dogie exposed, he explained why he played during the regular season match against Blacklist International. 

“The rotation week of MPL Season 10 came and normally I wasn’t meant to play against Blacklist. However, Mico was not in the Bootcamp during that time against Blacklist,” explained Dogie. “So we practice on the day. We only scrimmed with ONIC Indonesia.”

He further elaborated that his advice was ignored once again during the drafting phase of the match against Balcklist International.

“Coach said Elpizo will play in the 2nd game, to which I agreed. We lost Game 1 against Blacklist because my draft was ignored. My ban request, which was Akai, Lolita, and Diggie, and we were the first pick, and Valentina,” Dogie said.

“But he changed the draft, we are to ban Lolita, Diggie, and Mathilda. First pick Akai then Blacklist would choose between Faramis and Valentina. I said to the coach they would pick the two because we used to scrim with Blacklist during the SEA [Southeast Asia] Games and Wise went for a funnel Valentina,” he further elaborated.

Dogie also explained the questionable Paquito pick which did not work well in Nexplay EVOS’ lineup against Blacklist International.

“Second game, which idiot would pick Paquito tank in that game? They asked me if I could pick Paquito tank despite I’m supposed to be Pos 5 Saber and they wanted Kzen to pick Saber instead so I said ‘alright, we’re already here and it’s the coach’s decision’,” said Dogie.

H2wo was forced to pick Fanny despite the lack of practice

H2wo was one of the players who received backlash for his lackluster performance and lack of a hero pool during the MPL PH Season 10. Dogie also addressed this issue in his lengthy post, stating that the pro player was forced to use his comfort picks during scrims instead of exploring other heroes.

“Going into Season 10… I played with H2wo during scrims and he never played Fanny and almost always used Ling or Hayabusa or Helcurt. He had 100 games played as Ling during Scrims,” said Dogie.

While the point of scrim matches is to test and train each player's flexibility and hero pool, Dogie claims this is not the case for their new coach.

“I told the coach to have H2wo play other heroes because Ling would be an insta-ban but apparently we needed to win in scrims so he picked Ling,” explained the Nexplay EVOS talent.

Despite being forced to use his comfort picks, H2wo still picked Fanny during MPL matches, which, Dogie alleges, was suggested by the coach.

“I went to the Bootcamp and talked to H2wo as to why he is using Fanny if he wasn’t using it during scrims. Why didn’t he use tank heroes like Brats and Akai? H2wo said it was because of the coach’s drafts,” said Dogie.

Dogie continued that he confronted the coach, asking why H2wo was forced to use Fanny instead of other heroes. 

“He said to me, ‘H2wo can’t use [other heroes],’ then I said to coach, ‘you would make H2wo use Fanny, one of the hardest heroes to use, but you won’t have him use easier heroes?’,” Dogie said.

Dogie clarified that the coach always took control of the lineup and he didn’t meddle with it. He claims he only criticized based on in-game performance.

Nexplay EVOS had a rough journey in the MPL PH Season 10 and Dogie’s side of the story has been put forth. It will be interesting to see if the team is able to redeem itself in the next league season.