ECHO Reveals Why It Declined 2023 SEA Games SIBOL Roster Invitation

As the reigning M4 World Champion, ECHO fans were eager to see if the Killer Orcas would help in building the SIBOL lineup alongside Bren Esports for the 2023 SEA (Southeast Asia) Games. However, it was revealed during a post-match press conference in the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League Philippines (MPL PH) Season 11 that the team declined the invitation to combine and join the SIBOL lineup. According to ECHO’s coach Robert "Trebor" Sanchez, the reason was due to travel and schedule issues when participating in training sessions, which could prove inconvenient for the team’s invited players who are also competing in the ongoing MPL PH Season 11.

Why ECHO backed out of the SIBOL SEA Games roster invitation

With Bren Esports having the privilege to form its SIBOL lineup for the upcoming 2023 SEA Games, it's evident that coach Francis "Duckeyyy" Glindro would draft its main roster to lessen the issue of team chemistry. 

However, given how ECHO’s SIBOL Qualifiers lineup showed its potential during the tournament, fans were hoping the SIBOL Lineup to at least have the team feature one of the Killer Orcas‘ players as substitutes to spice up the roster.

Coach Trebor explained what happened during the roster-building process. According to him, two players from ECHO were invited but the team decided to decline the offer.

“The reason why we declined the SEA Games offer was because it’s hard for our two players to travel every practice. They’ll be drained and maybe in the MPL PH Season 11, we would struggle to adjust because of the SEA Games,” stated Coach Trebor.

The two players who were invited to join the SIBOL SEA Games lineup were not revealed. However, the coach gave clues as to who these players may be.

“One is part of the main five, the other one is a 6th man. This is why the traveling would be tiresome because, if you think of it, 10 o'clock in the evening, traveling to Bren Esports boot camp, then coming back at 12 midnight, the kids might get drained,” the coach added.

Coach Trebor added that one of the invited players also refused to be a substitute player which added to ECHO’s reason to decline the offer.

“Also one of our players also refused to be a 6th man, of course, our aura was quite different back in M4 [World Championship], so the player doesn’t deserve to be a 6th man,” said Coach Trebor. 

ECHO is currently at the top of the MPL PH Season 11 regular season leaderboard with a 2-0 score. It will be interesting to see if the Killer Orcas continue the win streak and win this season’s championship title.