Cover-Credits:
The pre-season of the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) Professional League (MPL) Philippines (PH) Season 9 was filled with a lot of surprises. One of these surprises is the new team roster of ECHO, featuring star players from various esports teams in the MLBB esports scene such as Karl “KarlTzy” Nepomuceno, Tristan “Yawi” Cabrera, and Frediemar “3MarTzy” Serafico. While a lot of fans believe ECHO to be much more formidable in the upcoming MPL PH Season 9, there are a few who are still doubtful about the new squad. This was discussed by the iconic MPL PH caster Manjean “Manjean” Faldas and Theo “Uomi” Ignacio in Spin.PH's YouTube series titled “Zoom In.”
ECHO’s all-star team may feel pressured in the upcoming MPL season
Forming an all-star team may not be enough to stay dominant in the competitive scene. According to Manjean, ECHO’s new lineup may suffer some chemistry issues as most of its players are leaders who spearheaded their teams rather than staying on the sidelines as sidekicks.
“When you form a super team, usually the first few stages will not likely work out. That’s because all of them are Batmans, you need to have a Robin,” stated Manjean.
Adding to the team chemistry issues, Manjean further elaborated that the high expectations from fans may likely make the team feel pressured and may even affect their performance in the upcoming MPL PH Season 9.
“What’s annoying here is, if you’re Yawi or KarlTzy, the expectations for them are super high. So, if you were in their shoes, for sure there will be an unconscious pressure since all eyes are on them,” stated Manjean.
Following Manjean’s statements, Uomi echoed that there will also be problems regarding communication and controlling the star players’ egos.
“They need to remove their ego and have proper communication because that’s a problem. You have 10 superstars, all of them have egos. Of course, there shouldn’t be ego in the team but we don’t know. We’ll have to see in their gameplay to know,” stated Uomi.
ECHO finished in 5th place in the regular season of the MPL PH Season 8. While the team had a pretty impressive run in the tournament, ECHO was eventually eliminated by Omega Esports in the first round of the playoffs stage with a 3-0 clean sweep. After the season ended, the team made massive changes to its roster, resulting in the star-studded team roster.
While the skepticism of the MPL PH casters is definitely justified, ECHO's potential and strength will only be revealed when they start competing in the upcoming MPL PH Season 9 against other premier Mobile Legends teams.
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