Omega Esports Disheartened About the Re-Draft During ONIC PH Match in MPL PH Season 8

Omega Esports’ pro player Billy “Z4pnu” Alfonso expressed his dismay on the re-draft during the third round against ONIC PH on the fifth week of the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League (MPL) Philippines (PH) Season 8. The re-draft was the result of a visual bug that displayed the hero Bane instead of ONIC’s chosen hero, Aulus. This resulted in the match being delayed for two hours before eventually, the drafting phase had to be re-done, ruining both team’s supposed drafting strategy on the final deciding round. The match ended with ONIC PH prevailing and securing a score of 2-1 over Omega Esports.

MPL league offered both teams options but eventually pushed for a complete re-draft

The problem started during the third and deciding match between Omega Esports and ONIC PH. ONIC had locked in Aulus in the match. A visual bug showed Bane for the opposing team instead of Aulus which caused a problem for Omega Esports’ drafting strategy. This went unnoticed until the final drafting phase where the teams were informed of the bug.

Under the MPL PH rulebook section 8.3.4, If the hero pick “is caused by a technical reason or malfunction of the game, the Team in error must notify a referee immediately, the referee and the MPL official will then communicate and confirm with one another before deciding whether or not the Player can reselect.” In response to this, the league offered three options for the teams, according to a report from SPIN.PH.

The first option was to replace Bane with Aulus without changing any of the other heroes that the team selected. This was reportedly denied by Omega Esports as their drafting was focused on countering the Bane pick from ONIC.

The second option was to restart during Omega Esports’ final pick and then replacing Bane with Aulus, allowing Omega Esports’ one more chance to adjust for the Aulus. This was the option that Omega Esports reportedly chose.

The third and final option was to completely redo the drafting phase.

After hours of back and forth discussions from the MPL officials and the teams, Omega Esports went for the second option. However, after another half an hour of discussions, the MPL officials still went through with the decision of doing a full re-draft instead. Omega Esports head of player development Tony “Ynot” Senedrin felt that it was unfair on their part that they were given options but the league went with a complete re-draft instead.

“We can say ONIC made a mistake, we can say it was a legit bug, we don’t really know. We don’t have the facts. But it was mostly the marshal’s mistake. At least we had a good match though unfortunately, we came up short,” stated Ynot, as quoted by SPIN.PH.

Z4pnu expresses disappointment in the re-draft decision during ONIC PH match

In a vlog, Z4pnu reveals that his team was totally drained during the deciding match against ONIC PH in the MPL PH Season 8 Week 5. Not only that the match lasted for more than two hours, but their drafting strategy was also revealed to ONIC beforehand due to the re-draft decision by the MPL officials.

“During game 3, there was a re-draft and we weren’t informed until our drafting was complete,” stated Z4pnu. “All our cards were revealed, we really had no idea.”

The pro player added that this is very unfortunate for them, especially during the time where they needed to win to acquire more points to secure a slot in the playoffs.

Omega Esports is currently sitting in fifth place with only two wins and seven losses in its standing. The team still has a chance to make a comeback in the sixth week of the MPL PH Season 8 as they are scheduled to go against ECHO on 2nd Oct 2021 at 4:00 PM (PHT).

Check out AFK Gaming's event hub for MPL PH Season 8 to stay up to date on live scores, schedules, rosters, results, and more.