THE ONIC Philippines that will enter Season 10 is very different team from the Onic PH that exited Season 9.
In a short span of time, the squad — which achieved a runner-up finish in Season 8 and the M3 world championships — was rebuilt almost entirely from scratch, with only Nowee "Ryota" Macasa remaining from the old team.
Onic PH management had previously described this offseason to Spin.ph as a “rebuilding” phase for the storied team.
Former coach Denver “Yeb” Miranda, who’s now taking the reigns as coach of Onic Indonesia, was as surprised as everyone else when it all went down.
“Nagulat na lang kami… nagulat naman tayong lahat na, like, one week before roster lock ng MPL-PH, nag-announce ng farewell doon sa mga players ko,” he said in a recent Spin Zoom-In episode. “Sudden talaga iyon, talagang biglaan yun.”
While he can't reveal all the details he knows, he did say that the two organizations pulled together to find new homes for its departing players.
"Lahat kami, including Onic Indonesia, Onic Philippines, lahat kami nagtutulungan makahanap sila ng team, kasi syempre, basta may mapuntahan sila ng magandang team," he said.
Coach Yeb recalls his transfer
Before the rush of players were released from Onic PH, Yeb was actually the first to bid his farewell, with the team making the official announcement on June 20. Onic Indonesia would announce that they had signed up Yeb and Kairi “Kairi” Rayosdelsol on July 4.
Here’s what Yeb remembers about his transfer.
“Ang nangyari kasi diyan talaga, before pa lang mag-playoffs, andami ng rumors nun, na ibebenta si Onic, na mawawala si Onic, maraming kung ano-anong kwento. Syempre, worried din kami,” he recalled.
“Tapos, after nung playoffs, as in katatapos pa lang ata ng huling laban namin, minessage na ako ng CEO ng Onic [Justin Widjaja]. Tapos, yun nga, nag-o-offer.”
The transfer was made easier by the fact that the two teams belonged under one parent organization. “Ang pwede lang kumuha sa amin nang ganung kadali si Onic, kasi siya rin yung may-ari e,” Yeb explained.
But even so, he still wasn’t sure if he would accept. The decision, however, was made a lot easier when he found out that Kairi was also being tendered an offer.
“Ang sabi rin ni Kairi, kung siya mag-isa, ayaw niya. So nag-antayan kami. ‘Tatanggapin ba natin? Kasi kung ayaw mo, ayaw ko,’” he said.
And now, the two are out there in Onic Indonesia, ready to dig into the MPL-Indonesia Season 10 — which, like its Philippine counterpart, also begins this week. But even with their similar schedules, Yeb said that he’ll still be watching the PH games.
He's hungry not just for victory, but as his sinigang-cooking TikTok vid proves, Filipino food as well. "Hindi ako nahirapan sa language barrier, nahirapan ako sa pagkain," he admitted to Spin.ph.
"Kaya ginawa ko, nagpadala ako ng sinigang mix, crab and corn," he went on, before revealing his secret weapon to combat homesickness: a bottle of seasoning.
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