THE TEAM formerly known as Execration, the current Kings of the Southeast Asian Mobile Legends scene, have officially taken their talents to a new organization, under the Smart Omega banner.
Their championship core remains intact, led by MPL veterans Billy “Z4pnu” Alfonso, Kiel VJ “Kielvj” Hernandez, Renz “Renzio” Cadua, Patrick “E2MAX” Caidic, and Joshua “Ch4knu” Mangilog, as well as MPL-PH Season 7's rookie sensation, Duane “Kelra” Pillas.
However, the main core aren’t the only ones involved, as the team decided to field additional players.
Former ULVL support player, Dian “Dian” Cruz, has opted to join the squad, alongside rookies Romeir “Allidap” Padilla, Dean “Raizen” Sumagui, and Robert “Hito” Candoy.
Jomie “P4kbet” Abalos, who was renowned for his shot-calling abilities in both MPL-PH S7 and MSC 2021, will still serve as the team’s tactician.
Meanwhile, former OMG coach Anthony “Ynot” Senedrin has been promoted as the head of coaching and player development within the organization.
Former Execration has a message to fans
Z4pnu has expressed his gratitude for being a part of the organization and promised their fans that they’ll deliver the best results for the club.
“Maraming salamat sa pagtanggap sa amin dito. Gagawin namin ang best namin. Para sa amin, start pa lang ito ng aming journey at pinapangako namin na gagawin naming lahat ng makakaya namin,” he said in a statement.
It was only a little over a week ago that Omega Esports announced that they would release their previous roster, bannered by Salic "Hadjizy" Imam, Jeniel "Haze" Bata-anon, and other Mobile Legends veterans. Jude Turcuato, sports head of Smart (who is the major backer of Omega Esports), gave his thoughts on the matter.
“I think it’s the best-case scenario for us. I think it was a slight disappointment last year when we competed with Bren Esports in Singapore and we didn’t win," said Turcuato, referring to Omega's run in the M2 World Championships.
He added: "And for us to be able to have this type of team with our revamp is for me the best-case scenario to have the Southeast Asian champions now fully supported by the resources of SMART and SMART Omega.”
Turcuato noted that the move of the former Execration squad has been predicted by many fans, but is happy to finally be able to officially reveal the outcome.
"The talent that we have, the popularity and the following that we now have, I think that all the combination gives us, puts us in a very very good situation to do very well across the board performance-wise, popularity-wise," he continued. "It’s really something that if you’re a SMART Omega fan or in general a Mobile Legends fan, it’s something that exciting news outside of actual matches to see a team like that get into even a higher profile situation. so we’re very very happy as you probably have predicted to have been able to put this together and have team Execration join and become Smart Omega."
On the other hand, Omega Esports Chief Operating Officer, Patrick Cruz, stated his concerns with the current roster shakeup.
"The feeling of having a new team is both refreshing and just pure awesomeness. But deep down, we are very anxious to see if both Omega and the past Execration team will embrace the evolution when two different cultures mix,” he said.
Prior to the announcement there were signs that speculated Omega’s decision to incorporate the Execration’s roster through their teaser posters, through the signature X-mark.
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