BTK’S THIRD place finish in the M3 World Championship was one of the best storylines in the MLBB world stage, as it finally brought the long-lost fire that was missing in the North American region.
For a team that only saw little competition, where members of the team only met in the airport, this was a historic moment for the region. Their spectacular finish seemed to herald brighter prospects for NA. Would there be more tournaments? Would the scene flourish?
Unfortunately for Michael “MobaZane” Cosgun and Ian “FwydChickn” Hohl, these didn't pan out, despite their efforts. Both of them were then forced to travel to the Philippines.
“It kinda sucked because after M3, we went to the Philippines and a few months after M3, I graduated high school and there were no NA tournaments. So when we went to the Philippines, we basically had no practice at all since M3 and the meta had basically completely changed to the tank meta,” said FwydChickn in a press conference with The Valley, their new team that's presently competing in the M4.
During their stay in the Philippines, both Zane and Chickn struggled with the intense competition. For Hohl, this was an important experience in his career as he learned something that would shape the team's development as a pro players.
“So that was the realization that we really need to improve a lot. And that’s where we realized that we need to come to M4 a lot earlier because there’s such a drastic change in meta that we need that much time to prepare,” said Chickn.
Zane added his own perspective of their experience.
“The Philippine trip just showed that we kinda became a little bit soft after M3...and like Chickn said, we ha[d] to come to M4 early because the practice you get in Indonesia is way better than the practice you get in North America,” said Zane.
“Because like what I said everyone is super serious here and we always scrimmage with the best teams from around the world here, but in North America you can’t really scrim with everyone because the ms (internet ping) was super high.”
Mobazane talks about meeting Akosi Dogie
In their journey in the PH, both Cosgun and Hohl were given an opportunity to learn from one of the biggest names in the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang scene, Setsuna "Akosi Dogie" Ignacio.
Dogie being Dogie, the longtime scene personality would mock MobaZane. But at the same time he would do his best to give Cosgun and Hohl the opportunity to learn more about the competitive scene.
"Dogie just told us a lot about how the pro scene works over there and the MPLs because we were never experienced an MPL live before. And he told us a lot about this... not really trade secrets but things that you [should] know going into [them]. It was very helpful information but I can't really disclose [what he said]," said FwydChickn.
He added: "He was a great help to us, he let us stay in his bootcamp for a few days and we scrimmed with the team a lot and we learned a lot as a team."
Zane also gave Indonesian MLBB legend Yurino "Donkey" Putra Angkawidjaja a nod.
"I would say the biggest helps that I had were Dogie from NXP and Donkey from GPX. They helped me out a ton. They let us stay in their place when we went to the Philippines or when we came here to Indonesia a few months ago and they're very generous to us and I really want to shout them out."
With their win against the unpredictable Todak in the M4 World Championship, both Zane and Chickn are hoping to lead The Valley to MLBB glory.
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