If you’ve been watching the Mobile Legends pros at the ongoing MPL-PH season 6, then you’ve probably heard about the infamous Diggie Feeding strategy.
It was first pulled off by Christian “Rafflesia” Fajura, the team captain of the history-making, back-to-back MPL-PH champions, on their debut match as Aura PH versus Execration.
It is centered around Diggie’s passive ability, Young Again. Here’s a refresher of how that ability works. After being slain, Diggie doesn’t get sidelined in spectator mode for the duration of its respawn timer. Instead, it can freely roam around the map as a harmless egg.
Rafflesia exploited this mechanic to gather information about the team’s enemies. He constantly provided vision for his team in both of Diggie’s forms by invading the enemy’s side of the map, most of the time at the cost of his life.
When in Egg Form, Rafflesia also spammed Disdain, a supposedly harmless ability that deals minuscule damage, to interrupt enemies channeling Recall. When he respawned in Owl Form, Rafflesia also used Diggie’s Retribution and abilities to potentially steal buffs and deal significant damage.
Although Rafflesia ended up with a 0/21/14 KDA on that game, his impact — not only on their victory but on the competitive metagame at large — was more than enough for him to be recognized as that week’s MVP.
Why it’s overpowered
Information is paramount in higher levels of MLBB play as it helps a team decide whether to push, farm, fight, or retreat. You might ask, though: What’s the use of information, if you can just get fat off of farming Diggie?
Here’s where it becomes OP, though. The gold a player receives after killing an enemy who’s on a death streak actually diminishes until it reaches zero after the eighth death. In effect, this turns Diggie into an almost unstoppable spy.
As Billy “Z4pnu” Alfonso, MPL-PH veteran and currently Execration’s 6th man, said, this strategy pushed his team into a dilemma.
“Kahit patayin niyo nang patayin, wala kayong makukuhang pera,” he lamented. “Pag di niyo naman pinansin, babawasan nang babawasan ‘yung buhay niyo. ‘Pag pinansin niyo naman, makaka-buy time. Agaw atensyon ‘yun eh, makakakuha siya ng oras eh.”
A Diggie diverting attention often throws a team out of position. “Panget para sa’min na naba-buy time kami, ‘di [namin] nagagawa ‘yung tamang ikot [namin], di [namin] nakukuha yung tamang rotation [namin],“ Z4pnu continued.
The insanity that is this strategy got popular in no time. Other participants of the league were quick to employ it themselves.
Moreover, with Aura PH's influence as the two-time champions, this strategy has reached public ranked matches as well. It helped, too, that Diggie Feeding needed absolutely no skill to execute. You just needed to die, after all.
How you can make it work
The Diggie Feeding technique, however, wasn’t as effective in ranked matches compared to other strategies adapted from the MPL-PH.
The reason was simple. A successful Diggie Feeding strategy is not based on how many deaths you ended up having, or how many abilities the enemy has wasted for you, or how long you were able to act as a walking ward. It’s actually how you and your teammates make use of those deaths, those wasted resources, and those provided vision that make this strategy successful.
Let’s return to the game where Rafflesia first pulled off his Diggie strategy.
In that game, Aura PH drafted Selena for Allen “Greed_” Baloy and Thamuz for Ashley “Killuash” Cruz. These were two mobile heroes who can immediately respond whenever Rafflesia’s Diggie spots a potential kill or buff steal.
Additionally, when the Cryoturtle first spawned during the three-minute mark of the game, both teams had already amassed a total of 13 kills — a bloodbath when compared to usual games.
Though Execration had the upper hand with eight kills, seven of those were from targeting the happles Diggie. Aside from the growing kill deficit, Execration actually had no edge against their opponents. Aura PH managed to lead them in gold, turrets, and map objectives, because amid the chaos brought about by Rafflesia’s immortal Diggie, there was Jaypee “Jaypee” Dela Cruz’ Yi Sun-Shin farming their side of the jungle, as well as Kiel “KielVJ” Hernandez’ Masha pushing lanes.
This was all thanks to the space created by the rest of their teammates.
This was how Aura PH executed the Diggie Feeding strategy. Their draft was prepared to play around it and their communication allowed them to act on the vision provided by their captain. Rafflesia knew what he had to do and his teammates understand what he was doing.
Now imagine replicating this same strategy in a ranked match with four other randoms who you can barely communicate with. The success of this strategy, much like any other strategy, lies not only in the player’s ability to play a feeding Diggie but also on their teammates’ ability to play with a feeding Diggie. If you plan on going deep with Diggie next time, perhaps it would be easier to pull this off in a full five-man party with your friends. Win or lose, at least you know you won’t be reported for Intentional Feeding.
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