RESTRUCTURING. That’s what Bren Esports’ Francis “Duckeyyy” Glindro called the offseason scramble as teams shift their rosters around to better prepare them for the coming MPL-PH Season 9.
It’s something that Duckeyyy, who led Bren to the M2 World Championship earlier this year, is seriously looking into, after a lackluster S8 campaign as his squad failed to make the Mobile Legends Professional League playoffs for the first time in its history.
“Basically, I’m scouting players,” he said in Spin.ph’s Zoom In webcast on November 17. “Fresh new talents off the amateur leagues. So I’m looking at like the next big thing, the next prodigies.”
He added: “I think I’ve found some. May clue. Magaling mag-ML.”
Duckeyyy is obviously playing things close to the chest. He told Spin.ph that he would studiously watch tournaments and livestreams, but to throw people off the scent, he would leave comments on their streams — to the point that someone sent him screenshots of his comment trail.
Panda reveals RSG PH’s offseason strategy
But RSG PH’s Coach Brian “Panda” Lim, who was also a guest at the show, interjected, “I can tell the secret [that] Duckeyyy is trying to hide. I noticed that some of the players that I actually wanted to consider for next season, Coach Duckeyyy was also eyeing them. So I kind of have a clue who the players [are] already.”
Panda himself is holding firm to the coaching strategy that he’s been nurturing for a long time.
“I’m one of the coaches who likes to start from the ground up. Dati pa, from the SEA Games, I like to [handpick players],” he said. In Seasons 7 and 8, Panda insisted on open tryouts for his teams Laus Playbook Esports and RSG PH.
Panda went on: “For RSG, I had to pick players who were — not chopsuey — but players who people say that they won’t win in a championship, or that they’re not really that famous or skilled, but I try to get those players and that’s why from the beginning, people didn’t really have an expectation [for] us.
“That’s why they called us chopsuey.”
Waxing philosophical about his coaching style, Panda compared his players to colors.
“I also like to experiment [...] I really like to see what kind of player has this kind of color. And then there’s also this player who has this kind of color. So what if I mix these colors, what kind of color would I get? Of course the mechanical skills, the talent and the skills has to be the basis of my standards. But after that I try to look at their colors,” he explained.
“There’s a mature player, there’s an immature player who’s highly talented — how about if I mix them up? Will this go well? I’m doing the same thing for next season.”
For fans of the upstart dark horse team that surprised many in Season 8, Panda also has a bit of good news: “Don’t worry, guys, I’m not kicking everyone out.”
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