Brian Lim, aka Coach Panda, never thought the Philippines would be his home. In truth, he thought the Philippines was a dangerous place where every corner had thugs who wanted to rob you. Now, he’s married to a Filipino and has fallen in love with the Philippines. This is the story of Brian Lim, a Korean scientist who ended up becoming an esports player and coach in the Philippines.
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Unknown to many, Coach Panda is a scientist. He majored in Biomedical Engineering at a technology school in the U.S., in hopes of following in the footsteps of his father, who is a very well-known scientist and immunologist. His mother, on the other hand, is a very famous painter.
“My father is a very well-renowned scientist, an immunologist. And my mother, she's also quite a famous painter. My family is actually really stacked. But what they really wanted me to do since I was young is… they taught me so many things.”
Coach Panda reminisces on his tough childhood, if there was any. He shares with SPIN.ph how he would watch his friends play outside while he was indoors studying or taking some extracurricular lessons. As a kid, Coach Panda’s days were dedicated to academic and artistic excellence. But it was not a life fit for a child.
“I woke up at 7 a.m., went to school, then after that, I had academy, piano lessons, acting lessons, English lessons, Spanish lessons, and Science lessons. I finished at 1 a.m.”
There was a bit of sadness in Coach Panda’s face as he shared this.
“I didn't have many good memories during my childhood, such as playing with my friends. My parents wanted me to be a scientist just like my father.
That's why I went to engineering school. My plan was to be a scientist or a biomedical engineer. I just didn't expect that my life would lead me to the Philippines and to esports and Mobile Legends.”
“And after I finished my degree, I actually came to the Philippines to have my own venture business in Biomedical Engineering,” Coach Panda tells SPIN.ph.
“But that came to a stop, and for some reason, I had a little bit of depression and I was hospitalized. I felt like the world was ending. That's when I found Mobile Legends.”
Brian Lim, aka Coach Panda

With a failed business and uncertain future, Coach Panda found sanctuary in one game: Mobile Legends. It was a MOBA that is light and convenient to play on your phone.
“I used to be a big fan of League of Legends. I used to be a player also. And then, I saw Mobile Legends is very similar to League of Legends but inside a mobile phone. That's how I started grinding Mobile Legends.”
That was in 2018 right after the MPL Season 1 ended. With nothing else to occupy his mind, Coach Panda harnessed all the training and concentration he learned as a kid and focused theses on Mobile Legends, playing 35 games a day.
“I literally played all day,” said Coach Panda, who was raised to study from 7 a.m. to 1 a.m. “I just went online, played solo ranked game, and downed 35 games a day! It was eat, play, eat, play, eat, play, eat, play.”
Coach Panda became one of the strongest players in the Philippines because of his insane daily grind, so his gameplay mechanics earned the respect of ArkAngel, one of the earliest Mobile Legends pro-teams in the Philippines.
“I got recruited in ArkAngel and that's how I became a pro player,” said Coach Panda.
Coach Panda smiles as he realizes how crazy fate has been for him. He never expected that a biomedical scientist whose career had been planned out by his parents since birth, would end up in esports.
“My career in esports has been so far from being a scientist,” he says.
But he admits he applies some of the things he picked up in Biomedical Engineering. Just like a scientist, Coach Panda uses experiments and the scientific method to find solutions to problems in Mobile Legends.
“I acquired so many things while I was studying my course. I learned the processing of context, ideas, and problems. If I see a problem and I want to tackle this, I ask what the problem is and what might be the breakthrough to solve the problem. What solutions and options can we try? What risks do we need to take if we try to do this?”
Using his training as a scientist and a student, Coach Panda applies his studying strategy to his coaching.
“I talk about players that play competitively and prepare for tournaments for Mobile Legends. It's the same thing when you're preparing for a test,” said Coach Panda. He compares the battle to a textbook.
"If you see the table of contents, it shows all the chapters and the sub-chapters that you need to study for the test. The same thing is true for Mobile Legends. For example, the Early Game would be Chapter 1, and its sub-contents would be the Turtle, Resources, and Rotation. And then Chapter 2, you have the Mid-Game. For Chapter 3, you have the Late Game, and then there are sub-contents in each,” said Coach Panda.
So far, only Coach Panda views the game like a textbook that you need to study before an exam. It is this tactical approach to the game proved a coach is essential to winning a match. Under Coach Panda’s helm, ArkAngel defied everyone’s expectations. From a team that was last in the playoffs race, they soared all the way to the top and became champions, beating a battle-tested BREN Esports squad. They even entered the MSC 2019 and earned a 3rd place finish, behind two Indonesian powerhouses.
“If we can cover all these things and tackle one by one, and then we see what are the weaknesses that we have, then it will be much easier to solve the problem with the team,” said Coach Panda.
Coach Panda would eventually be recruited by RSG Slate Philippines, which he would lead to the MPL-PH Season 9 Championship, and then to an MSC Championship afterward. In March 2023, Coach Panda was awarded by the MPL-PH Press Corps with the prestigious title of Coach of the Year, besting Blacklist International’s Coach Bon Chan and ECHO’s Coach TicTac, who are both world champions.
When we asked him how his parents reacted when he chose an esports career instead of pursuing a profession in biomedical engineering, Coach Panda did not mince words.
“Oh, they're very against it. They're very against it. But I'm trying to my best so I can collect all the titles, like Pokemon badges, in Mobile Legends,” Coach Panda tells SPIN.ph.
With so much pressure coming from his family, he feels the need to succeed in esports so he can say he made a legacy in this industry.
“So at least I can tell my family that I achieved everything here. And then I think some can call me the best because I did achieve all the titles as a coach in Mobile Legends. I would be happy and honored. And when I quit my career in Mobile Legends, at least I can say that I did my best and I did achieve good things.”
In the countless times Coach Panda and RSG players faced the media for post-match press conferences after winning, there were many times when the Korean coach would be visibly disappointed with his team even when they won.
“Para sa akin kasi, a win is good if you deserve that win, not if chumamba ka. You just won miraculously. Now, if that happens, it means that honestly, the enemy was just really good early game and you guys suck. But in the late game, they just made a mistake and you guys won,” Coach Panda said.
“I only feel satisfied by the game they won if I feel like this is the performance that I trained in and it's really translated into the tournament. And I still get satisfied even if they lose if they show that we did the same thing like we did in the scrimmage, but the enemy really prepared hard. So give them applause, we just accept the defeat, learn from it and move on.”
But there’s a good reason behind Coach Panda’s seeming pessimism.
“Even though I finish this draft and I think it's good, I always ask questions. Could this have been better? Or if we make this kind of strategy and then we do this kind of rotation, then I keep asking. Yes, the result was good, but what could have gone wrong actually? But for a good purpose, not because of lack of confidence.”
“But what I really think differentiates me from other coaches is that I usually don't think that I am correct 100 percent. I always doubt myself, which is a good thing and a bad thing. The bad thing is that it can show a lack of confidence. But the good thing is that I don't stop studying,” he added.
In the boot camp, Coach Panda is notoriously strict but can ride on any joke.
“Siguro, I'm very strict in the way where the players might feel like I'm so hard. Like I don't really have much leniency, they're stressed, but I'm still pushing them.
But at the same time, outside of practice, I'm very outgoing,” Coach Panda said.
“We make fun of each other. Even the players make fun of me!” said Coach Panda.
“But we know that we need the right timing to do that. Like if we have all good vibes, then all good. But if we need to be serious, then we don't joke with each other anymore. There's a strict line where the players feel comfortable to play with me. There's a strict line where the players know that they should be alert. But outside of scrimmage, the players and me, we always get along. We always have talk to talk. We also play other games! We have PS4, we play together. So we still bond. It’s easy to bond with them and gain their trust.”
There was one time when Coach Panda showed John Darry “1rrad” Tuazon a video of Kairi Rayosdelsol an interview video by SPIN.ph, in which Kairi admitted 1rrad was the better Lancelot user.
“When I showed him the video, he was really jumping up and down. His head was literally reaching the ceiling. He was so motivated because Kairi’s his idol.”
This is just one of the many light moments inside Coach Panda’s boot camp.
Looking back at his esports career, there is one moment that was forged in Coach Panda’s memory. It was a point when he almost quit esports.
“Season 9, really. Because everyone needs to know that, again, I'm not a Filipino resident or citizen member yet. I am Korean here. I don't have a fellow Korean friend or Korean family here in the Philippines,” said Coach Panda.
Coach Panda felt lonely in the Philippines, especially during Season 9, so he decided that if they did not win the championship, that would be the end of his career in Mobile Legends.
“So everyone needs companionship. Everyone needs some belonging, especially to a family. And I realized that in season 9. I told myself that if I don't win this championship, then maybe I will just stop there, no matter how much I love this job and how passionate I am.”
That season was very emotional for Coach Panda because he promised himself that if he won, he would propose to his girlfriend, now his wife.
Coach Panda proposes to his girlfriend after winning MPL-PH S9

“Season 9 was my best chance to propose to my wife. When I won season 9, I proposed to my wife on the stage, everything went blank. It was really the moment my dream came true. And not actually many can actually feel that in their life.”
Coach Panda pauses.
“It's like really once in a lifetime moment. And I remember that because I worked so hard for it. And then I got it.”
He is very thankful for his players who also gave it their all to make sure they win.
“Our team was very strong. But again, it's been a long time since I've been to the playoffs. The regular season atmosphere and playoffs atmosphere are really, really different. But I just trusted my team. I trusted the players. No matter what kind of draft I gave them, they played well.”
At that moment, Coach Panda felt the energy and the trust surging within him and within every player of RSG. He even compared it to Dragon Ball Z.
“You need to become Super Saiyan! Have that energy and survive together with the team to make that magic happen. My belief was just to give the best draft I can offer. Don't doubt myself in that moment. Don't doubt myself in that moment so the players don’t feel it. I told them to just have fun, and whatever the result is, it is all planned by God. So, no regrets. That was the feeling I had in Season 9.”

The Philippines is hard to love: Polluted cities, heavy traffic jams, and soaring prices make it hard for anyone to choose the country over other more prosperous destinations. But Coach Panda chose to stay.
“Honestly, before I came to the Philippines, I really thought that the Philippines is a dangerous country. I thought it was not really a safe country where you can just walk around in the middle of the night. I thought it was not a safe country where you can just walk between alleys,” said Coach Panda.
But what made him stay?
“The people. Really, the people.”
“I live in Tondo with my wife, and the people there are really nice. Even when I walk there, they say, ‘Hello, Coach!’ Minsan, sasabihin nila, “Coach, kain!”
“And even here, even if you don't have money, Filipinos know how to enjoy their life. Even if they have one kikiam, they will share it with their friends. They say, ‘Let's eat.’ And even if it's only 10 pesos, you enjoy bonding.”
Coach Panda could not help but compare the Philippines to other countries.
“In other countries, if you say bonding tayo, okay, we need to ride a car, we need to spend money, we need to go to a restaurant, we need to drink, it will cost money. But here, just one Red Horse with two glasses, it's good! You can enjoy it. I really love that culture with the people really caring about their family, their friends, and being outgoing. That is the Philippine culture that I really love. That's why I'm choosing to stay here.”
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