EVOS Esports makes its grand return to the Philippine Mobile Legends: Bang Bang scene after forging a partnership with Nexplay Esports.
The two esports giants in Southeast Asia unveiled their partnership during the Nexplay Uncovered event on Saturday, June 19.
"This partnership is formed mainly because of our vision together. For Nexplay, our mission is about helping gamers succeed alongside EVOS' vision of making dreams a reality for a lot of gamers," said Nexplay CEO and founder Gabriel Benito.
The announcement ended weeks of speculation as the renowned Jakarta, Indonesia-based esports organization finally declared its comeback after a three-season absence in the MPL Philippines.
Back in the MPL-PH Season 3, EVOS became one of the pioneering foreign organizations to compete in the country when it acquired the SXC Imbalance team led by now-Blacklist International coach Kristoffer "BON CHAN" Ricaplaza and sixth-man analyst Dexter "DEX STAR" Alaba. Also with them were Reniel "HONDA BEAST" Encisa, Salic "Hadjizy" Imam and Archie "KIL LER" Valencia.
EVOS, however, pulled the plug on its PH squad at the conclusion of Season 4 and the roster was tapped by the Tier One Entertainment-owned Blacklist, which eventually became the MPL-PH Season 7 champion and Mobile Legends Southeast Asia Cup (MSC) 2021 runner-up.
The EVOS-NXP team hasn't revealed its full roster for the MPL-PH Season 8 as of writing time. During the introduction of its Mobile Legends division, only the "Big 3" of John Paul "H2wo" Salonga, Renejay "RENEJAY" Barcarse and Tristan "Yawi" Cabrera, and coach Setsuna "Dogie" Ignacio were called.
Earlier this month, NXP released support Dexter "Exort" Martinez while no updates about James "Jeymz" Gloria and Lance "LanceCy" Cunanan were posted. Former Onic PH standout John Michael “Zico” Dizon was promoted to head coach for MPL-PH S8.
EVOS Esports has three established teams across the SEA region namely EVOS Legends (MPL Indonesia), EVOS SG (MPL Singapore) and Suhaz EVOS (MPL Malaysia).
Winner of the M1 World Championship, EVOS Legends recently won its second MPL Indonesia trophy as well as a third-place finish in the MSC 2021 while EVOS SG conquered the inaugural season of MPL Singapore on top of a title back in the MPL MY/SG Season 4. Suhaz EVOS wound up third in the MPL MY Season 7.
It will be a tall order replicating the achievements of its sister teams as the then NXP suffered back-to-back first-round exits in the playoffs of MPL-PH Seasons 6 and 7.
Nevertheless, Dogie and his crew's two consecutive 7th-8th place finishes kept their spot in the country's professional league for Moonton's popular mobile MOBA game.