Nexplay Evos finally broke its silence through a Facebook post from its analyst Niel “Midnight” De Guzman and addressed the controversial game between his team and the Omega Esports in the final day of the regular season of the MPL Philippines Season 8.
Midnight apologized to the Mobile Legends community as well as the MPL Philippines for their actions in their last match.
“On behalf of Nexplay, EVOS, and my players, I’m here to apologize to the ML Community and to MPL for we misbehaved during one of our matches, NXPE vs OMEGA, in the league,” said Midnight in the post.
He also admitted that his team didn’t take the match seriously as the team prefers to face ECHO in the play-in and Blacklist International, in case NXPE manages to advance to the upper bracket.
“We didn’t take the match seriously for two reasons: 1. It didn’t matter to us whether we won the series or not. 2. Losing against OMG is an actual benefit for us as we’ll face ECHO and BLCK, a preference for our playoff matches,” he explained.
The former caster turned analyst also took the blame for allowing the team to do such moves in an official match.
“At this point, the penalties have been given and served. If anyone wants to point fingers for the blame, point it at me. I’m the one who calculated the points, I’m the one who supported the idea, and I’m the one who is responsible for the team’s development. There’s no more explanation to the story, we simply finished our match for the regular season in an improper way,” he added.
The Games 1 and 2 in its series against Omega drew flak from the fans as both teams executed unusual compositions and strategies which resulted in lopsided scores for both teams.
The MPL operating committee conducted its investigation and gave the two organizations heavy sanctions for violations on MPL rules.
“Instead of retaining the championship mindset, we lost our senses midway. No matter what happens now, we’ll strive to be better. As one of my closest friend and mentor once told me, mistakes mold your success,” said Midnight
“Thank you for all the support and love you guys have given us. Apologies to those who we’ve disappointed. We’ll do and give our best in the playoffs and continue to be better, better than our past versions of ourselves,” the post ended.