Onic Philippines head coach Denver “Yebmaester” Miranda was far from worried when his team was drawn to the ‘Group of Death’ in the Mobile Legends Bang Bang M3 World Championships which will happen next month in Singapore.
The MPL Philippines Grand Finalists’ head tactician stressed that his wards are up for challenge of another tough set of assignments in the Group B, where his squad is set to face MPL Indonesian champions Onic Esports, MPL Malaysia and MPL Brazil runners-up Todak and Vivo Keyd.
“We expect naman na lahat ng teams malakas and possible na makatapat so kahit sabi nila “yung bracket namin yung pinakamahirap” ganon talaga e hindi ka naman sasali sa isang tournament na hindi ready,” Coach Yeb told Manila Bulletin moments after the announcement of M3 groupings.
Although no team will be eliminated at the end of the group stages, it is important for Onic and its fellow Philippine representative Blacklist International to finish at the top two of their respective groups.
The two best teams in the group stages after the single round robin matchup will get a spot in the upper bracket while the bottom two will settle in the lower bracket in the playoffs.
Coach Yeb was aware of the daunting task of getting the top 2 spots but the veteran mentor has already set the team's plans even before the tournament starts.
“We respect all teams but we want to stick to our strengths and we want them to play in our style so those teams need to prepare for us,” said Coach Yeb in an interview before the draw.
READ MORE: Blacklist, Onic get favorable matchups as M3 grouping finally revealed
All eyes are on the Philippines teams especially that the country’s representative, Bren Esports, came out triumphant in the last edition of the tournament.
Philippine squad also made headlines in MLBB pro-esports scene in the past months following its dominating performances in other international competitions like in the Mobile Legends Southeast Asia Cup.
Onic PH is confident that the PH teams will be able to replicate the same success in M3.
“We’re very confident to be the back-to-back champions because Onic and Blacklist are very strong teams. I think we prepared for the best and we are ready,” said Onic captain Allen “Baloyskie” Baloy.
“Basta itataas namin ng Blacklist International ang bandera ng Pinas,” Coach Yeb added.