ECHO star Karl “Karltzy” Nepomuceno shed light on the team’s decision to field veteran roamer Jaypee “Jaypee” Cruz over Tristan “Yawi” Cabrera in the MPL Philippines Season 12 playoffs which triggered backlash between some of its fans.

The Orcas jungler shared that there has been a stark difference to the team’s playstyle when Jaypee is setting up the play as compared to Yawi – something that they find to work to their advantage during the course of the season.

“Malakas po si Yawi sa mechanical skill pero mayroon po kasi kapag sa in game, nagkakaproblema po kami,” Karltzy said of the team when Yawi is playing roam.

“Tapos kapag sa shot call, iba din mag-shot call si Jaypee at mas disiplinado rin kami. Nakakasabay din si Jaypee sa mechanical skill, yun nga lang mas palo talaga si Yawi,” added Karltzy.

A testament to the better cohesion the team has with Jaypee in command is ECHO’s record-tying 10-game win streak in the regular season. Yawi did suit up for the Orcas in the latter part of the eliminations although ECHO lost the lone series that he played in.

Karltzy also pointed out that opposing teams seemed to have already checked ECHO’s aggressive plays with Yawi.

Jaypee, on the other hand, has the composure that strikes perfect balance in the team’s aggressive and objective-based style, making the team more unpredictable.

“Nabibigyan po niya (Jaypee) yung team, at hindi po kami go nang go kahit lugi kami. Tapos hindi po kami sumusubsob nang sobra,” said the two-time M-series World Champion.

“Aam na din po ng ibang teams yung play style namin na sugod nang sugod, so mina-micro lang po kami. Pero ngayon po, parang na-balance yung ganun,” he added.