ADVERTISEMENT
Manila Bulletin devider Sports devider Esports devider Defending champ Onic Philippines faces stiff climb in MPL PH S15 playoffs

Defending champ Onic Philippines faces stiff climb in MPL PH S15 playoffs

Published May 27, 2025 11:20 pm

At A Glance

  • Defending champion Onic Philippines face a stiff climb back to the throne with formidable teams like the top seeded Team Liquid PH and rival Aurora Gaming being the obstacle in the MPL Philippine Season 15 playoffs which fire off on Wednesday, May 28.
King "K1NGKONG" Perez and the rest of Onic Philippines will try to defend its crown in the MPL Philippines Seaosn 15 playoffs (MPL Photo)
King "K1NGKONG" Perez and the rest of Onic Philippines will try to defend its crown in the MPL Philippines Seaosn 15 playoffs (MPL Photo)
Defending champion Onic Philippines faces a stiff climb back to the throne with formidable teams like the top seeded Team Liquid PH and rival Aurora Gaming being the obstacle in the MPL Philippine Season 15 playoffs which fires off on Wednesday, May 28.
Finishing as the third seed at the end of the regular season, the reigning world champions will have to take the longer route back to the Finals, having to face a relatively new but still dangerous sixth seeded Twisted Minds PH in the play-in round.
On the opposite bracket, fourth seed Team Falcons, which is bannered by the M5 championship core of AP.Bren, is battling No. 5 and this season's dark horse TNC Pro-Team.
Of course, expected to lead the charge for Onic’s Super Family is star gold laner Duane “Kelra” Pillas and jungler King “K1NGKONG” Perez along with guys like Frince “SuperFrince” Ramirez, Jann “Kirk” Gutierrez and Borris “Brusko” Parro.
Twisted Minds, however, despite its 3-11 record in the regular season, could potentially turn things around in the playoffs with world champion coach Bonn “Bonchan” Ricaplaza at the helm and veteran player Salic “Hadji” Imam and Michael “MP the King” Endino spearheading the crew.
The tried-and-tested combination of David “Flaptzy” Canon, Angelo “Pheww” Arcangel, Kyle “Kyletzy” Sayson, Marco “Super Marco” Requitano and Rowgien “Owgwen” Unigo of Team Falcons are out to extinguish the new-found fire of the Phoenix crew.
TNC, with the arrival of Tristan “Yawi” Cabrera and the addition of Benedict “BennyQT” Gonzales, rose from the ashes of repeated Top 8 finishers to finally advance to the playoffs where the team hopes to pull off the biggest surprises.
The survivors of the play-in then face the top two squads of the regular season in the upper bracket semifinals.
The winner of the Onic-Twisted Mind match will earn the right to challenge Aurora which is banking on the same roster that made it to the world championships last year.
Renejay “RENEJAY” Barcase is out to rally his crew that also features Jhonard “Demonkite” Caranto, Edward “Edward” Dapadap, Kenneth “Yue” Tadeo and Dominic “Domeng” Del Mundo.
On the other hand, the triumphant in the Team Falcons-TNC clash will face the league-leading Team Liquid bannered by Karl “Karltzy” Nepomuceno, Jaypee “Jaypee” Dela Cruz, Alston “Sanji” Pabico, Sanford “Sanford” Vinuya and Kiel “Oheb” Soriano.
The top 2 teams at the end of the double elimination phase will represent the country in the Mid-Season Cup 2025 during the Esports World Cup in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in July.
ADVERTISEMENT
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1561_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1562_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1563_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}

{{ articles_filter_1564_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.mb-article-details { position: relative; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview, .mb-article-details .article-body-summary{ font-size: 17px; line-height: 30px; font-family: "Libre Caslon Text", serif; color: #000; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview iframe , .mb-article-details .article-body-summary iframe{ width: 100%; margin: auto; } .read-more-background { background: linear-gradient(180deg, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0) 13.75%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0.8) 30.79%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000) 72.5%); position: absolute; height: 200px; width: 100%; bottom: 0; display: flex; justify-content: center; align-items: center; padding: 0; } .read-more-background a{ color: #000; } .read-more-btn { padding: 17px 45px; font-family: Inter; font-weight: 700; font-size: 18px; line-height: 16px; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; border: 1px solid black; background-color: white; } .hidden { display: none; }
function initializeAllSwipers() { // Get all hidden inputs with cms_article_id document.querySelectorAll('[id^="cms_article_id_"]').forEach(function (input) { const cmsArticleId = input.value; const articleSelector = '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .body_images'; const swiperElement = document.querySelector(articleSelector); if (swiperElement && !swiperElement.classList.contains('swiper-initialized')) { new Swiper(articleSelector, { loop: true, pagination: false, navigation: { nextEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-next', prevEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-prev', }, }); } }); } setTimeout(initializeAllSwipers, 3000); const intersectionObserver = new IntersectionObserver( (entries) => { entries.forEach((entry) => { if (entry.isIntersecting) { const newUrl = entry.target.getAttribute("data-url"); if (newUrl) { history.pushState(null, null, newUrl); let article = entry.target; // Extract metadata const author = article.querySelector('.author-section').textContent.replace('By', '').trim(); const section = article.querySelector('.section-info ').textContent.replace(' ', ' '); const title = article.querySelector('.article-title h1').textContent; // Parse URL for Chartbeat path format const parsedUrl = new URL(newUrl, window.location.origin); const cleanUrl = parsedUrl.host + parsedUrl.pathname; // Update Chartbeat configuration if (typeof window._sf_async_config !== 'undefined') { window._sf_async_config.path = cleanUrl; window._sf_async_config.sections = section; window._sf_async_config.authors = author; } // Track virtual page view with Chartbeat if (typeof pSUPERFLY !== 'undefined' && typeof pSUPERFLY.virtualPage === 'function') { try { pSUPERFLY.virtualPage({ path: cleanUrl, title: title, sections: section, authors: author }); } catch (error) { console.error('ping error', error); } } // Optional: Update document title if (title && title !== document.title) { document.title = title; } } } }); }, { threshold: 0.1 } ); function showArticleBody(button) { const article = button.closest("article"); const summary = article.querySelector(".article-body-summary"); const body = article.querySelector(".article-body-preview"); const readMoreSection = article.querySelector(".read-more-background"); // Hide summary and read-more section summary.style.display = "none"; readMoreSection.style.display = "none"; // Show the full article body body.classList.remove("hidden"); } document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", () => { let loadCount = 0; // Track how many times articles are loaded const offset = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]; // Offset values const currentUrl = window.location.pathname.substring(1); let isLoading = false; // Prevent multiple calls if (!currentUrl) { console.log("Current URL is invalid."); return; } const sentinel = document.getElementById("load-more-sentinel"); if (!sentinel) { console.log("Sentinel element not found."); return; } function isSentinelVisible() { const rect = sentinel.getBoundingClientRect(); return ( rect.top < window.innerHeight && rect.bottom >= 0 ); } function onScroll() { if (isLoading) return; if (isSentinelVisible()) { if (loadCount >= offset.length) { console.log("Maximum load attempts reached."); window.removeEventListener("scroll", onScroll); return; } isLoading = true; const currentOffset = offset[loadCount]; window.loadMoreItems().then(() => { let article = document.querySelector('#widget_1690 > div:nth-last-of-type(2) article'); intersectionObserver.observe(article) loadCount++; }).catch(error => { console.error("Error loading more items:", error); }).finally(() => { isLoading = false; }); } } window.addEventListener("scroll", onScroll); });
Join Our Newsletters

Sign up by email to receive news.

© 2025 Manila Bulletin The Nation's Leading Newspaper. All Rights Reserved.