The excitement and surprises in the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Pro League Indonesia Season 12 continued in the third week, which was capped off with a remarkable performance by the underdog Aura Fire, who defeated Bigetron Alpha and the current Southeast Asia’s titan, Onic Esports.
Last week, the Aura Fire team, which recently added two new players, Aldhia “Aran” Fahmi and Thomas “SamoHt” Budiman, succeeded in breaking the community’s expectations and closing the gap to the top four after previously experiencing a losing streak that pushed them to the bottom of the MPL ID S12 standings.
Aran made an impressive debut for his squad, helping them defeat Bigetron Alpha on matchday 1 week 3 to secure their first win of the season. The young exp laner displayed a strong defense and movement to counter Bigetron’s assaults, which were mostly initiated by Kenneth “Kenn” Marcelo and Calvin “VYN”.
His excellent form continued the next day when Aura faced the reigning champions, Onic Esports. He managed to block Onic’s duo, Gilang “Sanz” and Kairi “Kairi” Rayosdelsol, to lead his side to a 2-0 victory. Unfortunately, their momentum ended when they met Evos at the end of week 3. However, his performance in these games suggests that he may be the key to unlocking Aura Fire’s true potential.
Aside from these surprises, barely anything has changed in the current top four. Team RRQ remains at the top of the table, thanks to the outstanding performance of their Myanmar’s starlet, Min “Naomi” Ko. Meanwhile, Bigetron Alpha and Evos Legend are still trying their best to knock Onic Esports out of second place.
A warning to the king
On the other side, Onic Esports, one of the crowd favorites, are beginning to display flaws that Aura Fire and Team RRQ have effectively exploited. Critics believe their tactical experiments are now making it easier for their competitors to anticipate their play and may have an impact on their players’ growth in the long term. The MLBB ID community, on the other hand, believes that other teams have adapted to their gameplay over the past season.
In the matchday 2 of week 3, Onic opted to deploy Albert “Albertt” Iskandar as a replacement for Calvin “CW” Winata in the gold lane position. This change seemed to have weakened their cohesiveness, as they were eventually overwhelmed by Aura Fire and lost 0-2.
The next day, Onic decided to play against Rebellion Zion with their league winning roster. Surprisingly, RBL managed to put pressure on Onic’s players during game one, eventually winning after dominating the objective. Although Onic came back to win 2-1, no one anticipated that the reigning champions would struggle against an opponent they had comfortably defeated in the previous two seasons.
With 5 victories and 2 defeats, Onic Esports is currently second in the MPL ID S12 regular season standings. As the first half of Season 12 coming to a conclusion this week, they must win the remaining matches if they don’t want to struggle for the playoffs in the next two months.
