Just a month after his outspoken stance on the Philippines competitive scene, Michael “Mobazane” Cosgun dropped another contentious statement, this time directed at the current state of competition in Southeast Asia. He believes that the MLBB Pro League Philippines teams are lagging behind Indonesian in terms of meta adjustment, as evident from their performance in the ESL Snapdragon Pro Series Season 3 event last week.
During a livestream session on his YouTube channel, he was asked about his thoughts on the MPL PH teams that were defeated by two MPL ID teams, Onic Esports and Bigetron Alpha. He then replied that Filipino supremacy might be starting to decline this season, especially after witnessing the grand final between Onic and Bigetron at that tournament.
“End of the PH era? We’ll see in the M5. I mean, it’s just a tournament (the ESL Snapdragon Series), but we’ll see when it’s the World Cup,” said Zane. “Onic Esports is really strong though, so I don’t know if they will be able to beat the Filipinos. Even then, they couldn’t beat Bigetron, and Bigetron got destroyed by Onic.”
He feels that the reason the Filipino teams have been lagging this season is that they haven’t been able to adapt as quickly to the current meta as the Indonesian teams have. He also doesn’t think that the current meta would suit the Philippines’ powerhouse, Blacklist International, considering their last tournament results. Nevertheless, he believes that Filipino teams could improve as the season goes on.
“I think Filipinos could not adjust as well to this meta as the Indonesian did right off the bat. Maybe for now, the Indonesian are better,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong. I wouldn’t mind if Indonesian win M5 either. I think that’d be nice, but we’ll see. I think the Philippines will probably get stronger as time goes on.”
“Is it Blacklist’s meta? No, I’m pretty sure they lost, like, in some really small tournament to Omega. It wasn’t their lineup, but it was Kelra Jungler (on Omega) with Hayabusa who beat them. I don’t think it was the main lineup of Omega either.”
Zane is now captaining his old team, BloodThirstyKings, for the MLBB North America Challenger 2023 Fall, which begins this Saturday. It will be interesting to find out how the Filipino audience reacts to him if he wins the NACT and advances to the M5, which will be held in their country.
