Week 5 of the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Pro League Indonesia Season 12 has ended as a precious moment for Team RRQ, who finally overtook Onic Esports in the top spot. Although both of them have experienced rough patches over the past few weeks, RRQ has been more effective with their approach to the current meta thus far.
With a 2-1 victory against Alter Ego a few days ago, the team currently leads the league with 8 victories out of 10 league games. Despite losing several of its key players at the start of this season, the addition of new signings such as Ferdyansyah “Ferxiic” Kamaruddin and Min “Naomi” Ko has provided the improvement the squad hoped for after their disastrous performance in MPL ID S11. On the other hand, their rival has been struggling to adapt to the new changes.
Considering their exceptional successes over the previous year, Onic Esports has been regarded by viewers as the potential name to lift the trophy three times in a row for the first time in the series. However, some results from previous weeks indicate that something is amiss with their system, and they need to come up with a better plan B to do well in the long run, especially when the unexpected happens.
In the past five weeks, the Yellow Porcupine army has suffered three defeats at the hands of Geek Fam and Aura Fire, with Rebellion Zion on the verge of adding a fourth. In these moments, observers noticed that the squad went through three tactical alterations, involving numerous changes in player positions, for two reasons: some due to emergency situations and others as an experiment to improve.
Given the criticism they’ve received for depending too much on their starlet, Kairi “Kairi” Rayosdelsol, the experiment part does make sense. And the management eventually tried to address this issue by signing Albert “Albertt” Nielsen, who was expected to fill in as the Filipino’s substitution and become a versatile option in other roles. The statistics, however, suggest that the former RRQ star has been unable to adjust his playing style to the team’s current strategies.
Their inability to devise an alternative strategy was evident when they had to substitute Alberttt for Kairi and suffered a substantial loss against Geek Fam a few days ago. Even though Kairi returned to the lineup the following day and aided his team in securing victory against Alter Ego, viewers are still wondering if the team can formulate a better plan should a similar situation arise in the future.
Apart from that match, he also appeared to be struggling to replace Gilang “Sanz” and Calvin “CW” Winata, who had been out in the previous weeks. According to the record, the squad has yet to win a match with Alberttt in their line up.
Given the quality he showed during his stint as a member of RRQ, this is, of course, a very unacceptable condition that needs to be fixed right away to stop their competitors from taking advantage of this flaw.
A matter of teamwork
Despite these concerns, fervent fans believe that Albert’s issue is typical of a player transitioning to a new club, and it’s only a matter of time before he fully synchronizes with their gameplan. Onic Esports’ head coach, Paul “Miranda” Yeb, who has been receptive to criticism regarding their recent performance, echoes this sentiment.
During a recent live session on his TikTok account, he thought that the audience was overreacting to Kairi’s role in the squad and defending Albert, who had tried his best as a substitute in several games. He believes that the young player will achieve his prime once he establishes complete synergy with his new teammates.
“ONIC fails without Kairi? Do you think Kairi can do everything? Nope, you have to do it with five players,” said Yeb. “Think about it, why did ONIC lose when Kairi played without Sanz? Why did ONIC lose when Kairi played without CW? I’m saying that the five of them already have a good understanding of each other. If you say Alberttt is having a hard time, that’s true because he’s still working on his chemistry. Next year or sooner, you will see how Alberttt will excel.”
The MPL ID S12 is now entering a two-week break and will resume on September 7. Fans are expecting fiercer matchups and surprises as there are only three weeks remaining until the playoffs in October.
