Despite an early exit from the Philippines’ biggest esports tournament, the future looks bright for Minana EVOS.
“We don’t have any regrets about what happened in this match,” Minana EVOS head coach Christian “Bitoy” Casten told reporters in the post-match press conference.
Minana EVOS’ team came out with calm demeanors, facing the press with heads held high.
Minana Esports founder Julius “Banoobs” Mariano said, “the mentality we developed is amazing. We were really all in. You probably felt it, we don’t give up in any fight. All the adjustments we could make, actually, earlier, that was our final form – even in the way they communicate, everything, in the strategy, that was our final form. I’m very proud, we really have no regrets.”
He added that the team will continue to dream on and reach for higher goals. This has been Minana EVOS’s first official playoffs run since they rebranded from the former Nexplay EVOS brand in Season 11.
Consequently, Nexplay EVOS’ last playoff appearance was in Season 9.
Weeks before, Nazer “Dogie” Mollazehi claimed that if the team did not make it to the playoffs, it would have been “Minana EVOS’ last season.”
However, they were able to get a playoffs spot – and the 5th team to do such a feat for the current MPL Philippines Season 13.
“The dream lives on. I’m very happy that we had this kind of opportunity, as I said, the lineup that played earlier, we had three weeks of preparations,” Banoobs says, even adding that trading their usual lineup of Kirk “Kirk” Gutierrez, Ken Louie “Kzen” Pile, Lance “LanceCy” Cunanan, Jan Dominic “Domeng” del Mundo, and Brian “Spider-Milez” Santos for the second unit of Minana EVOS, including Jeniel “YellyHaze” Bata-Anon, Oscar “Sumpak” Romero, Mark Vincent “Vane” Dasig, Kyle “Koyl” Reyes, and John “Perkziva” Sumawan in the final week of the Regular Season of Season 13.
Domeng commented on the team’s chemistry and heart, saying, “in the team, we put our hearts into it. Whatever happens, at least we bring out what we practice in scrims, and also because of my team. They are also the reason why we keep fighting.”
Banoobs was asked though, if the team was also open to partnerships from major international organizations, in a fashion similar to Team Liquid’s acquisition of ECHO, Falcons partnering up with world champions AP Bren, and Fnatic partnering up with Onic Philippines.
“We have a lot of ongoing negotiations with big Esports World Cup organizations. We just finished the run, then a little rest, then continue again, and hopefully, we can properly announce the next steps with our organizations,” Banoobs said.
Banoobs added, “Now, we’re back to square one with management and assessing all the existing offers on hand to see where we will really end up.”
Minana EVOS finished the season at 6th place, with a 6-8 win-loss record. The team has also been invited to the ESL Snapdragon Pro Series Open Finals Season 5 tournament.
