From eighth place to the top of the league, there’s no better success story than that.
It’s been quite the journey for Fnatic ONIC PH’s Jungler King “K1NGKONG” Perez but that journey eventually led to winning the MPL PH S14 championship. From the bottom of the barrel to raising the trophy, K1NGKONG has risen so fast that even he can hardly believe it.
“Sobrang saya na nakakaiyak kasi sobrang tagal ko nang pinangarap to,” said K1NGKONG.
He spent the first year of his MPL career struggling in eighth place with TNC Pro Team. While everyone knew that K1NGKONG had potential, it’s still bewildering to see him and his team grow in such a short span of time. “Hindi nga namin na-expect na ma-achieve namin to, or maabot namin to sa ganiton bilis. So sobrang masaya kami.”
His improvement was so stark that it landed him the regular season MVP award for season 14. Yet despite that, he credits his team for making his job easy and allowing him to look good.
“Nagmukhang dominating ako sa buong season dahil sa mga kakampi ko. Sobrang nag-connect kami. Proud din ako sa growth ko as an individual player kasi sobrang dami ang natutunan ko this season at na-apply ko kada series namin.”
Still More Room to Grow
It wasn’t just K1NGKONG who improved throughout the season as Aurora Gaming pushed Fnatic ONIC to seven games. K1NGKONG attributes this to Aurora’s analyst and sixth man Ben “Benthings” Maglaque, who he was teammates with back in TNC.
“Kahit sixth man lang si Benthings sa Aurora, sobrang dami parin ang naaamabag niya sa team. Kasi nung nakilala ko siya sa TNC sobrang lawak ng pagiisip niya. Kaya feel ko yun yung factor bakit nandun siya, kasi nakakatulong siya sa team.”
On that note, K1NGKONG knows that there’s still more to do as Fnatic ONIC gets ready for the M6 World Championships.
“Para sakin, consistency lang talaga tapos disiplina,” said K1NGKONG when asked about what the team needs to improve on. “Tulad ng kanina [sa grand finals], yung mga talo namin galing lang sa pagkukulang ng disiplina. Nag-lead to mga errors na na-capitalize ng Aurora, kaya nakabawi sila.”
He also claimed that he was still not satisfied with his performance, even though it helped them claim a championship. With a drive like that, we can’t wait to see him play on the international stage.
Banner photo from MOONTON Games.