The Phoenix is steadily rising this season, but can Yawi and the team keep up the momentum?
As the first half of the MPL PH S15 closes, TNC Yawi and crew sit in the middle of the pack with a 3-4 record, their best record in years. While it’s unfair to attribute their improvement to one player, TNC has definitely looked like a different team since Tristan “Yawi” Cabrera’s inclusion this season.
The M4 world champion is showing that he can still hang with some of the best teams in the league. There were doubts about how well he’d perform at the beginning of the season, especially since he’s joining a bottom-of-the-barrel team. Now we can safely say that those doubts are unfounded.
“Relief talaga na nakakasabay kami sa mga top teams,” admits TNC Yawi. “Tapos excited kami sa mga next games namin kasi ang goal namin ay makaabot ng playoffs.”
Despite being a former world champion, TNC’s reputation does precede them. While rising to the middle of the standings is an improvement for TNC, they still have a lot of work to do before people start believing the hype. But now that the team is a legitimate threat in the league, they can start setting their sights on bigger goals.
“Masarap sa pakiramdam kasi parang lahat ng mga games namin double effort,” continued TNC Yawi. “Tapos lahat ng teammates ko, coaches at management, lahat motivated matuto kahit magkamali sila.”
Of course, this means that TNC now has to prepare themselves if they want to keep their spot and even climb higher. Yawi believes that they could have done much better in the first round but it did show what they lacked.
“Feel ko yung decision making namin talaga ang nagpapatalo sa amin. Yung early and mid game namin okay naman. Linis sa decision making lang kailangan namin.”
Either way, TNC has already impressed everyone with how much they’ve improved. Now it’s up to them if they can take that all the way to the end of the season.
Banner photo from MOONTON Games.