MP the King Never Learns to Let Go
When teammates become family, then memories, that’s when it hurts.
They loved pulling pranks on Michael Endino, better known as MP the King. At the boot camp, he was everyone’s favorite target—sometimes it was “rak”-ing his social media, sometimes it was hiding his phone, sometimes just harmless jumpscares when he came out of the bathroom. And he would always fall for it. Every time. His shriek of surprise was the kind that made the whole room laugh.
He laughs at it too, now. He says he doesn’t mind being the butt of their jokes. In fact, he sees it as proof of how close they all are. Because beneath the tricks and laughter lies what fuels MP the King the most: his attachment to his teammates.
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“I get sad when they leave,” he says simply. “Kapag may nawawalang mga kakampi ko… Kapag nagkaroon ako ng attachment sa kanila, nahihirapan akong bumitaw.”
Since his rookie year in MPL Philippines Season 9, MP has seen teammates come and go almost every split: a fresh cast each year, sometimes each transfer window. Brothers who once shared midnight scrims and pranks would vanish into rival jerseys or slip quietly out of the scene. He stayed. They didn’t. And that, he admits, is the part that always hurts.
It’s not the kind of confession you usually hear from a pro player who once led a team through the chaos of MSC 2023 as both player and coach. But MP has always been different.
He grew up in Iloilo City, the youngest of two siblings, raised by a nurse for a mother and a civil engineer for a father. As a boy, he wanted to be an engineer too—not out of ambition, but out of love.
“Close na close ako sa tatay ko,” he says. “Kaya lahat ng ginagawa niya, gusto ko rin maging ganoon.”
Then the pandemic came. Schools closed. He stayed home, restless. The computer shops where he used to play League of Legends were shuttered. That’s when Mobile Legends: Bang Bang crept into his feed—clips of Dogie and Z4pnu making it look so effortless, so cool.
“Ang angas ng MLBB,” he remembers thinking. And just like that, he was hooked.
What began as boredom grew into obsession. Then into defiance.
His parents had wanted him to return to school after quarantine. Instead, he ran away—chasing a future they couldn’t yet see. “Tumakas ako sa pamilya ko, hindi ako umuwi,” he says, flashing the mischievous grin of a spoiled bunso.
From amateur stints with All-Star Esports and Ventrix to getting picked up by AP Esports, and eventually entering MPL Philippines via a tie-up with Nexplay EVOS, MP carved his path on sheer willpower. He even found himself in Cambodia for Burn x Flash, where he once had to be both player and coach at MSC 2023—drawing drafts, studying enemy tendencies, running scrims, and still showing up to play. Against all odds, they finished fourth out of twelve.
At first, he chased money. Now, he chases something else entirely.
“Yung drive ko na lang talaga ngayon,” he says, “kung sino man ang nagiging kakampi ko, gusto ko sila bigyan ng magandang standing sa MPL… Mas nagkakaroon ako ng motivation at drive na ipakilala sila sa buong mundo kung ano talaga ang kaya nila.”
More than anything, MP the King wants his teammates to succeed—even more than he wants to succeed alone. He has known the loneliness of being away from family. He has known the thrill of proving people wrong. But what lingers, what matters, is watching the people beside him rise.
“Regardless of what we reach,” he says, “sana maging successful kami lahat sa buhay.”
Maybe that’s why they tease him so often. They know he’ll laugh. They know he’ll stay. Beneath the racket and the grin is a heart too soft to let anyone go.
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