Mico Chua, the VIVA Artist Who’s Now ONIC Uprisings’s Exp Laner 

At 17, some boys are still deciding what strand to take in senior high.

At 19, some are still learning how to commute alone.

By 22, most are just beginning to understand what they want.

Mico Hendrix Chua has already left home twice.

Once, to chase a stage light.
And once, to sit under fluorescent office lamps in Dubai.

At 17 years old, Mico left his comfortable life in Iloilo to chase his dreams in Manila. At 19 years old, he left his dreams in Manila to chase stability in Dubai as an OFW and a working student. Now 22, he’s back in the Philippines chasing the very dreams he left behind.

He speaks the way performers do—measured, bright, aware of rhythm—but there is something else underneath. A restlessness that does not let a young man stay comfortable too long.

Iloilo, Applause, and the First Exit

Before there were ranked stars and corporate job titles, there was theater in Iloilo.

“I was a theater actor for ten years back in Iloilo,” he says casually, as if ten years were just a rehearsal run.

He started performing in theaters when he was 12. 

He loved it all—singing, dancing, performing. Anything arts-related, he says, he would go for. He grew up watching talent competitions on television, imagining himself under those same lights. Soon enough, he was joining singing contests. A theater group absorbed him. The stage became home.

But home is complicated when your father dreams in balance sheets.

Mico’s father, Chinese by heritage, raised him with the logic of business: stability, discipline, sustainability. Even in comfort, he taught his son not to rely on comfort.

“Not everything is guaranteed,” Mico remembers him saying. “If you’re successful now, it doesn’t mean you are successful tomorrow.”

His father passed away when he was 19.

It was one of the things that pushed him to chase his dreams abroad and become a self-supporting OFW.

OFW in Dubai at 19

Grief does something strange to ambition. It sharpens it.

His father taught him to adapt. To never assume tomorrow will resemble today. To be wise in finances. To avoid comfort as a permanent state.

They drifted apart when Mico chose the arts over business. But the values stayed.

Now, even as he performs, he tracks his finances carefully. Even as he dreams, he calculates.

The “rebellious son” became the disciplined one.

When Mico boarded a plane to Dubai at 19, he was walking toward uncertainty on purpose.

He worked as an admissions counselor in a college. Then administration. Then side many jobs. He was studying while working, pursuing a master’s in business administration, building what he calls his “fallback.”

It was stable. It was structured. It was easier.

“It was challenging,” he admits. “I really had a hard time, at first.”

He stabilized his career. He could go to campus conveniently. The math made sense.

But passion is rarely mathematical.

At the end of the day, he missed home. He missed performing. He missed the version of himself that felt most alive under stage lights.

So he made another decision that would confuse more cautious people: he left stability behind.

“I could always go back to Dubai when I’m 30,” he says. “I’m not getting any younger so I want to do my passion first before stabilizing my life.”

That line sounds reckless until you realize it is built on discipline. He is not running from responsibility. He is rearranging its timeline.

And this time, that timeline includes esports and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang.

Cyclops, 12,000 BP, and the Other Stage

Before professional scrims and tryouts, there was a PC shop staple: League of Legends.

Then a friend said: try this. It’s like that game, but on your phone.

And that is how he found Mobile Legends: Bang Bang.

“It became my stress reliever after practices and rehearsals.”

He played after theater rehearsals. He played with friends. He grinded.

His first hero was Cyclops. Layla, of course, is everyone’s tutorial memory—but Cyclops was the first real purchase. Twelve thousand battle points saved, then spent.

From hobby to competitiveness is a short distance for someone wired like Mico.

“I’m really competitive in everything I do.”

In Dubai, he didn’t just play casually. He associated with players from the MPL MENA region. He queued with members of Twisted Minds. He climbed to number 65 on the leaderboards. He pushed until he reached 1,500 stars.

Grinding, in gaming and in life, is not new to him.

When he returned to the Philippines, he tried out.

And he was absorbed by ONIC Uprising.

For many competitive MLBB players, going pro is a dream whispered between matches.

“For me, of course I was really happy and honored,” he says. “I won’t let this opportunity come to waste.”

Bagets and the Lead Role

As if one stage were not enough, Mico currently plays Adie in Bagets the Musical, the theater adaptation of the 1985 film Bagets. The role was originally played by Aga Muhlach.

Three hundred auditioned. Two months of callbacks. Multiple cast versions considered.

He auditioned the way he approaches everything: directly. When he returned from Dubai, he went to his agency and asked what was available.

He did not wait to be discovered. He presented himself.

Now, he plays a lead role in a jukebox musical built on ‘80s hits, performing for audiences who smile, clap, and sometimes tell him he inspires them.

“I really love making people happy,” he says. “Every time I sing, to see a smile on their faces, it warms me. It gives me a purpose in life.”

Purpose. It’s a word he returns to often.

Flowing, Not Floating

There is a version of this story where Mico chooses one path.

Business or theater.
Esports or music.
Stability or risk.

He refuses that binary.

He is taking a master’s in business administration because he believes in fallback plans. He is performing because he believes in joy. He is playing professional MLBB because he believes in passion. He is open to esports being long-term—or not.

“For now, I will just wing it,” he says. “Everything’s flowing. Whatever is given to me, I’ll do my best.”

It sounds carefree, but it is not. It is informed by loss. By migration. By discipline. By ranked games that demand constant adjustment.

Not everything is guaranteed. His father was right.

So Mico Hendrix Chua refuses to get comfortable.

He works. He sings. He studies. He queues up.

He leaves when he must.
He returns when he chooses.

And somewhere between a Cyclops ultimate and an ‘80s love ballad, a 22-year-old is building a life that refuses to be just one thing.

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