Love, Lag, and Long Distance: LDR Lessons from ONIC’s Brusko

In love, as in Mobile Legends, the real test begins when the signal drops.

Ask ONIC PH’s Brusko.

He’s a pro player who once found himself “walang wala”—no money, no phone, no direction—just a pulse of Wi-Fi and a popular streamer named Uayfu in Indonesia who never left.
Now they’re engaged. He proposed last July 11, somewhere in Indonesia, where all things between them first began.

The wedding? He grins. “Secret pa. Basta next year.”

There’s a kind of ease to the way he says it, like someone who’s fought enough battles to know when to rest his sword.

1. When she stays while you’re down, you don’t let her go.

“Noong na-down ako sa RRQ,” he begins, voice steady. “Walang wala ako no’n eh. Wala akong pera, wala akong kahit ano. Wala nga akong cellphone no’n eh! Sinusuportahan niya pa rin ako.”

It’s the story of a man who was loved when luck ran out.

Before he flew home, she gave him a watch. He lost it. She got mad. Then bought him another one.
Time, it seems, forgives—even replaces itself—when it’s given by the right person.

2. Communication. Comprehension. The twin gods of LDR.

“Sa communication talaga iyon at sa comprehension,” he says. “Hindi ko siya pinag-o-overthink.”

Their time zones don’t match.
She works 4 a.m. to 12 p.m. He wakes up at 1 p.m. They talk at night, when the day is already folding.

There’s a silent teamwork in surviving the distance: one sleeps while the other dreams.

3. The unbreakable rule: stop liking other girls’ TikToks.

“Mmm. Siguro lagi nilang i-secure yung isa’t isa,” he says, as if thinking aloud. “Constant updating para hindi mag worry or mag selos. Wag kayo magla-like ng mga babae sa TikTok o sa Instagram, lahat ng social media. Para hindi mag overthink yung jowa ninyo.”

It’s a simple, almost funny line but the wisdom is sharp.
In the digital age, fidelity is measured in taps and likes.
And Brusko, who has known both the roar of a crowd and the silence of distance, knows that the smallest gestures can build or break a bridge.

4. Forgetfulness is forgivable. Indifference isn’t.

“Makakalimutin kasi ako eh,” he admits. “May mga bagay na nakakalimutan ko, pati mga sinasabi niya.”

She doesn’t get angry. She just gets quiet.
So he explains himself: it’s not because he doesn’t care but because his head is crowded with scrims, rotations, drafts.

“Hindi lang ako makakalimutin sa kanya,” he says. “Kasi baka maisip niya na hindi importante sa akin yung mga sinasabi niya.”

He fights in-game battles every day, but this is the kind of fight that matters more: the one to be understood.

5. Love is time management—and a pile of stuffed toys.

When he messes up, he makes it up in small ways.
“Kapag nakikita ko siyang badtrip siya, sasabihin ko, ‘Anong gusto mo, treat na kita para ngumiti ka naman.’”

He buys her Crybaby stuffed toys. So many that they’ve probably become their own squad. Add a few giant teddy bears, and you get a portrait of a man who knows that affection isn’t measured by price, but by thought.

6. The bad boy who turned out to be soft inside.

Last season, Uayfu told us, “He looks like a bad boy, but once you know him, he’s really sweet.”

When we tell him this, he laughs. “Hindi ko po alam!”
Then, more softly:
“Sobrang caring po talaga ako kapag mahal ko ang isang tao. Sobrang bait ko talaga kapag kasama ko ang jowa ko at family ko. Kasi naranasan ko rin yung walang wala ako kaya alam ko yung feeling.”

That’s the heart of it. Beneath the tattoos, the swagger, the screenname—there’s a man who remembers what it’s like to have nothing, and so he gives everything.

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