The Coach Liquid’s Boys Doubted
This is the final part of a three-part series on Coach Aeon, following his arrival at Team Liquid Philippines—where doubt came first, and trust had to be earned.
“WHO THE HELL IS THIS GUY?”
Aeon was reenacting the players’ reaction to his arrival on the team. But it wasn’t just the team, it was the whole community.
Team Liquid’s players didn’t know who was going to be their coach until the night before he arrived.
Filipino fans questioned his right to be in MPL Philippines. “Who is Aeon? Why is he here? What has he proven?” read some of the comments.
Aeon added more.
“And Singapore is the weakest region,” said Coach Aeon.
His candor unseated us.
“You saw those comments too?!”
People questioned why a coach from MLBB’s so-called “weakest region” was entrusted with leading the strongest team from its most dominant region.
“Of course. I expected it, I am not surprised. I expected these reactions. If I were the viewer, I would feel the same things and I would say the same things because that’s how people view MLBB as a game.”
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When Coach Aeon arrived at Team Liquid Philippines, he already knew how it would look from the outside.
Who is he? Why him? What has he proven? All are valid questions in a region that prides itself on strength and exporting talents to other regions.
“I brought him in before they really knew him—mainly because he didn’t have much of a track record yet, and honestly, most players would push back against getting a coach without proven achievements,” Mitch Liwanag, head of esports at Team Liquid, told ALL-STAR.
“Even KarlTzy was able to trust him quite quickly because of how he approached the team and how clear and grounded his coaching style was,” she added.
Dan Santoso, Co-Founder of Stun.GG, also weighed in. “What really drove our decision was who they are as people. Their work ethic, their philosophy, how they approach the game,” said Santoso, aka DanSan.
“With Aeon, everything just clicked. His mindset and the way he thinks about competition really resonated with us from the very first conversation,” Santoso added.
Meanwhile, TLPH Assistant Coach Alec Alvarado, aka Sn4p, instantly connected with Coach Aeon on day one.
“We are both obsessed toward the game and we both notice all the small details in a series,” said Sn4p.
“Coach Aeon and I are also both very hardworking. We put the long hours and effort together studying scrims and preparing for the next day.”
Perhaps the saving grace was that more people were talking about the two other imports: Savero and AeronnShikii.
But they were from Indonesia, long considered the Philippines’ strongest rival in MLBB esports. Their arrival was met with more excitement than Aeon’s.
Aeon, on the other hand, is from Singapore. His arrival was met with doubt.
“So, me coming from a ‘weaker’ region, people will definitely feel that I’m not qualified to be here, joining the defending champions, the strongest team in the Philippines. Of course there would be doubts.”
There’s no defensiveness in the way he says it. Just acknowledgement.
“Did you feel intimidated when you came to Team Liq—”
“No, I didn’t feel intimidated when I came to Liquid,” said Aeon, answering before we finished the question.
We had momentarily forgotten that this was a man who endured one of the toughest military training in the world.
Coaching has nothing to do with which region you come from.
Coach Aeon was smiling as we talked about the elephant in the room: His feelings about being bashed for being the head coach of Team Liquid Philippines.
“I have a bit of an ego of my own, and I think it’s something viewers don’t understand is you don’t have to be an exceptional player to be a good coach,” Aeon told ALL-STAR.
It’s true.
In basketball, Erik Spoelstra never had an NBA playing career but became one of the league’s most respected tacticians and multiple-time champion coach.
In football, Jose Mourinho never played professionally but became one of the most successful managers in history through tactical intelligence and man-management.
You don’t need to look far in esports: You have Duckey, Bon Chan, Arcadia, and TicTac, all multi-titled championship coaches, none of whom were professional players in MPL.
“When it comes to coaching, having great knowledge of the game is the start of the coaching kit,” said Aeon.
“But what people don’t see are things such as leadership, influence, how you inspire players, how you read the room.”
“It’s about how you change their culture. These are things people don’t see in the quality of a coach. It has nothing to do with which region you come from or how good you were as a player. It has more to do with you as a person and your experience in life.”
* Mic drop *
Respect from the GOATs is hard to get
Getting respect from fans is one thing, but earning the trust and respect of GOATs in their own roles? That’s the scary part.
“Tell us about how you made a team of veterans respect you,” we asked Aeon.
Not all players are respectful of coaches, especially when these players are veterans who have nothing left to prove.
“To be very honest, I did have some issues when I came in at the start,” said Aeon.
Players wouldn’t listen to Coach Aeon. They would arrive late for training. If the call time was at 1 p.m., they would arrive past 1:30 p.m.
Coach Aeon was very upset.
“In Singapore, we have very low tolerance for inefficiency,” Aeon tells ALL-STAR.
“So when I came here, there were some things that I could not stand.”
“It was a little bit of an awkward environment at the start,” said Aeon.
Things took a turn for the worse when Team Liquid started losing in the SIBOL requalifiers for the Asian Games.
The team lost to Aurora Hunters, a developmental team. Back up players from Aurora Gaming.
“Since I’m not part of the main coaching lineup, I was not involved in the SIBOL Qualifiers. And if you remember, they lost to Aurora Hunters, which is Aurora’s MDL team,” said Aeon.
But the boys of Liquid approached him after the match and asked for insights on what they should do, what they should draft.
For the first time, they were listening to every word from Coach Aeon.
“I told them what I felt, what I thought, and they followed it.”
It worked.
Since then, Aeon helped the boys with his post-game insights and suggestions, ultimately leading to the team winning the top seed in the qualifiers.
“I realized that if I didn’t gain their trust, there was actually nothing I could have done in the first two weeks when I was here. Whatever I was doing or saying, they were not listening,” said Aeon.
And ever since, the team never questioned Coach Aeon again. And for the first time in history, the players of Liquid are no longer the ones picking the drafts.
“This is the first time the players are fully hands-off in the drafts. They don’t have comments, they don’t say anything, they don’t ask anything. They just trust the coaches to do it,” said Aeon.
“And so far, the results are showing that we can do it.”
Four weeks into Season 17, Team Liquid has taken a commanding lead with a 7-0 score.
To some people, 7-0 means vindication.
But for Aeon, it means nothing.
“It’s too early to say that we’ve proven ourselves because for me, improving ourselves means trophies.”
“Last year, Team Liquid Philippines had three out of four major trophies. If this year, we do any less, we might actually not be as good,” said Aeon.
“We cannot use the regular season to judge whether the team or the formula is working or not. That will be proven with the playoffs results,” he added.
The Secret Goal: Sweeping the Regular Season
Right now, Team Liquid Philippines wants a 14-0 sweep of Season 17. It has never been done before in MPL Philippines.
“We knew Week 1 would be the hardest because we didn’t have Aeron or Teddy at that time, and our first match was with Aurora. We only had one day of practice with Daiki,” said Aeon.
“But we won. After winning, I told Mitch, let’s see if we can do 14-0.”
So far, so good. They are halfway through that goal with a 7-0 record through the regular season.
“I like to set high goals or high standards and I always believe that you should always aim for the highest possible goal. For a team like this, I don’t think you should aim for anything less,” he added.
‘I hate losing. But we’re not afraid of losing.’
“I hate losing,” Aeon says.
“Well, people hate losing. But at the same time, we are not afraid of losing because when you lose, you also learn.”
Not afraid of losing the streak?
“It’s not like a huge thing for us, more like a fun thing for us to chase!” said Aeon, referring to the 14-0.
“There’s no big pressure, and we’re not thinking ‘oh we can’t lose.’ But at least we have something to chase.”
Coach Aeon stretches back in his gaming chair, feeling relaxed while alone in the boot camp.
Boot camp. Haha. A term borrowed from military parlance. It used to refer a military camp for intensive but short basic military training. Nowadays, it just means a housing facility for adolescent boys playing games on their mobile phones.
Aeon has no intention of turning that boot camp into a militaristic training ground.
“It’s important that the players are happy and they love their job. It’s important that the players love the team and love competing,” said Aeon.
“You have to enjoy training. You have to enjoy going to work every day.”
He takes a sip of iced mocha.
“Right now, it looks like we’re so far ahead of everyone.”
He takes another sip.
“But we don’t care about that.”
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