Joms Clemeña: From House Helper to Team Manager
On the morning of December 16, 2021, as the wind howled and roofs peeled off like paper, Joms Clemeña wasn’t thinking about destiny.
He was thinking about survival.
Typhoon Odette had barreled through Ormoc City like a monster with no face—leaving behind silence, then sirens. Power lines collapsed, grocery shelves emptied, and hope, like electricity, flickered for days. In the choking aftermath, with a heart still pounding from the storm and a house struggling to stand, Joms did the only thing he could: he endured.
But that’s not where the story ends. That’s where it begins.
Before the typhoon, there was already another storm: the pandemic. Locked inside their homes and locked out of normalcy, many turned to distractions. Joms turned to esports.
He became a regular fixture in the digital spaces of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, especially in the orbit of one player: Dlar. While most fans hovered quietly, Joms showed up—again and again—commenting, supporting, cheering, asking for shoutouts in live streams like a kid pressing his palms to glass. Eventually, the glass broke.
Dlar noticed. And then he acted.
“Dlar invited me to stay at his place while I looked for work,” Joms told ALL-STAR.
At the time, Joms was planning to apply at call centers since he had just graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education, major in Biological Science from Eastern Visayas State University.
“He offered me a roof over my head, food to eat, and everything I needed—asking only that I move out after three months once I started saving from my salary.”
But just before Joms got his first paycheck as a call center agent, something unexpected happened: he received a call from ONIC Philippines.
Their country manager, Rafael Sanchez, was looking for a boot camp cleaner A house helper.
“Without hesitation, I resigned from my call center job!” said Joms. “I did not even wait for my salary!”
Joms Clemeña became ONIC Philippines’ house helper in 2022, Season 9.
He started his work cleaning up after the boys of ONIC Season 9: Kairi, Baloyskie, Dlar, Ryota, Micophobia, Hate, Markyy, and Coach Yeb, among others. At any given time, there were up to 20 people in the boot camp, which also housed ONIC’s Team B at the time, and also its editors, coaches, and cook.
In Season 9, ONIC Philippines secured a playoff berth but were eliminated by Smart Omega in the lower bracket semifinals, finishing in 4th place. That moment was one of ONIC’s biggest heartbreaks. Just how big? It disbanded its star-studded roster, resulting in the first wave of Filipino esports diaspora. Most of the players went abroad, Kairi, foremost among them, went to ONIC Indonesia where he would be later crowned Sky King. Dlar, who was Joms’ first benefactor, moved to EVOS Legends, also in Indonesia.
Joms stayed, unsure of his future once again.
But something happened he did not expect.
“After that season, something amazing happened. I was promoted to team manager.”
He was terrified.
“I had no experience managing a team, and I didn’t even know where to start,” Joms told ALL-STAR.
“But the coaches and our country manager Rafael, saw something in me. They trusted me. And that trust gave me the strength to believe in myself.”
Eight seasons later, he’s still there—steady, loyal, and fiercely protective of the players who come and go through the ONIC bootcamp. He knows the heartbreak of off-seasons, when roster changes sting like betrayal. But he also knows that this is part of the dream: watching people you love grow wings, even if they fly away.
“Looking back, I realized Typhoon Odette wasn’t just a disaster. It was a sign. Odette is also the name of a hero in Mobile Legends, the very game where I now work and found my purpose.”
Sometimes, destiny doesn’t arrive with clarity. Sometimes it arrives in the eye of a storm, in the stream of a stranger, in the kind gesture of a pro player who decided to open his door.
“It was like the universe was telling me: This is where you’re meant to be.”
