There Are No Miracles in MPL PH. Just Pure Grit

I DON’T BELIEVE IN TSAMBA, especially in MPL Philippines. There are no miracles here, just pure grit. 

It’s been years since I asked heaven to intervene in sports. I must’ve prayed a hundred times for UST to win. It never worked. I thought we were your favorite, God? Well, it doesn’t work that way, no matter how hard we pray. 

There are no divine interventions, no fairy-tale comebacks. There are only players who work until their hands hurt, coaches who barely sleep, and teams that learn to bleed together until they win.

Take Twisted Minds. Everyone expected them to fall on Day 2 of Week 8. Journalists were excited to write about how a team of mostly rookies shined brightly on the first half of the season, only to burn out and fall short of a playoffs slot. 

But Bon Chan refused leave their fate to chance. “If we’re gonna make it to the playoffs, it will be on our own terms!” he told the players. 

And they did: They punished TNC in a solid series for Twisted Minds, erasing doubts that they deserve to be in the playoffs. 

They didn’t pray: They stretched their nights until 1 a.m., 2 a.m, 3 a.m, trying to sharpen their skills and figure out how to win over TNC. They did this for 7 days. For a full week, they stayed up past midnight, studying every possible draft TNC could throw at them. Every rotation, every counterpick, every risk. It wasn’t magic. It was madness from refusing to die.

“5 a.m. na ako nakatulog. Tapos nananaginip pa ako ng kung ano ida-draft ng TNC!” Coach Eson told this editor while we were leaving the venue. 

And then, there’s Team Falcons.

By Week 6, they were 2–6. Practically written off. But when Coach Moody arrived from TLPH, everything shifted. His message was simple: “Alalahanin niyo kung sino kayo.” Remember who you are.

They did.

Team Falcons is not some broken engine whose pieces have gone rusty. They are a monster V12 engine that just needs to be fired up again. The engine that needed restarting was Falcons’ tried-and-tested routine, which somehow the boys forgot in Season 16. Moody worked to revive that rigorous routine, and a week later, it produced results.

By Week 7, they were 4–6. By Week 8, Day 2, they were 6–6, after dismantling Team Liquid, reminding them that Falcons is still their greatest rival. 

That’s not a miracle. That’s muscle memory. That’s pride rediscovered.

Luck has no place in MPL Philippines. You don’t pray for a bracket reset. You build one. You don’t hope for a clean sweep. You earn it, mistake by mistake, game by game.

Every win in this league comes from something rawer, more human, and the will to keep going when everyone else thinks you’re done.

There are no miracles in MPL PH. Just players who stay up past midnight, coaches who demand more, and teams who remember who they are.