Fnatic ONIC PH have been carrying their organisation's illustrious banner with a perfect run in MPL Philippines Season 14 so far.
If we are talking about the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) esports scene, teams like Falcons AP.Bren, RRQ Hoshi, Blacklist International, Echo or Team Liquid PH, and more have risen and fallen throughout the years.
But ONIC is one of the names that has remained a monolith in the scene. Now named Fnatic ONIC after their partnership with Fnatic, ONIC remains on top of the scene just not where fans would usually expect. This year, it was not ONIC's main Indonesian branch that have been shining the brightest, instead it has been their Philippines branch, 
FNATIC Onic PH (FNOP), that has stunned the MLBB Professional League (MPL) Philippines Season 14 with a perfect run through the first half of the season.
How ONIC's "lesser" branch has been "more" successful
You probably know how the story goes. How, this season, a new kid on the block came into the MPL Philippines scene: Aurora Gaming. The Serbian organisation joined Season 14 of MPL Philippines, replacing the disbanded Minana EVOS with a familiar set of players. Three of the starting members of that team were former members of Blacklist International, even their coaches too.
However, this isn't a story about Aurora; in fact, they are third-best in the league right now. It's respectable but not surprising, considering how much talent they have. This is about FNOP, who completely took the league by storm by going to the top of the table. The best part? They did it in style, with seven wins out of seven matches.
From the start, expectations for their performance were almost the same even though they revamped their lineup. 
David “BOSS A” Gamboa, Jomearie “Escalera” Delos Santos, and Jem “JEM” Lanojan left the team, replaced by Jann Kirk Solcruz “Kirk” Gutierrez, Borris James “Brusko” Parro, and Brian “SpiderMilez” Santos. Besides the players, the coaching staff got revamped as Abraham “Bam” Unida and Patrick “E2MAX” Caidic left the team. FNOP only recruited Jeniel “YellyHaze” Bata-Anon as assistant coach, however, leaving the analyst position unfilled.
On paper, they did look a little bit worse, especially after a horrendous season by Brusko in RRQ Hoshi in MPL Indonesia Season 13. A mid-table finish was predicted for the team based on their performance last season.
The first week was a test for their new lineup. However, fans were surprised when Spider-Milez got benched in favour of Brusko. Some predicted that the former Minana EVOS roamer would start for FNOP, but Brusko was the one who did. However, they did get a 2-0 win over TNC and a 2-1 against Blacklist International.
The lineup would stay for the next three weeks as they got win after win in the league. They beat the MPL PH Season 13 champion 
Team Liquid PH 2-1, the newly formed 
Aurora Gaming 2-1, and the MSC 2024 finalist 
Falcons AP.Bren 2-1. They completely wiped the league clean.
How Fnatic ONIC PH rose to the top of MPL PH
After you know the story, let's cut to the meat. Why are FNOP better than every team in the league? On paper, they shouldn't beat the likes of Team Liquid PH or Falcons AP.Bren, yet they did. Was it because both teams' strategies haven't been that effective anymore? Or was it because Fnatic ONIC PH got some secret magic that everyone couldn't see?
For that, we need to talk about King “K1ngkong” Perez and his importance to the lineup because of his mastery of the current meta.
When K1NGKONG joined FNOP last season, he was fresh from the TNC lineup that finished eight in Season 12. His stars did not shine through, as there was a brighter star in the form of Duane “Kelra” Pillas. However, glimpses of brilliance were shown when he used Assassin jungler combined with the aggressive playstyle of the then ONIC Philippines.
This season, Tank junglers were out of contention as they proved to be worse for the team as a recent overall buff to Assassins Jungler, making them crucial to pick. This was the moment for K1NGKONG to shine.
The FNOP lineup was centred around their jungler and how they pushed him to be ahead and dominate the field. This was shown by how aggressively they took the enemy jungle even though there was a debuff for invading prior to two minutes. Brusko's job was ensuring K1NGKONG got the necessary lead by protecting him from ganks or assisting him in securing kills. This was why Kelra played a much safer Gold Lane, and Kirk was sometimes abandoned alone.
The strategy sometimes failed against a much macro-intensive team, leading to a struggle to come back or, worse, a game loss. It was shown when Fnatic ONIC PH faced Aurora, Team Liquid PH, Falcons AP.Bren, or even Blacklist International.
A look at Kelra Harith Vs Aurora Game 3 (Stats provided using GosuGamers MLBB's match tracker)
Kelra, on the other hand, proved to be their not-so-hidden ace. His unique playstyle of a tower-toppling Gold Lane sometimes confused the enemy when deciding where to focus, as splitting the work would often fail in both tasks.
This hyper-aggressive playstyle stunned the entire MPL Philippines in Season 14 as until the half-season, no one could stop the yellow hedgehog storming their base. It will be interesting to see whether they changed their strategy for the rest of the season or we will see them at the grandest stage of MLBB this year.
