Battle of Concepts

The tried and tested method of WR kaizoku versus the adaptive playstyle of OG Z4pnu

This article was written by Chise Alcantara.

A lot of people didn’t expect the White Rascals to do this well in the tournament, seeing as they got in due to a disqualification of one of their opponents. That said, they’ve proved a lot of naysayers and haters wrong with their consistently good performance so far, tethering between third and second place. Their simple yet effective split-push playstyle has proved very successful for them in the earlier rounds of the tournament, only actually facing a definitive defeat in week 3 against OBS Gaming. We had a chat with WR kaizoku and OG Z4pnu about their insights on why White Rascals’ strategy wasn’t as effective as they would have hoped in this particular match-up.

OBS Gaming seemed to control the pace of the first game but never seemed to be able to dominate it entirely thanks to your Hayabusa’s constant split-pushing. What exactly was your team’s gameplan?
“My role has always been to split-push and take towers. If you’ve noticed, most White Rascals games seem to revolve around that idea. I would play a split-push hero and my team would take objectives and try to get small wins without me,” says WR kaizoku.

Most teams would rely on split-pushing when the opportunity calls for it but the White Rascals seem to still force it despite being on the back foot\. Why is that so?

“I think it has to do with the trust that we put in each other as teammates. Unless they explicitly say so, I won’t stop split-pushing even if they are losing team fights,” says WR kaizoku.

Won’t your absence in team fights put your team at a glaring disadvantage?
“Typically, when I split-push, they have to send at least two people to stop me. When the enemy does that, my team would capitalize by forcing a 4v3 in our favor or maybe take an objective. My job is to become enough of a threat that I could deal with two opponents at once,” says WR kaizoku.

What allowed OBS Gaming to adapt to White Rascals’ strategy?
“We already played against White Rascals in ranked games and we were accustomed to how they used split-pushing. All we had to do was shutdown the Hayabusa quickly and regroup with our team,” says OG Z4pnu.

Is that why you picked Saber and Kagura?

“Yes, they can easily lock down the Hayabusa since chaining their skills won’t allow him the opportunity to switch with his shadows, We also picked Kagura and Lancelot to dominate in teamfights so that even though their Hayabusa could get towers, we could still wipeout most of their team,” says OG Z4pnu.

Why didn’t White Rascals ban Hayabusa counters if they were planning to continue their strategy in the second game?

“We already banned the opponent’s Akai because he really destroyed us in teamfights. It was a respect ban more than anything else,” says WR kaizoku.

Can we expect a new strategy for the White Rascals next week’s match against Aether Main?

“You can expect it though as of now, we’re still thinking of what will most likely be most effective. We will definitely try expanding our hero pool because we might have become a bit too predictable,” says WR kaizoku.

There’s only a little under two weeks to go before the regular season of the MPL PH comes to a close. Which teams will make it all the way through the knockout stage? Catch them live on Saturday and Sunday to support your favorite Mobile Legends teams!