“It’s much more interesting when people get creative”: an interview with Midnight about Aurora Gaming and his career

I think this year’s MSC is very different and much more challenging because we’re playing in a new era of MLBB, with a new meta and all these experimental picks. Plus, many teams have caught up to the top teams. I’d say the difference between the 2026 Mid-Season Cup and previous ones is that the tournament has become more challenging, especially for teams outside the three major regions.

No, haha. I think it’s partly because I’m really passionate about what I do, but also because I have a desire to constantly grow. I don’t want to just sit in a corner and do what I’ve been doing for many years. For me, juggling these two roles is fun.

It’s funny, but I actually became a commentator because of my work as a coach. People thought, “Oh, this guy speaks both Filipino and English well. And he has experience with another MOBA game.” After that, I was hired as a freelancer to commentate on Dota 2.

And then, one thing led to another, and I ended up with another game—MLBB. I thought, “Okay, maybe I should become a coach again, since this is a new game and it’s really interesting to learn.” That’s how I made the transition from commentating to coaching.

Why am I a coach instead of a pro player? Well, I’m already getting old, haha. I’m 28 years old. I think my fingers are still in good shape, but I’m probably much more drawn to the strategic side of the game, as well as working with players and having the chance to share my life experience and some wisdom with them.

Because being a coach isn’t just about the technical aspects. It’s also about how to handle the pressure of being in a highly competitive environment. These are exactly the things I really enjoy working on in esports.

When I’m commentating, there’s no pressure on me. Well, I mean, there is pressure, of course—I need to do my job well—but when you’re participating in a tournament yourself, it’s completely different. You give it your all every day. It requires a lot of preparation, studying the game, and a great deal of patience. 

Commentating is a more laid-back job. People just expect you to do your job well. You’re not risking anything. So, if I compare my two professions, that’s the difference for me: as a commentator, I’m just doing my job, but as a coach, I feel the pressure of competition.

I think the difference is primarily related to experience. Because, to be honest, there are simply more tournaments for men. They develop faster, gain more experience, see how different teams play, and get familiar with different approaches to the game. So, to be honest, I think they’re pretty similar. It’s just that there are a lot more tournaments for men.

Well, that’s perfectly normal, but I don’t think it’s specifically about the difference between men and women. You just communicate differently with different people anyway. For example, I interact with each Aurora Gaming player in my own way. So I’d say it’s not about gender. You really need to know your players—understand where they’re from, what language they speak, and how best to interact with them. It’s perfectly normal for a coach to have a different approach with men, with women, and with each individual player. That’s absolutely normal.

In a sense, the MWI is already that kind of tournament. But I’d prefer to see more local tournaments, because that’s where talented players emerge and develop. If you just create a second major tournament for women, the same teams will still be playing there, right? Yes, new faces do show up sometimes, but that doesn’t help develop the scene at the entry level.

That’s only beneficial for high-level teams. That’s why I believe that more local tournaments would be much more beneficial. We need to improve both the quality and quantity of women’s tournaments. In my opinion, it would be much more beneficial to hold more tournaments than to organize yet another major international tournament for the women’s scene.

I think Turkey is closer to Indonesia than to the Philippines. Turkish players have very good mechanics, and they’re naturally aggressive players. I incorporate elements of the Filipino meta into Aurora, but to do that, you also need to understand your team. You can’t just take a playstyle from another region and force it on them. You have to see how the team plays, what its unique traits are, and its overall approach to the game.

That’s why I have to blend both approaches: in some ways, Filipino gameplay complements the Turkish style, and in others, it’s the other way around. A lot of it comes down to finding the right balance. The players don’t always understand some of my ideas; sometimes they don’t even like them. But it all comes down to finding common ground.

I understand them. There isn’t enough practice, and there aren’t any high-quality scrimmages. While teams from Southeast Asia constantly play practice matches against each other, teams outside of SEA can only regularly play against a small number of the strongest teams. They really lack variety.

For example, in Turkey, there might be two really good teams in a season. Sometimes, if we’re lucky—four. So the guys don’t have many opportunities to gain valuable experience. But when we travel to international tournaments, this problem disappears because we end up playing alongside teams from Asia. 

I think this has a major impact on the results of other regions, including EECA. After all, the only time we face top-tier MLBB is at international tournaments.

It’s a team decision, as cliché as that may sound. Although I have the final say in the draft, sometimes when opinions are divided, we just take a team vote—whether we like it or not. Today we discussed two mages; we also liked Novaria, but in the end we went with Lo Yi. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter whether the draft turned out to be complicated or simple—the main thing is that we like it.

Yeah, that was pretty funny, haha.

A little. It’s a kind of “respect ban,” but for us it was totally normal: after all, we’ve picked Raphael often enough that other teams have started to respect her. Maybe she’ll even make it into the meta eventually—who knows? I think things like that just happen naturally, and we do the same thing against others—we ban heroes they’re strong against. So it’s normal, but of course, it made us smile a little.

I think it’s much more interesting when people get creative. I don’t want a repeat of MSC 2024, where the meta stayed the same for two and a half years. I like it when teams come up with something new. I like it when the developers really listen to the teams and the community. When people say, “The game’s been the same for two years—maybe it’s time to change something?”—and the developers actually do it.

Now we’re finally seeing that, and I hope it continues. It’s not even about the meta itself, but the approach to developing the game. Because I really like it when developers make changes and teams are forced to think outside the box.

I think for me, it’s not about whether the viewers are right or wrong. The main thing is to give them enough information so they can draw their own conclusions. Everyone is free to think as they wish. Some teams might think that a certain hero plays poorly against a specific opponent, while for us, on the contrary, he’d be a good pick. 

So the goal is really to give people enough information so they can form their own opinions. We need to help them understand how pro teams and players think. Then it’s up to them to decide whether they agree with that or not.

It all comes down to bridging the gap in understanding between professional teams and regular viewers. There’s a lot that can be taught and explained. This can be done through commentary and content creation. So, in my view, the main thing is to help people understand our ideas and thoughts, and then let them think for themselves.