RSG PH coach Brian "Panda" Lim knows how ECHO has managed to stay on top of its game even after various patches and meta changes in the Mobile Legends Professional League Philippines Season 12.

ECHO, the defending MPL champion and M4 Mobile Legends world champion, is yet to lose a series halfway through the regular season of the tournament.

They currently hold an unblemished standing of 7-0 and have only lost three games on their way to the top seed.

According to Panda, there are not many windows of opportunity to defeat the reigning champion after losing to them in Week 2 by a 2-1 score.

"The only time that ECHO loses games whether to Minana Esports or to us, was really because of the draft. They kind of underestimate the hero power of the enemy," Panda said.

"For example, against Minana Esports, they gave up the Mathilda and Angela together and then played Wanwan. In that case, of course, the hero power was not matching."

What is even more impressive about ECHO's tear in Season 12 is the fact that it is yet to field its world championship roster. Since day one, ECHO has benched its team captain Tristan "Yawi" Cabrera in exchange for MPL veteran and sixth-man Jaypee dela Cruz.

So far, ECHO has defeated every team that stood in its way with its team captain on the bench.

Jaypee, to his credit, is only getting better and better as the season moves along. When putting Yawi out of the equation, Panda feels he has the champions figured out.

"The reason why ECHO is so dominant right now is because they are so aggressive and they are not afraid to commit mistakes. ECHO is a very gritty team," Panda stressed.

"If you want to defeat them, coming from our experience, you need to be gritty, too. That is what we are training for right now; to be gritty. That way our scrimm performances can be translated to the tournament. I hope we can get a better performance against ECHO next time."

With three weeks left in the regular season, the MPL Season 9 champion and Mobile Legends Southeast Asia Cup 2022 champion will have a chance to redeem themselves when they meet ECHO in a rematch on 8 October, Week 5 Day 3 of MPL Season 12.