Star roamer Tristan “Yawi” Cabrera is taking his act overseas as he found a new home in Aura Fire just in time for Mobile Legends Professional League Indonesia Season 13.
The ex-team captain of MPL PH Season 11 champion and M4 Mobile Legends world champion ECHO, Yawi had little playing time last season where they ended in third place to miss a slot in the world championship to defend their title.
“This is my first time playing (as an) import. I am excited and looking forward to the new adventures and challenges I will face and experience on my new journey at Aura,” Yawi announced.
“I will do my best as a new roamer of Aura Fire and I hope you guys support me and Aura!”
Speculations of Yawi moving to another team arose months ago. Although he used to be the team captain calling the shots in-game, Yawi was mostly benched in recent tournaments in exchange for ECHO’s sixth-man Jaypee “Jaypee” dela Cruz.
Possessing 3.8 million followers on Facebook and 1.1 million subscribers on YouTube, Yawi’s fans did not hold back in criticizing ECHO’s move to bench Yawi for Jaypee, who happens to be the partner of the squad’s country manager Mitch Liwanag.
In a livestream just before the MPL PH Season 12 Playoffs last year, Yawi aired his frustrations to his fans for missing games during the season, going as far as stating that he is getting nowhere with the team.
“There is no more five-man, guys. Maybe them but I am not part of them anymore. It is messy. I am just a watcher and I am going to support, support, and support. It is too late. That is life,” Yawi said in the livestream.
Meanwhile, in a lengthy Facebook post by ECHO coach Harold “Tictac” Reyes, the world champion mentor explained that benching Yawi was a team decision.
“We know we had a good run last M4 and MPL season because of risky plays. But if you noticed during the MSC, Snapdragon, and WCG, it was also the same reason why we did not achieve our desired results,” Tictac said.
“We rotated our players to evaluate what would be our official lineup. Jaypee shined to be in our official lineup. The next process is to determine who would be our main five,” he continued.
“We rotated our lineup anew during scrimms with an equal number of scrimms between Yawi and Jaypee. Everyone had a voice in the team. All of the main three players voted for Jaypee and I had a separate decision with coach Trebor.”
Yawi’s Esports career with ECHO has been full of ups and downs. Through it all, the 22-year-old is grateful for everything he shared with his former team.
“It has been a pleasure working with each and every one of you for the past years. Thank you for everything we shared. I will bring all of the challenges and lessons with me. There is no goodbye, just see you later,” Yawi wrote in his farewell message to ECHO.
