MANILA -- When ECHO sent Onic Esports of Indonesia down the lower bracket of the M4 World Championship last January, their bans fully focused on Pinoy import Kairi "Kairi" Rayosdelsol.

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It seemed like AP Bren's coaching staff drew from that playbook in the world's biggest Mobile Legends: Bang Bang stage.

"I think what we adjusted from the last matches was it all boils down to having Kairi play out of his comfort zone," AP Bren head coach Francis "Ducky" Glindro said in the post-match press conference.

"As we progressed with the BO7, we discovered that there are certain heroes that they are prioritizing so we managed to adjust on the fly but overall the single most important adjustment was having Kairi play out of his comfort zone," the three-time world championship coach added.

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Onic Esports almost completed what could've been one of the most epic comebacks in the M-series, as Calvin "CW" Winata and Gilang "Sanz" shone. Unfortunately, AP Bren, then M2 champions Bren Esports, was quite familiar with the situation.

In Game 7 of their match, AP Bren forced Nicky "Kiboy" Fernando and Sanz into two mage picks -- Kadita and off-meta hero Yve.

Since Kadita and Yve are both squishy heroes, the coaches had to pick up a more tanky hero for Kairi, the Baxia.

Ultimately, the biggest part of the plan was to give Onic Esports a taste of their own medicine in the end by waiting for the right moment to pounce. After all, Ducky did say both AP Bren and Onic Esports are momentum-based teams.

"I held them together, told them that it boils down to this moment na if you really want this you gotta go out there banging. I'm pretty sure Onic's plan was to go out swinging hoping something will hit and our plan was to just punish them overall if they miss," Ducky said.

"Luckily my boys have been through a lot, we've been all over the world really, literally and I was confident that they got it inside of them to just perform in front of those smiling faces," he added.