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The tournament will only get tougher from here but that won’t deter Karlll or his team.
As the KIC 2025 group stage came to a close, there was only one thing running through the mind of BOOM’s Karlll and that’s excitement for the playoffs.
While Karl “Karlll” Bautista is no stranger to international events, he definitely feels a different energy with KIC 2025 being held in the Philippines. He feels the power of the home crowd and it’s definitely helped him bring out his A game.
“Syempre masaya kami kase nandito ginaganap yung KIC,” said BOOM’s Karlll. “Nakaka-moral boost siya sa amin. Naririnig mo yung crowd na sumusuporta sa yo. So confident kami na magiging mas-maayos yung performance namin sa playoffs.”
Karlll may have the hometown support but he’s also drawing inspiration from another source. He recently had an opportunity to watch the KPL Grand Finals live at the Bird’s Nest Stadium in China. He was with fellow Jungler Justin “Juschie” Tan from Blacklist International, and the experience was eye-opening for them.
“First time ko napanood yung KPL Grand Finals live. Syempre nakaka-culture shock kasi ganito pala yung HoK sa China,” said BOOM’s Karlll. “Siguro na-inspire kami ni Juschie mag-work harder kase grabe, akala namin na after ng PKL maganda na pero may mas-mataas pa na level.”
And if BOOM Esports wants to make it to that level, they need a deep run in KIC 2025. So far the team has been very scrappy but they’ve mostly been able to clutch it out when it counts. That was in the group stage, however, and playoffs is a different beast. There’s a lot that can be improved but Karlll is confident that they’ll be ready when the time comes.
“Yung experience yung kailangan pa namin as a team. Mga three or four months lang kami magkasama. Tapos yung Malaysia, sobrang lakas nila as a region. So syempre magpre-prepare pa rin kami tapos freestyle na lang kahit sinong makalaban.”
Banner photo from Level Infinite.