It’s going to be a busy week for Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) fans as the immensely popular mobile game is commencing the 11th season of The Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League – Philippines (MPL-PH) on Friday, Feb. 17.
On top of the MPL-PH, the inaugural season of the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Development League – Philippines (MDL-PH) was also launch on Wednesday, Feb. 15. Featuring a mix of professionals and competitive rookies, this tournament will open the arena to aspiring amateurs.
The first rounds of MPL-PH are running from February 17 to April 16, 2023 and the playoffs will take place May 3 to 7, 2023.
Eight professional teams, including the winner of the recent Mobile Legends M4 World Championship, ECHO, will be competing to take home the championship and the lion’s share of the $150,000 or over P8 million in prize money.
Besides ECHO, the other teams competing are M4 World Championship runner up Blacklist International, Nexplay EVOS, Smart Omega, RSG Slate PH, BREN Esports, ONIC, and TNC Pro Team.
Certain teams have been refreshing their rosters so this grand stage will be welcoming new faces.
The Professional League will also be giving the MLBB community a chance to see their heroes live as the tournament will be held face to face at Shooting Gallery Studios, located in Zapote, Makati.
Each match can host an audience of up to 220 fans and fans can choose from three levels of passes with different benefit packages on ticket2me.net.
Fans are also guaranteed an exciting time as they follow this latest season of the professional league.
Community engagement events such as the S11 viewer rewards program, the super fan attendance program, and Hall of Legends program aim to make this season an interactive and rewarding MPL-PH for the whole MLBB Philippines community.
With the Philippines triumphing in the latest M4 world championship, Mobile Legends Philippines is ensuring that this year’s MPL-PH will showcase an elevated level of e-sports professionalism as well as Filipinos skills and talent in e-sports.
“The Philippines is known to be the birthplace of greatness with our MLBB e-sports titles, and there is no way to go but upwards and onwards. We are excited to bring our fans a new and more intense tournament that will introduce a new wave of strategies and faces,” declared Tonyo Silva, senior marketing manager for e-sports at Moonton Games.
On the other hand, the MDL-PH will be held from February 15 to March 30 and will be fully online. Ten teams will be facing off against each other for the title of champion and the greatest share of the $20,000 or more than a P1 million in monetary prizes.
Eight of the ten participating teams come from MPL-PH franchised teams.
Blacklist International is fielding team Blacklist Academy, BREN Esports will deploy BREN x Euphoria Esports, ECHO’s team is Echo Proud, Nexplay EVOS is backing Nexplay EVOS Tiger Cub, Smart Omega will bring out Smart Omega Neos, ONIC PH their ONIC Arsenals, RSG PH’s team is RSG Ignite, and lastly the TNC Pro Team will be sending out TNC Neo.
The final two teams are the independents Gamelab, who finished impressively in the King’s League Tournament, and ZOL Esports.
Whether the teams are supported by franchised teams or are independent, each team’s roster is largely composed of rookies burning for their chance to shine.
Since this is the initial season for the MDL-PH, competing teams were chosen through an internal selection process. Depending on the outcome of this season, though, the next season’s qualifiers may be open to players from more regions across the country.
“Our basic philosophy for MDL is first providing a good platform and a strong platform for local talent to be discovered. We really acknowledge that there is a wealth of talent here,” affirmed Silva.
MLBB crossed 1 billion downloads worldwide in 2020 and is particularly popular in Southeast Asia.
