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MPL Philippines
Professional Esports League in the Philippines From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League Philippines, officially known as MPL Philippines or MPL-PH, is the premier professional Esports league in the Philippines for the multiplayer online battle arena game (MOBA) Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. The league serves as the exclusive qualification pathway for eligible teams to compete in both the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Mid Season Cup and the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang World Championship.
Currently, MPL Philippines operates under a franchise-based system, which features eight competing teams. This structure has officially replaced the local team qualifiers, which were previously utilized, such as during MPL Philippines Season 7.
Since its establishment in 2018, the MPL Philippines championship title has been secured by six distinct teams. Notably, two organizations have achieved the distinction of becoming back-to-back champions: Sunsparks[1] and Blacklist International.[2] The aforementioned Blacklist International and Team Liquid Philippines each ties the most number of championship titles by any franchise with three.
The league has also demonstrated significant international success, with three of the eight current MPL-PH teams, and one former franchise team winning the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang World Championship title: AP Bren (M2[3] and M5[4]), Blacklist International (M3)[5], Team Liquid PH (formerly ECHO PH) (M4)[6], and ONIC Philippines (M6)[7]. Moreover, the success of Philippine teams extends to the Mid Season Cup (MSC), formerly known as the Southeast Asia Cup.[8] Four different organizations hailing from the MPL-PH have claimed this title. This includes three former teams: Aether Main in 2018, Execration in 2021, and RSG Philippines in 2022. Most recently, Team Liquid PH, the only active MPL-PH team, secured the championship in 2025.
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History
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Pre-Franchise Era (2018-2021)
In 2018, MPL Philippines was established as the premiere professional league for MLBB esports in the Philippines alongside its sister leagues in MPL Indonesia and formerly MPL MYSG (now MPL Malaysia). The first season featured ten regional teams qualifying to MPL Philippines Season 1 with Aether Main being the inaugural champions of MPL Philippines, defeating Digital Devils Pro in the finals 3–0. Later in the year, Aether Main went on to win the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Southeast Asian Cup in Jakarta, Indonesia over a MPL Philippines grand finals rematch between the team and Digital Devils Pro. Aether Main would become the first team in the league to win an international trophy and brought the Philippines its first of four MSC titles.[9][10]
This was immediately followed by Cignal Ultra who won Season 2 in a similar fashion, defeating the defending champion roster now under Bren Esports in the finals 3–1.[11] Season 2 is the only MPL season to be held in two separate years being held from October 2018 to January 2019. Since the world championships were not incepted until the latter part of 2019, Season 2 became the only year thus far to not have an world championship tournament.
The third season was held in the middle of 2019 where MSC 2019 was to be held in the Philippines.[12] Defending champions Cignal Ultra fell to Bren Esports in the lower bracket finals but ArkAngel defeated Bren in the Grand Finals 3–2.[9] This is the first finals series that went all five games. ArkAngel and Bren would represent the Philippines in MSC 2019 only to have the country's worse performance in the MSC stage thus far.[13][14]
The fourth season of MPL Philippines was held after and the champions and runner-up of MPL Philippines would qualify to the inaugural MLBB M1 World Championships in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Sunsparks fended off a 2–1 deficit in the finals and won the Season 4 title 3–2 over ONIC Philippines. This would be the last full five-game series in the finals as the league slowly transitioned to a best-of-seven grand finals thereafter. Sunsparks and ONIC would however, falter in the inaugural season of Worlds.[15]
The fifth season was the first season to be held during the Covid-19 pandemic as for the next few seasons, the league transitioned to an online based tournament. Season 5 would also see the first and only tournament thus far to not have an MSC tournament after the season after game developers Moonton cancelled the supposed offline tournament due to the pandemic and flight restrictions observed during this time. Sunsparks would make history as the first team to win back-to-back MPL championship titles and against the same opponent.[16]
The sixth season was the first finals series that introduced the best-of-seven series. Bren Esports would qualify to the MLBB M2 World Championships and would win the team's first title after defeating Smart Omega 4–2 in the finals. Bren Esports would also make history as the first Filipino team to win the MLBB M2 World Championship title, giving the Philippines its first out of five titles in the tournament.[17]
The seventh season was the last season to introduce the qualifier stage as in the next season, the league would transition to a full, franchise-based system. Blacklist International would comeback from a 3–1 deficit in the grand finals to win the Season 7 title 4–3 over Execration. In the same year however, Execration would defeat Blacklist 4–1 in the MSC 2021 grand finals, the first all-Filipino finals in an international tournament.[18][19]
Franchise Era (2021-present)
Season 8 onwards has transitioned the league to an franchise based system with eight teams competing in a brand new format and organization. Several notable teams like Execration have left the league with its roster being absorbed by Smart Omega. Blacklist International would become the second team, and the most-recent team thus far to win back-to-back titles in MPL Philippines, defeating ONIC Philippines in the finals, 4–1. In the same year, Blacklist would win the MLBB M3 World Championship title in Singapore again against ONIC Philippines. Blacklist would bring the country its second of five world titles.[20][21]
Season 9 saw the rise of RSG Philippines, the Singapore-based organization who also fueled teams in Malaysia and Singapore at the time. RSG would defeat the sixth-seed Smart Omega in the finals 4-1 and in the same year, defeating Indonesian powerhouse RRQ Hoshi in the MSC 2022 Grand Finals in a 4–0 sweep. RSG would bring the Philippines third MSC title and its last for a brief period of time.[22][23][24]
Season 10 then saw the resurgence of Blacklist International who finished 3–11 in the last season. Blacklist defeated the superteam ECHO Philippines in the finals 4-2 and brought the franchise its third and last MPL Philippines title.[25] ECHO, similarly to Execration, would seek their kryptonite title as they defeated Blacklist—who were vying to become the first team in MLBB history to go back-to-back world champions—in the MLBB M4 World Championship 4–0. ECHO brought the country's third world title.[26][27]
Season 11 would rekindle a rivalry between Blacklist and ECHO as both teams were again in the finals for the second-consecutive year in a row, the second time that this had occurred since Sunsparks and ONIC Philippines in Season 4 and 5. ECHO would sweep Blacklist in the finals, winning the championship 4–0. However, it was Blacklist who would advance further in MSC 2023 advancing as far as the finals but was defeated 4–2 by Indonesian representatives ONIC Esports, the first grand finals defeat for a Filipino team in an international tournament.[28][29]
Season 12 saw the revamped AP Bren (formerly Bren Esports) back in the finals for the first time since Season 6. AP Bren had lost several of its stars to retirement or to free agency but made a powerhouse team from local and holdover players. AP Bren defeated Blacklist International in the Grand Finals 4-1 but both teams qualified to the MLBB M5 World Championship hosted on home soil.[30][31] AP Bren defeated ONIC Esports in their attempt of the "Golden Road" a term used for teams who would sweep an entire professional calendar year by winning their league's two championship splits and the two international tournaments of the same year. Bren defeated ONIC 4–3 in the finals and gave the Philippines its fourth world title.[32]
Season 13 revived a rebranded ECHO Philippines, now Liquid ECHO for the tournament after Team Liquid's most recent acquisition of its parent company, Aura Esports. Liquid ECHO defeated defending champions AP Bren (known this time as Falcons AP Bren) in a 4–0 sweep, the first sweep since Season 11 which was also their championship year. Liquid ECHO and Falcons AP Bren qualified to MSC 2024 with Falcons AP Bren going to the finals against Malaysian representatives Selangor Red Giants, the first Malaysian representatives in an international tournament's grand finals series. SRG would shock the defending world champions after winning 4–3 in the finals, denying the Philippines' another MSC title.[33]
Season 14 would see the resurgence of ONIC Philippines known as Fnatic ONIC Philippines at the time. The team would tie Blacklist International's Season 8 record of 13-1 and would hold the longest-win streak by any team at 13 games for any team in a single season.[34] This would later be tied by Aurora Gaming in Season 16.[35] Season 14 also saw the entry of the aforementioned Aurora Gaming to MPL Philippines after Minana EVOS' departure.[36] FNOP defeated Aurora in the first full seven-game grand finals since Season 7 and won ONIC's first tile. In the same year, FNOP defeated Team Liquid Indonesia in the MLBB M6 World Championship and brought the Philippnes its fifth world title.[37]
Season 15 would produce three teams that won 10 games or more in a single season with Team Liquid (12–2), Aurora (12–2), and ONIC (10–4) being the top three teams. ONIC would pitch a potential back-to-back campaign but was denied by Team Liquid PH after they defeated ONIC 4–3 in the grand finals. Team Liquid now holds three MPL titles, tying Blacklist International's title count. Season 15 also saw the departures of Blacklist International[38] and RSG Philippines[39] as franchise teams and was replaced by Middle East powerhouse teams Team Falcons and Twisted Minds.[40] In the same year, Team Liquid PH ended the Philippines' MSC title drought after defeating defending champions SRG OG Esports in the finals, 4–1.[41]
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Participating rosters
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Results
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By season
Background shading indicates that the team was the First Seed for that Season.
By team
Legend:
Denotes that the franchise team has left MPL Philippines.
Denotes that they are a current franchise team.
Denotes that the team were not franchise teams and are no longer participating in MPL Philippines.
- Notes
- 1. ^1 The Aether Main Roster was acquired by Bren Esports prior to MSC 2018. Aether Main competed under the Aether Main name for MSC 2018.
- 2. ^2 Carlito "Ribo" Ribo Jr. and Jeniel "YellyHaze" Bata-Anon played under Team SIBOL during the 2019 SEA Games.
- 3. ^3 Participated as ECHO Philippines.
- 4. ^4 The only former world champions to disband following their organization's departure from MPL Philippines.
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Player awards and achievements
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Team selections
The first recorded team selection was announced during MPL Philippines Season 6. Notably, MPL Philippines Season 7 did not announce any team selections and just announced two individual awards.
Legend:
Denotes that the player won the Regular Season Most Valuable Player Award
Denotes that the player won the Finals Most Valuable Player Award
Denotes that the player won both the Regular Season MVP and Finals MVP in the same season
Most team selections
After the introduction of the Fan's All-Star Team Selection, Pillas is the first and only player to have eight-MPL All Star team selections.
Legend:
Denotes the player has retired from pro play
Denotes the player has been inactive from pro play
Denotes the player is playing in another region
Denotes the player is now under a different game
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MPL Philippines Hall of Legends
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In commemoration of the tenth season of MPL Philippines, on September 5, 2022, MPL Philippines announced that the nominations for the ten new inductees for the Hall of Legends were officially opened. The nominations and voting process lasted for an entire month and two days, ending on October 7, 2022.[66]
On Sunday, October 23, 2022, the official inductees were announced on stage before the introduction of the Grand Finalists for MPL Philippines Season 10. The inductees were announced by the following:
An extra inductee was announced onstage when Manjean Faldas was to become the eleventh member of the Hall of Legends. Faldas has been part of MPL Philippines and has been casting MPL Philippines games since Season 1 and is widely known for his tandem partner "ManjeanBoo" at the time together with Shin boo "Shinboo" Ponferrada .[67]
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MDL Philippines
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On January 25, 2023, Moonton announced the establishment of the Philippines' own Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Development League or MDL Philippines.[70] MDL Philippines began its first season on February 15 of the same year.[71]
MDL Philippines introduced eight development teams from their professional franchise organizations. Notably, Bren Esports (now known as AP Bren), became the first team to collaborate with Euphoria Esports for MDL Philippines Season 1, the first partnership between two teams in the MDL.[71][72] Furthermore, MDL Philippines would include two Non-MPL franchise teams in ZOL Esports and GameLab Esports.
Season 1
During Season 1, teams were split into two groups: Group A and Group B. Teams in their respective groups will play a Double round robin format of games and with the remainder of the season, will go into a Single round robin tournament to face cross-matches between both groups. The top two teams from both groups received two first-round byes, teams seeded 2nd and 3rd were slated into the first knockout rounds and the remaining two teams were eliminated from playoff contention.
GameLab Esports and ECHO Philippines' MDL team ECHO Proud tied for the best record in MDL Philippines Season 1 with a 10–3 record, and a 22–8, and 23–9 match win-loss record, respectively. Both teams would eventually face each other in the Grand Finals where ECHO Proud won their first MDL title and the first MDL Philippines title, defeating GameLab 3–1.[73]
Season 2
Season 2 would feature many rebranding efforts from the MPL Franchised teams. Blacklist International partnered with Malaysian organization Team Lunatix,[74] the Bren-Euphoria partnership came to an end after AP Esports acquired the rights to the Bren Esports organization,[75] ZOL Esports and TNC Neo partnered to TNCZ4,[76] and RSG Philippines partnering with local amateur team Mistah Esports Pro for the second edition of MDL Philippines.[77]
MDL Philippines would introduced two additional Non-MPL Teams, totaling the number of participants from ten to twelve. These included GameLab Esports, Euphoria Esports, amateur team MHRLK Esports and RRQ Kaito, the first MLBB roster for the Indonesian organization, Rex Regnum Qeon.[78]
Certain scandals plagued some teams of MDL Philippines Season 2, most-notably was the termination of the partnership between Blacklist International and Team Lunatix over a mismanagement situation on the part of Team Lunatix. This prompted the immediate termination of the partnership.[79]
ECHO Proud for the second-consecutive season toped the regular season with a 10–1 game record and a 20–6 match record. Season 2's format would be different from its predecessor, opting for a single-round-robin match due to the number of teams. The Top 8 teams would advance to the playoffs.[80]
Season 3
Season 3 reduced the number of teams from the previous twelve to ten as MHRLK Esports and Euphoria Esports departed the amateur league. This was the first season where defending champions ECHO Proud plummeted from the first seed to the fifth seed, ending the regular season with a 5–4; 12–10 record. Furthermore, this was the first season with an international organization in RRQ Kaito claiming the first seed.
Season three was another season plagued with scandals and misdemeanor as the league reported issues of Game Fixing Matches between certain teams. As a result, three players were indefinitely banned from participating in any Moonton-sponsored leagues and events.
ECHO Proud qualified for the Grand Finals of MDL Philippines Season 3 after defeating Omega Neos 2–0 in the Semifinals stage. This is ECHO Proud's third consecutive Grand Finals appearance since Season 1. Moreover, RRQ Kaito will secure a Grand Finals spot after beating Blacklist Rough World Era 2–0 in the semifinals. RRQ Kaito defeated ECHO Proud 3–2 in the Grand Finals, making the second team to win an MDL title after two, back-to-back titles for ECHO Proud.[81]
Season 4
The fourth season of MDL Philippines will showcase for the first time regional qualifiers for Philippine teams across its three island clusters: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The qualifier rounds itself will last from the last week of July until the month of August with MDL Philippines aiming to begin by a hair earlier than MPL Philippines Season 14.
Results
By Season
By Team
1 - Formerly known as ECHO Proud and Liquid ECHO.
Italic - Team pulled out of the league.
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Rivalries
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Sunsparks-ONIC Philippines
Sunsparks and ONIC Philippines had one of the most-anticipated Grand Finals during Seasons 4 and 5 and a rivalry between both teams led up to their back-to-back appearances in the Finals. ONIC was led by the "Royal Duo" Johnmar "OhMyV33Nus" Villaluna and Daneire James "Wise" Del Rosario [82] during this time meanwhile Sunsparks had the services of current MPL players Kiel "KielVJ" Cruzem, Christian "Rafflesia" Fajura, Renz "RENZIO" Cadua and ECHO's Jaypee "Jaypee" Cruz. Both ONIC and Sunsparks topped the Season 4 Regular Season standings, each having an 8–1 record. Despite having a higher plus/minus differential for Sunsparks, ONIC was able to top the standings.[83]
In the Season 4 Grand Finals, ONIC Philippines were poised to take Game 3 for their first title. However, Sunsparks would win the game after a counter save by Sunsparks' Rafflesia. This gave the ability for the team's Minions to reach the base while members of ONIC Philippines were pushing the mid-lane, sending the series to Game 5. Sunsparks would ultimately win Game 5 and their first of two organization titles for MPL Philippines.[84]
Season 5 would see a rematch between Sunsparks and ONIC Philippines. Sunsparks had an 8–1 record while ONIC placed third with a 7–2 record. After an altercation in Game 3 in the Upper-Brackets, ONIC would crawl their way back to the Finals from the Lower-Brackets to face a rematch with Sunsparks. It is worth to point out that ONIC Philippines' roamer Allen "Baloyskie" Baloy (formerly known as Greed) switched teams during the offseason and joined Sunsparks. Meanwhile, Sunsparks' former Roamer Cedric "Fuzaken" Pasusani joined ONIC.[85]
Sunsparks would dismantle ONIC Philippines in their last altercation, becoming the first organization in MPL history to win back-to-back titles.[86] Sunsparks would see their roster be acquired by AURA Philippines (now: ECHO Philippines)[87] while ONIC Philippines continued to be one of the eight franchises of MPL Philippines.[88]
Blacklist International-Smart Omega
Dubbed as the "El Clasico" rivalry, Blacklist International and Smart Omega's rivalry starts when the Omega roster was still under Execration.
In Season 7, Blacklist dominated the group stage, going 12–1 while Execration was tied for second with a 6–7 record. Both teams have competed against each other since Season 6, however, their prevalent rivalry was more detailed during Season 7.
Blacklist International was able to secure a Grand Finals position and an MSC appearance after a 3–2 victory over AP Bren and a 3–1 victory over AURA. Execration meanwhile, had to start from the Lower Bracket Eliminations before crawling their way to the Grand Finals. Execration led the series 3–1 in the build up to Game 5. However, Blacklist would upset Execration and would win their first of three organization title in history.[89]
Execration and Blacklist International set up a PH vs. PH Finals in MSC 2021. Execration would maintain their momentum in a 3–1 lead and would eventually win their final international title as an Organization under the brand Execration when they defeated Blacklist.[90]
In Season 8, Execration left the MPL Philippines scene and the roster was eventually relinquished. Smart Omega eSports relinquished its own members and the organization would acquire the Execration roster leading up to MPL Philippines Season 8.[91] Meanwhile, Salic "Hadji" Imam, Omega's Jungler would join Blacklist International during the offseason.[92] This would compete the eventual "MV3" trio which included Edward "Edward" Dapadap and Kiel Calvin "OHEB" Soriano.[93] Both teams would be caught in different situations regarding their players, most notably was Soriano lifting his middle finger after the conclusion of the second leg of Blacklist vs. Omega in the regular season, in which Soriano was penalized and subsequently suspended for the team's first series in the playoffs.[93]
Blacklist would still cruise with a 13–1 record while Omega settled for fourth with a 5–9 record. After a 3–1 victory over ECHO,[94] Omega would surprise the defending champions after they defeated them 3 games to 1.[95] However, Blacklist would rebound and defeat Omega in a 3–1 series in the Lower-Bracket Finals which eventually led to Blacklist winning both MPL Philippines Season 8 and the MLBB M3 World Championships.[96][97]
Omega would dismantle Blacklist during the proceeding season, defying them a playoff spot and subsequently ending their playoff-run.[98] Omega would still rank sixth overall, but would dominate the playoffs, sweeping ECHO's super team in the Quarterfinals.[99] Despite dropping to the lower-brackets after a 3–1 defeat to TNC, Omega would sweep the Kairi-led ONIC Philippines squad and sweep their rematch game against TNC Pro Team to clinch a Grand Finals spot for the first time since Season 6.[100] Unfortunately, Omega would lose 4–1 to RSG in the Finals.[101]
Bren Esports-Cignal Ultra
Two of the oldest teams in the league prior to Season 8, AP Bren (formerly known as Bren Esports and Aether Main) and Cignal Ultra (formerly known as Digital Devil Pro Team) were the original teams who've longed dominated MPL Philippines prior to the introduction of Blacklist, RSG and ECHO. Their rivalry extends to Season 2 where Bren and CG met for the first and last time in the Grand Finals stage. Bren Esports topped the Regular Season with a 7–2; 15–5 record while Cignal Ultra tied for second with a 6–3; 13–10 record.
Bren Esports initially 2–0 Cignal Ultra in the Upper-Bracket Finals and gave them a shot for the MPL Title, however, Cignal Ultra would rematch Bren in the Finals and won in four games.[102] Both teams rematched in the playoffs once again, but Bren would advance to the Finals against Arkangel after dismantling the defending champions.
Execration-Nexplay EVOS
Members of both Execration and Nexplay EVOS were not shy when it comes to taunting the other team's players. Both teams have their heated share of taunts from one series to the other. This stretched all the way to Season 1 because of how Setsuna "AkoSiDogie" Ignacio and Billy "Z4PNU" Alfonso perceived their roster of players and how any of them could surpass the other to greatness. Ignacio's belt includes an MPL title for Season 1 and a MSC 2018 title while Alfonso holds an MSC title of his own from his players.
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References
External links
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