Esports: With regional tilt, Mobile Legends finds value in PH market

MANILA -- (UPDATE) Twelve teams from nine different Southeast Asian countries will battle it out in the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Southeast Asian Competition (MSC) to be held from June 19 to 23 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. 

The teams were sorted out Tuesday in four different groups in Novotel Manila Araneta Center and will face each other in a round-robin format. 

Each group contains an MSC qualifier champion, an MSC-invited team, and an MSC qualifier team. 

Group A will consist of Geek Fam (Malaysia), Bren ESports (Philippines), and IDNS (Thailand).

Evos ESports (Singapore), ArkAngel (Philippines) and The Overlockers (Vietnam) will battle it out in Group B.

Team Resolution (Myanmar), Louvre (Indonesia), and Diversity Helheim (Cambodia) will fight off in Group C; while Group D will consist of Onic ESports (Indonesia), Burmese Ghouls (Burma), and WAWA Gaming (Laos). 

The group stage will determine who gets the spot in the upper and lower brackets of the playoffs, which will be open to the public from June 22 and 23. 

They will all clash for a share of the $130,000 (around P6.7 million) prize pool.

BIGGEST STEP

For the game's developer, Montoon, holding its Southeast Asian competition for the first time in the Philippines marks a big step for the company. 

JJ Lin, the esports manager for Montoon, said having the event in the Philippines is significant, adding that their team will “focus more” on organizing events for the Philippine market in the coming months. 

“The Philippines is a very important market for Moonton. We love all the MLBB fans... Actually, the Philippines is the second most important market for MLBB,” he said in a press conference Tuesday.

“We will focus more on Philippines in the future and more tournaments, and maybe more skins, more heroes,” he added. 

The tournament, for the past two years, was held in Jakarta, Indonesia. The Philippines, Lin said, has the second biggest number of Mobile Legends players, next to Indonesia. 

“It’s the biggest step for us to change the location. We want to make them (Filipino players) enjoy the tournament in their home,” he told ABS-CBN News. 

The multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game was already short-listed as one of the official titles to be played as a medal sport in the Southeast Asian Games to be held in Clark, Pampanga later this year. 

The whole tournament will be streamed live on the Mobile Legends’ official Facebook page. Tickets to the actual tournament are available in Ticketnet for those who want to watch it in the Big Dome.

For more sports coverage, visit the ABS-CBN Sports website.