Your guide to this week’s Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Southeast Asia regional tournament
The game is doubling-down on the Philippines, it’s second most important market globally
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eSports are growing into an economic juggernaut in Southeast Asia. In April, nearly 300,000 people attended Garena World, which was an event that included multiple tournaments during a multi-day event.
This week, the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang community will descend onto Manila for the Southeast Asia regional championships. The event will be held from June 19-23 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum, according to ABS-CBN news.
The teams are competing for a share of a US$130,000 prize pool.
The tournament works a bit like the World Cup whereby the 12 teams (below) compete in a pool round-robin competition. The results will decide seedings for a two-day knockout tournament from June 22-23.
The breakdown of groups and teams are as follows.
Group A:
- Geek Fam — Malaysia,
- Bren ESports — Philippines
- IDNS — Thailand.
Group B:
- Evos ESports — Singapore
- ArkAngel — Philippines
- The Overlockers — Vietnam
Group C:
- Team Resolution — Myanmar
- Louvre — Indonesia
- Diversity Helheim — Cambodia
Group D:
- Onic ESports — Indonesia
- Burmese Ghouls — Burma
- WAWA Gaming — Laos
This year marks an increased focus on the Philippines for Montoon, the game developer. For the previous two years the event had been held in Jakarta, Indonesia.
JJ Lin, the eSports manager for Montoon, told ABS-CBN that the Philippines is the second most important global market for Mobile Legends.
The game has been shortlisted to be featured at the upcoming Southeast Asia Games, a regional Olympics that is set to feature eSports for the first time. The SEA Games will also be held in the Philippines later this year.
The event will be livestreamed on the Mobile Legends Facebook page and official youtube channel
