Esports News
After a wild ride that was the offseason, and the intense competition of the regular season, the MPL S13 playoffs looks to be a spicy affair.
The reigning and defending MPL Philippines and World Champions finish the season as the first seed. In the new format, they clinched an Upper Bracket Semifinals berth, with their opponent coming from the Play-Ins portion of the playoffs. The Bees looked consistently dominant throughout the season, finishing with an 11-3 match record, only dropping a 0-2 loss to Onic and 1-2 losses to Omega and RSG. Their duo of Owgwen and Super Marco look to be the ace of the team, with 14 Game MVPs between the two of them. The roamer and the gold laner were also named Week 5 and Week 7 MVPs, respectively.
After missing out on their chance to defend their world title after dropping out of the Season 12 playoffs, ECHO are here to enact their revenge. The Orcas also receive an Upper Bracket Semifinals berth, and they are set to go up against RSG, whom they won both their regular season games against. Their veteran Karltzy has led them to the promised land before, and could be the deciding factor in this season’s title run.
The Raiders book another ticket to the playoffs, and another opportunity to take revenge. After winning it all in Season 9, their past seasons have all come to an end in the hands of ECHO, who eliminated them from contention in Season 10 to finish 3rd, Season 11 to finish 3rd, and Season 12 to finish 4th. They won overseas against ECHO by winning MPLI, and now they meet in the Upper Bracket Semifinals for their first playoffs match. Expect an explosive matchup in the midlane as Aqua goes up against ECHO’s Sanji.
The revamped ONIC made quite the impression in Season 13. In this new environment, Gold Laner Kelra and Jungler K1NGKONG seem to have found their stride, and are gelling well with the other Sonics. With big wins this season against Bren, Echo, and RSG, they have proved themselves to be a team to watch out for. After multiple second-place finishes, Season 13 could finally be ONIC time…
The Codebreakers’ journey to the playoffs has been a rocky one. In fact, their playoff contention game went down to the wire as it took them their penultimate match to secure their spot, after winning a game, and eventually the series, against ECHO in Week 7. Can the three-time MPL Philippines Champions win their fourth? If they want it, they’ll have to climb all the way from the Play-Ins to get to the Grand Finals, of which they’ve been a part of in five of the last six seasons.
Season 13 marks a historic season for Minana as they secure their very first playoffs spot in their org’s history. A true example of “trust the process,” the org may have finally found the formula to success. Their mettle will be tested in the first round of Play-Ins, as they go up against Blacklist International. But as it goes, the playoffs is a totally different game, and we could expect to see an even more different Minana EVOS.
As always, the top two teams will be securing slots to the upcoming MLBB Mid-Season Cup 2024. This year will be different however, as they will now be fielding teams from all across the globe, instead of just Southeast Asia. The MSC 2024 will also be part of the historic Esports World Cup, and with a prize pool of USD3,000,000, is set to be the biggest MLBB tournament yet. The month of May will be busy for MLBB fans as teams from different regions’ leagues will be holding their playoffs and determining their representatives for the groundbreaking tournament.