By Drew Malihan
MANILA -- Two all-Filipino teams will square off with the best around the world for the chance of being crowned as the best in Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB).
Sunsparks and Onic PH will banner the Filipino ML community on the MLBB World Championship (M1) 2019 at the Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The two teams earned the right to participate in the tournament after being the finalists of the 2019 MLBB Professional League - Philippines (MPL-Philippines) last Oct. 6, with Sunsparks eventually crowned as champions.
Sunsparks are drafted to Group C of the tournament, battling MPL-Malaysia/Singapore runners-up Todak, South American contingent Geo Esports, and Turkish team Evil eSports.
Christian “Rafflesia” Fajura, Cedrie “Fuzaken” Pasusani, Kiel VJ “KielVJ” Cruzem, Renz Errol “Renzio” Cadua, Jaypee “Jaypee” Dela Cruz, and Francisco “Eskii Flexx” Antillon will suit up for the MPL-PH champions, which will first see action on Wednesday vs. Todak.
Onic PH are deployed to Group D, squaring off with MPL-Indonesia champions Evos Legends, Russia's top team Deus Vult, and M1 Japan qualifier 10 Second Gaming Plus.
Danerie "Wise_" del Rosario, John “Zico_” Dizon, Johnmar “Ohmyv33nus_” Villaluna, Gerald “DIar” Trinchera, Christian “Iy4knu” Manaog, and Allen “Greed_” Baloy will try to get Onic PH to the playoffs and hopefully, the championship starting on Thursday.
All 16 teams, which are drafted into four groups, will face their group mates in a best-of-three, round-robin format.
The top teams from each of the four groups will go to the upper bracket while the second-best teams will be drafted to the lower bracket to form the M1 2019's Main Event from Nov.15-17.
The champions will get US$80,000, or more than P4 million, and the right to be called the best MLBB team in the world, while the rest of the contenders will share the rest of the tournament prize pool of US$250,000 (more than P12.5 million).
M1 2019 will be open to the public on the Main Event, with tickets available at the tournament's official website.
All games will be also streamed live via MLBB's YouTube Gaming channel.
Follow him on Twitter: @drewmalihan