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| MPL-PH's official promotional poster (Photo from Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Facebook page) |
by Drew Malihan
MANILA -- Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League - Philippines (MPL-PH) reveals a new tournament format and the schedule for the sixth season, which will kickoff on August 21.
For the upcoming season, the ten teams qualified for the main tournament will be divided into two groups of five teams each, which are group according to last season's rankings.
Group A consists of defending champions Aura PH, formerly known as Sunsparks, Execration, Blacklist International, Blu Fire, and newcomers Nexplay Solid.
Last season's runners-up ONIC PH is drafted to Group along with Bren Esports, Omega PH, BSB, and a returning Cignal Ultra squad.
MPL-PH S6 will also see more match-ups as they increased the total to 65 from last season's 45 matchups. A team will play its group mates twice while they will meet a team from the other group once for a total of 13 matches per team.
Games from the same group will be played on Fridays and Saturdays, while inter-group match-ups will be played on Sundays.
Each match will still be in a best-of-three series, but the hero bans will be e=increased from three the past season to five, enabling teams to diversify their hero picks.
Fans will be assured of a good tournament kickoff as ONIC PH will battle perennial contenders Bren Esports in the season opener, followed by the face-off of Blu Fire and Nexplay Solid.
ONIC will play their first game with new team member Basic, who swapped places with Fuzaken who is now on Blu Fire, while Bren will try to begin its redemption with new teammate Flaptzy in place of Coco.
Nexplay Solid, led by MLBB personality Akosi Dogie as coach, will make their MPL-PH debut against a resurging Blu Fire squad who retooled themselves to improve last season's 7th-8th finish.
Follow him on Twitter: @drewmalihan
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