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| Team Liquid Philippines, playing as Sibol, and Selangor will face off again in the SEA Games months after their MSC finals battle. Esports World Cup (file photo) |
MANILA--Four countries that are known to be top contenders in the global Mobile Legends Bang Bang scene are drawn into the same group for the preliminary round of the Southeast Asian Games men's MLBB event.
As announced on Thursday night, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore are all part of Group B along with Laos.
Considering the tendencies that Filipinos, Indonesians, Malaysians, and Singaporeans can go far in major MLBB events, one can argue that Group B could be the "group of death", all the more that Malaysia, once again led by three key players from Selangor and still coached by Filipino mentor Michael "Arcadia" Bocado, just successfully defended its IESF World Championship MLBB title.
Team Liquid is the biggest winner already in the SEA Games men's MLBB event, as its two teams, Team Liquid Philippines under the Sibol guise with Twisted Minds Philippines' Carlo "Caloy" Roma as the sixth man and Team Liquid Indonesia, are joining.
Singapore will be represented by a mix of players from Team Flash, Team Stallion SG, and Absolute Zero.
Leon Esports will be Laos' MLBB representative in the SEA Games.
All eyes could be on an early SEA Games collision between Liquid PH and the Selangor-back Malaysians in a de facto rematch of this year's MLBB Mid Season Cup finals.
On the other hand, Chiang Mai Esports, representing host country Thailand, was drawn into what many perceived as a "light" Group A with only Falcon Esports, representing Myanmar, as its toughest opponent on paper.
Completing Group A are Vietnam, made up of Saigon Phantom's core plus players from RLG SE and Eclipse Esports, and 3V Esports of Timor Leste.
Cambodia, supposed to be represented by CFU Gaming, remained a part of the group draw and was actually assigned to Group A despite its entire SEA Games delegation already backing out due to the continuous armed border dispute against Thailand.
This means Group A will only have four teams in it, while Group B will have the full five-team slate.
The top team per group after the group stages will earn an outright place in the semifinals, while the next two teams per group will play in the crossover quarterfinals to determine the remaining semifinalists.
The winning semifinalists will play in the best-of-seven grand finals, while the other two teams will play in a best-of-five series for the bronze.
