The Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League Philippines, commonly known as MPL Philippines (MPL PH), is the premier professional esports league in the Philippines for the multiplayer online battle arena game (MOBA) Mobile Legends: Bang Bang.
The league was established in 2018 as one of the three founding MLBB professional leagues alongside MPL Indonesia and MPL MY/SG. Since Season 8, MPL Philippines operates under a franchise-based system, which consists of eight competing teams with the most recent addition being Team Falcons PH and Twisted Minds who replaced Blacklist International and RSG Philippines in Season 14. Team Liquid PH are the defending champions of the league, winning their third-consecutive title after beating Team Falcons PH in MPL Philippines Season 17.
In the international stage, teams from MPL Philippines have consistently dominated in sanctioned tournaments. The league has won six of the last seven world championship titles – with Aurora Gaming being the defending world champions – won four of the eight mid season cup titles with Team Liquid PH being the most recent Filipino champion, won all gold medals in the Southeast Asian Games for MLBB, and has produced several personalities and players that have been donned on by members of its community.
History
Pre-Franchise Era (2018–2021) In 2018, MPL Philippines was established as the premiere professional league for MLBB esports in the Philippines alongside its sister leagues in MPL Indonesia and formerly MPL MYSG (now MPL Malaysia). The first season featured ten regional teams qualifying to MPL Philippines Season 1 with Aether Main being the inaugural champions of MPL Philippines, defeating Digital Devils Pro in the finals 3–0. Later in the year, Aether Main went on to win the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Southeast Asian Cup in Jakarta, Indonesia over a MPL Philippines grand finals rematch between the team and Digital Devils Pro. Aether Main would become the first team in the league to win an international trophy and brought the Philippines its first of four MSC titles.
This was immediately followed by Cignal Ultra who won Season 2 in a similar fashion, defeating the defending champion roster now under Bren Esports in the finals 3–1. Season 2 is the only MPL season to be held in two separate years being held from October 2018 to January 2019. Since the world championships were not incepted until the latter part of 2019, Season 2 became the only year thus far to not have an world championship tournament.
The third season was held in the middle of 2019 where MSC 2019 was to be held in the Philippines. Defending champions Cignal Ultra fell to Bren Esports in the lower bracket finals but ArkAngel defeated Bren in the Grand Finals 3–2. This is the first finals series that went all five games. ArkAngel and Bren would represent the Philippines in MSC 2019 only to have the country's worse performance in the MSC stage thus far.
The fourth season of MPL Philippines was held after and the champions and runner-up of MPL Philippines would qualify to the inaugural MLBB M1 World Championships in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Sunsparks fended off a 2–1 deficit in the finals and won the Season 4 title 3–2 over ONIC Philippines. This would be the last full five-game series in the finals as the league slowly transitioned to a best-of-seven grand finals thereafter. Sunsparks and ONIC would however, falter in the inaugural season of Worlds.
The fifth season was the first season to be held during the COVID-19 pandemic as for the next few seasons, the league transitioned to an online based tournament. Season 5 would also see the first and only tournament thus far to not have an MSC tournament after the season after game developers Moonton cancelled the supposed offline tournament due to the pandemic and flight restrictions observed during this time. Sunsparks would make history as the first team to win back-to-back MPL championship titles and against the same opponent.
The sixth season was the first finals series that introduced the best-of-seven series. Bren Esports would qualify to the MLBB M2 World Championships and would win the team's first title after defeating Smart Omega 4–2 in the finals. Bren Esports would also make history as the first Filipino team to win the MLBB M2 World Championship title, giving the Philippines its first out of five titles in the tournament.
The seventh season was the last season to introduce the qualifier stage as in the next season, the league would transition to a full, franchise-based system. Blacklist International would come back from a 3–1 deficit in the grand finals to win the Season 7 title 4–3 over Execration. In the same year however, Execration would defeat Blacklist 4–1 in the MSC 2021 grand finals, the first all-Filipino finals in an international tournament.
Franchise Era (2021–present) Season 8 onwards has transitioned the league to a franchise based system with eight teams competing in a brand new format and organization. Several notable teams like Execration have left the league with its roster being absorbed by Smart Omega. Blacklist International would become the second team to win back-to-back titles in MPL Philippines, defeating ONIC Philippines in the finals, 4–1. In the same year, Blacklist would win the MLBB M3 World Championship title in Singapore again against ONIC Philippines. Blacklist would bring the country its second of six world titles.
Season 9 saw the rise of RSG Philippines, the Singapore-based organization who also fueled teams in Malaysia and Singapore at the time. RSG would defeat the sixth-seed Smart Omega in the finals 4-1 and in the same year, defeating Indonesian powerhouse RRQ Hoshi in the MSC 2022 Grand Finals in a 4–0 sweep. RSG would bring the Philippines its third MSC title and its last for a brief period of time.
Season 10 then saw the resurgence of Blacklist International who finished 3–11 in the last season. Blacklist defeated the super team ECHO Philippines in the finals 4-2 and brought the franchise its third and last MPL Philippines title. ECHO, similarly to Execration, would seek their kryptonite title as they defeated Blacklist—who were vying to become the first team in MLBB history to go back-to-back world champions—in the MLBB M4 World Championship 4–0. ECHO brought the country's third world title.
Season 11 would rekindle a rivalry between Blacklist and ECHO as both teams were again in the finals for the second-consecutive year in a row, the second time that this had occurred since Sunsparks and ONIC Philippines in Season 4 and 5. ECHO would sweep Blacklist in the finals, winning the championship 4–0. However, it was Blacklist who would advance further in MSC 2023 advancing as far as the finals but was defeated 4–2 by Indonesian representatives ONIC Esports, the first grand finals defeat for a Filipino team in an international tournament.
Season 12 saw the revamped AP Bren (formerly Bren Esports) back in the finals for the first time since Season 6. AP Bren had lost several of its stars to retirement or to free agency but made a powerhouse team from local and holdover players. AP Bren defeated Blacklist International in the Grand Finals 4-1 and both teams qualified to the MLBB M5 World Championship hosted on home soil. AP Bren defeated ONIC Esports in their attempt for the "Golden Road" a term used for teams who would sweep an entire professional calendar year by winning their league's two championship splits and the two international tournaments of the same year. Bren defeated ONIC 4–3 in the finals and gave the Philippines its fourth world title.
Season 13 revived a rebranded ECHO Philippines, now Liquid ECHO for the tournament after Team Liquid's most recent acquisition of its parent company, Aura Esports. Liquid ECHO defeated defending champions AP Bren (known this time as Falcons AP Bren) in a 4–0 sweep, the first sweep since Season 11 which was also their championship year. Liquid ECHO and Falcons AP Bren qualified to MSC 2024 with Falcons AP Bren going to the finals against Malaysian representatives Selangor Red Giants, the first Malaysian representatives in an international tournament's grand finals series. SRG would shock the defending world champions after winning 4–3 in the finals, denying the Philippines' another MSC title.
Season 14 would see the resurgence of ONIC Philippines known as Fnatic ONIC Philippines at the time. The team would tie Blacklist International's Season 8 record of 13-1 and would hold the longest-win streak by any team at 13 games for any team in a single season. This would later be tied by Aurora Gaming in Season 16. Season 14 also saw the entry of the aforementioned Aurora Gaming to MPL Philippines after Minana EVOS' departure. FNOP defeated Aurora in the first full seven-game grand finals since Season 7 and won ONIC's first tile. In the same year, FNOP defeated Team Liquid Indonesia in the MLBB M6 World Championship and brought the Philippines its fifth world title.
Season 15 would produce three teams that won 10 games or more in a single season with Team Liquid (12–2), Aurora (12–2), and ONIC (10–4) being the top three teams. ONIC would pitch a potential back-to-back campaign but was denied by Team Liquid PH after they defeated ONIC 4–3 in the grand finals. Team Liquid held three MPL titles, tying Blacklist International's title count. Season 15 also saw the departures of Blacklist International and RSG Philippines as franchise teams and was replaced by Middle East powerhouse teams Team Falcons and Twisted Minds. In the same year, Team Liquid PH ended the Philippines' MSC title drought after defeating defending champions SRG OG Esports in the finals, 4–1.
Season 16 saw Aurora Gaming tie ONIC Philippines' 13–0 win streak record before their run was cut short by Team Liquid PH in the Grand Finals. Defending MSC champions Team Liquid PH advanced to their second straight finals as the third seed and delivered the league's first Grand Finals sweep since Season 13, defeating Aurora 4–0 to claim their third title in four tournaments and were well on their way to completing the "Golden Road." Team Liquid PH and Aurora Gaming represented the Philippines in the MLBB M7 World Championship where Team Liquid PH's path to the "Golden Road" was cut short after they were eliminated by MPL ID Runner-up Alter Ego who would eventually fall in the Grand Finals as Aurora Gaming wins its first ever championship, and the Philippines' sixth in seven world championships, in a 4-0 grand finals sweep. Aurora Gaming's MLBB M7 World Championship win also marks the second time an MPL runner up won the Championship and the first time that both grand finalists were runners-up of their respective home leagues.
Meanwhile, Season 16 also saw TNC Pro Team record its best finish since Season 9, placing third after defeating Twisted Minds and defending world champions ONIC PH in the lower bracket before falling to Team Liquid PH 4–1 in the semifinals.
Season 17 saw the first Indonesian import to the Philippines in Clayton "Savero" Kuswanto for Onic Philippines. Team Liquid PH would go three-consecutive seasons as the first seed, finishing 13–1 – their second consecutive 13-1 standing in the regular season – and becomes the first team in MPL Philippines history to go back to the finals for three-consecutive seasons. Liquid would be joined by Team Falcons PH – who got a regular season rebound to a 12-2 standing from their Season sixteen showing – and qualified to MSC 2026 to Paris. In MSC 2026, it was the worst performance by both Filipino representatives since 2019 where no Filipino teams advanced to the Grand Finals. Defending champions Team Liquid PH suffered an early playoff exit and Team Falcons PH getting bested in five games by Burmese champions Yangon Galacticos.
Teams