The 2024 MPL Philippines Season was the seventh year of professional gameplay and the second year of development talent gameplay for the country. MPL Philippines is a professional esports league for the MOBA game Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. The season was divided into two splits: Season 13 was accompanied by MDL Philippines Season 3 while Season 14 was accompanied by MDL Philippines Season 4. Season 13 began on March 15 and concluded the season with the Grand Finals match on May 26, 2024. Meanwhile, Season 14 began on August 16th and ended with the Grand Finals match on October 20, 2024.
MDL Philippines was established as the second development league in Southeast Asia behind MDL Indonesia in 2023 and its first two seasons were played during the same year. Season 13 was the qualifying tournament for Philippine teams to the 2024 Mid-Season Cup in Riyadh. Season 14 on the other hand was the qualifying tournament for Philippine teams to the MLBB M6 World Championships in Kuala Lumpur. Only the champions and the runner-up teams qualified for both international tournaments.
MPL Philippines Season 13 was the first professional season of the league in 2024. It is succeeding a season that culminated the championship of Falcons AP Bren for the second time in league history, and the second time in world history, winning the title on home soil against ONIC Esports. Furthermore, the Mid-Season Cup is hosted for the first time outside of Southeast Asia and the first tournament bearing the rebranded name “Mid-Season Cup”. The tournament was formerly known as the “Southeast Asia Cup”. Liquid ECHO defeated the defending world champions and MPL champions Falcons AP Bren in the Grand Finals in a 40 sweep. This is Liquid ECHO's first title as "Liquid ECHO" and the second title under the "ECHO" brand name.
MPL Philippines Season 14 was the second professional season of the league in 2024. This season is the precursor season after the Mid Season Cup and the start of the qualifying matchups for the MLBB M6 World Championship in Malaysia. Fnatic ONIC Philippines made history by becoming the only team to have a thirteen-game winning streak, breaking the record of Blacklist International's 12-wins straight during Season 8. Moreover, this is the first time that Fnatic ONIC Philippines qualified for the M6 World Championships since Season 8 following their 3–1 victory over the defending world champions Falcons AP Bren. Furthermore, Aurora Gamingthe indirect replacement to Minana EVOSqualified for the first time for the playoffs, the grand finals, and the M6 World Championships despite only joining the league in the present season. Fnatic ONIC Philippines won its first organizational title since its entry to the MPL Philippines pro-scene in Season 4.
Occurring in the same year was the international multi-game tournament Games of the Future 2024 which was held in Kazan, Russia. Falcons AP Bren and Blacklist International were invited to participate alongside teams that have competed during the M5 World Championships and teams that were directly invited by organizers.
Format MPL Philippines’ Seasons are split into two: The Regular Season and the Playoffs. The Regular Season consists of fourteen games. Each team competing will be playing a double-round robin tournament format, facing each other twice in the span of six to eight weeks. Only the top six teams will advance to the playoffs and the remaining two will be eliminated. Furthermore, the Regular Season instituted a new pointing system wherein:
The team who won a 2–0 series will receive 3 points; The team who won a 2–1 series will receive 3 points; The team who lost a 2–1 series will receive 1 point; The team who lost a 2–0 series will receive 0 points.
Playoff format
The Top 6 teams from the Regular Season table will advance to the playoff round. The bottom 2 will be eliminated from contention. Teams Seeded 5 and 6 will be facing each other for a Best of 5 series to advance to the second round in a modified King of the Hill Tournament format. The winning team from Match 1 will advance to face Seed 4 and play a Best of 5 series to advance to the Upper Bracket Semifinals. Seed 3 will be matching up with Seed 2 in the playoffs, making Seed 3 a qualifying team in the semifinals. All teams will be playing a Best of 5 series except for the Grand Finals which will be a Best of 7.
Venue
MPL Philippines Season 13MPL Philippines Season 14Regular seasonPlayoffs & Grand FinalsRegular seasonPlayoffs & Grand FinalsShooting Gallery StudiosSM SouthmallGreen Sun HotelGreen Sun Hotel
Split 1
Season 13
Season 13 was the first MPL Philippines season following the conclusion of the M5 World Championships. During Season 8, the league shifted to a franchise-based system, eliminating regional qualifiers for local teams and fixing only eight franchise teams to compete in MPL Philippines. The Philippines is the second league to adhere to the franchise-based system, the other being Indonesia. The season began on March 15 and concluded its regular season on May 5. The playoffs were held from May 22 to 26 at SM Southmall Events Center in Las Piñas
The same 8 teams will be participating in the tournament which includes: Falcons AP Bren, Blacklist International, Team Liquid PH, Minana EVOS, Fnatic ONIC PH, Smart Omega, RSG Philippines, and TNC Pro Team.
Falcons AP Bren won the Games of the Future tournament in Kazan, defeating ONIC Esports 3 games to 1. Falcons AP Bren is the only Filipino team to be part of the Top 4 as Blacklist International lost to Fire Flux Esports of Turkey during the Quarterfinals of the single-elimination bracket.
Teams With the annual MSC 2024 tournament being held in Saudi Arabia, the tournament became the new sight for opportunities for international organizationa tournament with a $3,000,000 prize pool. International organizations have been partnering with Filipino organizations in order to fund and subsequently target the winning teams that can compete in MSC 2024.
On 19 May 2024, AP Bren announced its partnership with MPL MENA Organization Team Falcons for the season-ending playoffs. A day later, ONIC PH announced their own partnership with the European-based organization Fnatic, and a day later, ECHO announced their own partnership for the upcoming playoffs with Team Liquid. Liquid however, has announced their own acquisition of the AURA Esports franchise, thereby rebranding the team from ECHO/AURA to Team Liquid.
Regular season standings
Weekly accolades
Week 1 MVP - (TLPH) - Alston "Sanji" Pabico Week 2 MVP - (FNOP) - Grant "Kelra" Pillas Week 3 MVP - (FNOP) - Jomearie "Escalera" Santos Week 4 MVP - (FNOP) - Frince "Super Frince" Ramirez Week 5 MVP - (FCAP) - Rowgien "Owgwen" Unigo Week 6 MVP - (OMG) - Joshua "Ch4knu" Mangilog Week 7 MVP - (FCAP) - Marco "Super Marco" Requitiano
Playoffs Falcons AP Bren was the first team to qualify for the Playoffs during their Week 5, 2–0 sweep over TNC Pro Team which propelled them to an 8–1 record, seeding Fnatic ONIC PH to Number 2 following their loss to RSG Philippines during Day 1 of Week 5. Moreover, Fnatic ONIC PH was the next team to qualify for the playoffs after winning over Smart Omega in Week 5 Day 2.
After a 2–0 victory over Fnatic ONIC PH in Week 6, Minana EVOS qualified for the playoffs as the potential fifth seed for the first time since Season 9 when they were still branded as "Nexplay EVOS". This is the first playoffs for Minana EVOS since their rebrand.
TNC Pro Team misses the playoffs for the fourth-consecutive season after losing 2–0 to their Week 6 match. TNC Pro Team's last playoff appearance was their third-place finish during MPL Philippines Season 9.
Blacklist International secures the final playoff spot after winning one match against Team Liquid PH to tie the game series 1-1. That gave Blacklist International enough games to qualify for the MPL Philippines Season 13 playoffs, thereby eliminating Smart Omega from playoff contention.
After a 2–1 victory over Team Liquid PH, Falcons AP Bren finishes the regular season with an 11–3 record and 35 points, giving them the first seed in the playoffs. Team Liquid PH remained the second seed because of their total number of regular season points and due to the promptly defeat of RSG Philippines to Blacklist International which only gave RSG an additional 1 point to secure the third seed.
Day 1: Gauntlet Play-in MPL Philippines Season 13's playoffs began with the introduction of the Philippines' continual accolades from MSC 2018 to the M5 World Championship and subsequent Games of the Future.
(5) Blacklist International vs. (6) Minana EVOS
(4) Fnatic ONIC PH vs. (5) Blacklist International
Day 2: Upper Bracket Semifinals
(2) Liquid ECHO vs. (3) RSG Philippines
(1) Falcons AP Bren vs. (5) Blacklist International
Day 3: Upper Bracket Finals and Lower Bracket Semifinals Winner of the Upper Bracket Final match qualify for the MSC 2024, loser is relegated to the Lower Bracket Final match. Liquid ECHO qualified for MSC 2024 after winning a close Best-of-5 matchup with defending world champions Falcons AP Bren in the upper bracket finals.
(1) Falcons AP Bren vs. (2) Liquid ECHO
(3) RSG Philippines vs. (5) Blacklist International Blacklist International has appeared in all MPL Philippines Grand Finals since Season 10 and winning one of three appearances. Season 13 is the first since Season 9 where Blacklist International would miss an international tournament such as MSC 2024 and the Grand Finals.
Day 4: Lower Bracket Final
(1) Falcons AP Bren vs. (3) RSG Philippines Winning team in this match qualify for the MSC 2024.
Grand Final
(2) Liquid ECHO vs. (1) Falcons AP Bren Liquid ECHO and Falcons AP Bren will be having a rematch in the Grand Finals following FCAP's defeat in the upper bracket finals to TLPH in 5 games. FCAP defeated RSG-PH to qualify for MSC 2024 and a slot in the Grand Finals, poised to win back-to-back titles and become the third organization in MPL history to achieve such feat.
Liquid ECHO defeated Falcons AP Bren in a 4–0 sweep Grand Finals. This series was the second sweep by Liquid ECHO in a Grand Finals matchup since S11's 4–0 sweep against Blacklist International.
Playoff Bracket
Final Placements PlacementQualificationTeam% MSC 2024 Liquid ECHO MSC 2024Falcons AP Bren -RSG Philippines -Blacklist International 5th -Fnatic ONIC PH 6th -Minana EVOS 7th -Smart Omega $4,1908th -TNC Pro Team $3,290
Alongside MPL Indonesia, the Philippines is the only lone region-country in the MPL to have two teams to qualify for MSC in Riyadh.
MDL Philippines Season 3
Regular season standings
Unlike the second season of MDL Philippines, only ten teams competed in the tournament with Euphoria Esports and MHRLK Esports exiting the amateur scene.
Playoffs
Similar to the former playoff tournament of MPL Philippines prior to Season 13, MDL Philippines Season 3 will transition from a double-elimination bracket to a single-elimination bracket of the Top 6 teams. Teams seeded third to sixth will play in the Quarterfinals/Knockout Round and will advance to face the first and second seed in the Semifinals. All games apart from the Grand Finals will be played in a Best of 3. The Finals will be played as a Best of 5.
MDL Philippines Season 3's playoffs was held at the Shooting Gallery Studios where MPL Philippines' regular season had been hosted prior to the playoff preparation break.