The 2025 Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Mid-Season Cup was an international tournament of the esports Multiplayer online battle arena game Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. It was the eighth iteration of the competition and the second iteration under the branding "Mid-Season Cup" since its conception in 2024. The tournament began with the Wild Card stage from July 10 to July 13, and ended with the Grand Finals on August 2, 2025.
For the second time, the tournament is in partnership with the 2025 Esports World Cup. It occurred alongside the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Women's Invitational and other esports titles in the said world cup.
Team Liquid PH won the first MSC title for the organization after winning over the defending champions of Malaysia Selangor Red Giants OG Esports 4–1 in the Grand Finals. This is the first title for the Philippines since MSC 2022 and the second-consecutive season that a Philippines vs. Malaysia Grand Finals took place. Team Liquid PH's Exp Laner Sanford "Sanford" Vinuya was named Finals MVP.
Background
MSC 2025 occurred simultaneously with the 2025 Esports World Cup held in Saudi Arabia. It is an international tournament where numerous major esports titles, such as League of Legends, Dota 2, PUBG: Battlegrounds, and Valorant, are competed by the worlds' most renowned teams. Mobile Legends: Bang Bang was part of the inaugural games played in EWC in 2024.
Tournament patch Like other MOBAs, Moonton release patches for the game that would eventually culminate to forming METAs or the "most effective tactics available," alongside the usage of newly released or buffed up heroes for their tactical advantage.
Patch 1.9.91 was used for MSC 2025 and has been available for access since July 9. The primary changes with the patch was the introduction of a new mage named Zetian and the significant nerfs and attribute adjustments to heroes picked for the most effective tactics available (META) in-game. The patch notes summary is live and accessible through the game itself in the Events Tab.
Patch 1.9.91 New HeroAbilityNote(s)PassiveCelestial Armament Phoenix Crown: Zetian gains increased Spell Vamp after hitting enemy heroes with Phoenix Strike and Phoenix Descent. Celestial Robe: The power of the Phoenix Spirit periodically protects Zetian, knocking back and stunning any enemy heroes who dare to approach, dealing Magic Damage and granting Zetian a Shield.Skill 1 Phoenix Strike Zetian unleashes a Phoenix Wave in the target direction. If it hits an enemy, she automatically casts the next Phoenix Wave, up to 3 times. Zetian can cast other skills during this process. The third Phoenix Wave hits a larger area and pulls targets in the skill's direction for a short distance.Skill 2Phoenix Descent Zetian summons a Phoenix Spirit at the target location, dealing Magic Damage and applying a brief slow effect to enemies in the area. The Phoenix Spirit hovers at the location for 3s, dealing sustained Magic Damage to enemies in a range and reducing enemies' Magic Defense. While the Phoenix Spirit is active, Zetian can use this skill again to command the Phoenix Spirit to charge toward a designated location, dealing Magic Damage and applying a brief slow effect upon arrival.Ultimate Fury of the Phoenix Zetian grants all allied heroes a Movement Speed increase that gradually decays over 3 sec, while unleashing divine retribution upon all enemy heroes, dealing Magic Damage and stunning them on hit. During this time, Zetian gains vision of all enemy heroes. She can cast other skills while channeling this ability.Hero AdjustmentsMajor Hero Adjustment(s)Hero NameAdjustment(s)General Indication: Passive: – All skills now deal True Damage to enemies in the Overheated state. Previously, only Skill 1 could do this. Ultimate: – Number of Flame Sprays were decreased from 14 to 12. General Indication:
Attributes: – Movement Speed was increased from 255 to 245. Ultimate: – Slow Effect was decreased from 75% to 50%.General Indication:
Passive: – HP Recovery was supposedly 120 + 10% Total HP + 60% Total Magic Power which was decreased to 40 + 10% Total HP + 60% Total Magic Power. General Indication:
Passive: – Final Damage Reduction was 25 at all levels, it was decreased to 15 + (Hero Level x 1).General Indication:
Passive: – Magic Bonus was 55%, it was decreased to 40%. General Indication:
Skill 1: – Physical Attack Bonus was 50% but it was decreased to 45% and the Movement Speed Bonus while Firing was 15%, it was decreased to 10%.General Indication:
Skill 1: – Radiance Stack Damage Bonus was originally 8-16 but it was decreased to 6-14. General Indication:
Skill 2: – Damage reduction on hit was 30% + 8% per additional hero hit, it was decreased to 20% + 8% per additional enemy hero hit.General Indication:
Attributes: – Physical Attack Growth was 9 but was decreased to 7. General Indication:
Skill 2: – His second skill cooldown was 9s but it was increased to 11s.
Time Rewind The MSC x EWC 2025 management have announced their introduction to the "Time Rewind" tool, the first of its kind to be included in the tournament. The Time Rewind Tool is the ability for marshals to restore a previous point of a gain if an incident affects the competitive integrity of the match. The tool is then used to rewind to a certain point of the game with both sides agreeing to the rewind. The management said that there were only two ways that marshals gave a fair opportunity for both teams to try and fix patches and errors such as the traditional pause where matches are paused in a specific time for five minutes in which marshals and members of the technical team would try to fix the error in game or in the venue or a rematch.
In accordance with the MSC x EWC 2025 handbook, strict provisions were imposed for both the teams and the marshals from ever abusing their rights and authority to use the Time Rewind Tool. The management has said that any tactical exposure for either teams may be experienced if the tool is used however, the management has made it clear that communications between players are prohibited during the pause and only permitted communication will be from the players and marshals only.
Venue Similarly to MSC 2024, the venue for MSC 2025 will be in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Wildcard StageGroup StageKnockout Stage and Grand Finals Riyadh Boulevard City, Backstage Boulevard City, Backstage Boulevard City, Arena 2
Format Fifteen of the sixteen group-stage teams will be outright qualifying from major regions in Mobile Legends. These regions have made a name for themselves as the home of powerhouse teams including Indonesia and the Philippines alongside emerging powerhouse regions such as Malaysia and Singapore. Also included in the group-stage are established regions in their own right, with Moonton accredited competitions being the qualifying tournament for MSC such as Cambodia, MENA, North America, and Turkey. Meanwhile, Myanmar's inception returned following all esports competition halting in the region due to the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état and China with its growing esports base was seemed fitting to be of the same caliber as pre-established teams.
Wild card Eight teams from the different regions of accredited Moonton tournaments will battle for the one wildcard slot in the group stage. These eight teams will be grouped into two different groups and will follow the GSL FormatThe Global StarCraft II League Formatwhere all teams have three chances to qualify for the knockouts. The GSL Format has been used as the tournament format for several esports titles including the aforementioned StarCraft II and Dota 2.
In the opening match, the four teams will play a Best-of-3 series. Winning teams will advance and face each other in the winner's bracket while losing teams will advance to the loser's bracket. The team who wins in the winner's bracket will qualify for the knockout stage while the losing team will wait for the winner in the losers bracket. Simultaneously, the winner of the loser's bracket will face the loser of the winner's bracket while the loser of the loser's bracket will be eliminated.
In the redemption round, whoever wins Round 3 will qualify for the knockout stage while the loser will be eliminated. All teams who won 2-0 and 2–1 series will advance, those who loss 1-2 and 0-2 will be eliminated. The four teams who qualified for the knockout stage will battle each other to advance to the wild card finals. The winner of the wild card finals will qualify for the group stage.
Group stage In the group stage, the two representatives from Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia, joined by the champions of Myanmar and the EECA (CIS) will be put in Seed 1 while the remaining teams will be put into Seed 2. According to the group stage format video released by MLBB esports on YouTube, these teams were split into two groups prompting regional diversity as per caster Gideon Khew "GideonQ" Wei Yung. All of these teams will be drawn into two brackets and no region will be bracketed in the same group.
Each team will then play a Best-of-3 series in a double-elimination format. Similarly to the Wild Card stage, teams with a record of 2-0 and 2-1 advances and qualifies to the knockout stage while teams with a 1-2 and 0–2 record will be eliminated.
Playoffs In the knockout stage, the eight qualified teams will be divided into two groups: teams who won 2–0, and teams who won 2–1. Teams with a 2–0 advantage will have the luxury to pick their 2-1 challengers. In the same video, the thought of a 2–0 team picking a weaker 2–1 team is palpable however, tides may turn regardless of their opponents. As of June 24, according to Gideon, the team who will pick first will only be determined once the competition begins. For the first time since MSC 2023, a third-place match will be introduced. All matches in the knockout stage from the Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and the Third Place match will be a Best-of-5. Only the Grand Finals will be a Best-of-7.
Qualified teams A total of sixteen teams will be competing in the Group Stage while only eight are to advance to the knockout stage. The wild card stage returned for the third-consecutive time since its inception in 2023.
For MSC 2025, Japan made its MLBB comeback. Japan last competed on a MLBB competition during the MLBB M2 World Championships and has since not competed.
Majority of the qualified teams for MSC 2025 are returning teams from the previous edition and/or during the Southeast Asian Cup editions of the games. These include current champions Selangor Red Giants OG Esports (2024) and former champions ONIC Esports (2019, 2023). MSC 2025 is uniquely the first edition of the games where two sister-teams have qualified for the tournament, that being ONIC Esports and ONIC Philippines.
On June 30, 2025, Moonton announced that S8UL Esports,It was originally BloodThirstyKings however, the roster was bought out by Indian organization S8UL Esports. who qualified as the North American Challenger Tournament (NACT) Spring champions, were no longer eligible to compete at MSC 2025 after two of their players, Michael "MobaZane" Cosgun and Jang "Hoon" Seong-hun, participated in a promotional event for the rival MOBA game Honor of Kings (also present at Esports World Cup) and got disqualified. As a result, NACT Spring runners-up Area 77 qualified in their place.
Legend:
– Background denotes that the team is the Defending champions.
– Background denotes that the team is the Former MSC champions.
– Background denotes that the team's best finish is the Playoff/Knockout stage in its history.
– Background denotes that the team's best finish is the Group Stage in its history.
– Background denotes that the team's best finish is the Wild Card Stage in its history.
– Background denotes that it's the team's first time qualifying for MSC.