M5 World Championship to take place in the Philippines this December

M5 World Championship, one of the biggest events in esports today, is happening in the Philippines this December.

Dates were announced by Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) developer Moonton Games in a social media post on Wednesday, Oct. 4.

The pinnacle event in the global MLBB community, the M5 World Championship will kick off with a Wild Card tournament from Nov. 23 to 26 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

In this stage, eight teams from all over the world will compete for a spot in the Group Stage. The two winning teams will advance to this stage which will begin in the Philippines on Dec. 2 and culminate on Dec. 7.

Here, 16 teams will be divided into four groups to play a single-round robin tournament for the best of 3 in six matches.  

The top 2 teams from each group will move forward to the Knockout Stage in a best-of-five match and will follow the previous bracket format. It will take place from Dec. 9 to 16.  

This will be followed by the grand finals on Dec. 17, which will have a BO7 (best of seven) match.  

The winning team will bring home a prize pool worth $900,000 (P51 million). 

Some of the confirmed participating teams come from the Philippines, Mongolia, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the United States. 

This marks the third time the Philippines will host the major esports event, after the Southeast Asia Cup and SEA Games in 2019. 

ECHO was hailed the grand winner in January during the M4 World Championship. They faced off with another Filipino contender, Blacklist International, who won in the M3 World Championship.