MPL Philippines Season 11

MPL Philippines Season 11, commonly known as MPL PH was the eleventh iteration of the ''Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League of the Philippines''. Holding the first season for 2023, MPL Philippines began after the recently concluded MLBB M4 World Championship in Jakarta.

MPL Philippines will be the direct qualifier tournament for the summer competition Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Southeast Asia Cup 2023 (MSC 2023) and the Philippines will have two teams to represent the country in the tournament. Previously, RSG Philippines defeated Indonesia's representatives RRQ Hoshi in 2022.

The battlecry "Lakas ng Pinas" ( Eng: ''Strength of the Philippines'') is still currently used as the official slogan of MPL Philippines Season 11 after being introduced in MPL Philippines Season 9.

Defending Champions and MLBB M3 World Champions Blacklist International will be defending their title in the said tournament, hoping to be the first team to repeat twice in different occasions. Previously, Blacklist International won back-to-back championship titles in MPL Philippines Season 7 and MPL Philippines Season 8. They defeated ECHO Philippines in MPL Philippines Season 10 to be the first team in MPL Philippines history to win three championship titles.

Participating teams

With the establishment of MDL Philippines, it was recently announced that the relegation of teams from the MDL to the MPL and vice versa will now be allowed.

Roster Changes

MPL Philippines

Following the conclusion of MPL Philippines Season 10, offseason changes began with the eight franchise teams of MPL Philippines to prepare for Season 11.

Venue and competition format

Venue

Following the easing of restrictions on face-to-face activities in the Philippines, MPL Philippines Season 10 became the first season to be in an all-offline tournament format with sold-out venues and crowds. After a soft-MPL Philippines Season 9 test, MPL Philippines Season 10 and 11 became the first three tournament since the COVID-19 pandemic to be fully opened to the public.

In the official MPL Philippines Season 11 Facebook page, it was announced that the Regular Season will be held at the Shooting Gallery Studios in Makati City's Central Business District.

Competition format

Similar to its preceding seasons, MPL Philippines Season 11 will follow the Double Round-robin tournament format during the regular season. The double round-robin tournament is a system of matches where competing teams will face each other twice. With eight teams participating, a total of fourteen games will be played. Following the regular season, the playoffs will follow. The playoffs for MPL Philippines Season 11 will follow a Double-elimination tournament. Seeds 1 and 2 will be slated in the Upper-brackets Semifinals while Seeds 3 to 6 will be facing each other in the Quarterfinals to determine the teams who will contest Seeds 1 and 2. During MPL Philippines Season 8, Seeds 3 to 6 were seeded at their respective place, however, during the course of MPL Philippines Season 9, the first-seeded team were able to readjust the seeding positions for each play-in tournament team.

Stage points are distributed accordingly throughout the eight teams. These points will be based on their match performances:

* A team will receive 3 points if they win a 2-0 match against their opponent. The opposing team will receive 0 points.
* A team will receive 2 points if they win a 2-1 match against their opponent. The opposing team will receive 1 point.

Regular season results

Leaderboards

Average Kill Ranking

Average Assists Ranking

Average KDA Ranking

Source:

Mid-Season transfers

March 17, 2023

Following a committee decision to allow MDL players and MPL players be transferred to each league, Blacklist International Gold Lane Archer "ARCHER" Perez will be relegated to the MDL and Southeast Asian Games Gold Medalist Lee "Owl" Gonzales will be transferred to the official roster.

March 31, 2023

Through the caster's announcement, RSG Slate Philippines will be sending their rookie talent Kouzen to MDL Philippines in exchange for Season 9 addition John "1RRAD" Abarquez.

Playoffs

Following the Regular Season, the playoffs will not immediately begin. A period of rest will be given to every team to prepare for the playoffs. Following Bren Esports' victory over Nexplay EVOS, the team becomes the first to qualify for the playoffs. This was immediately followed by ECHO Philippines' qualification for the playoffs after defeating ONIC Philippines. This is the first time Bren Esports qualified for the playoffs as the first seed since their championship season in Season 6. ECHO will advance to the playoffs on their eight-consecutive season, marking their playoff appearance as one of the longest for any MPL Team.

Upper Bracket Semifinals

(#3) Blacklist International vs. (#6) Smart Omega & (#4) RSG Slate Philippines vs (#5) ONIC Philippines

Noted as one of the oldest rivalries in the entire league, Blacklist International was slated to face-off Smart Omega in the first round of elimination. Blacklist International were able to sweep Smart Omega in the first round of the playoffs that will match the team against Bren Esports in the Upper Bracket Quarterfinals.

The second match will follow with RSG Philippines versus ONIC Philippines. With both teams facing each other in Season 10 where RSG Philippines swept the yellow porcupines, one team will be eliminated from this match. RSG Philippines were able to sweep the former M3 runners-up to advance to face ECHO Philippines.

(#1) Bren Esports vs. (#3) Blacklist International & (#2) ECHO Philippines vs. (#4) RSG Slate Philippines

Blacklist International faces off the former M2 World Champions of Bren Esports. As the first seed, Bren finished the regular season with 11 wins and 3 losses, seeding them Number 1 in the League, the first time they've been seeded no. 1 since Season 7. Blacklist International previously defeated Smart Omega to hopefully claim their spot in the upcoming MSC Cup in Cambodia. Despite many doubts, Blacklist International were able to fend off a possible reverse sweep from the Hive and defeated Bren Esports in four games, giving them a closer edge to the grand finals where they potentially can repeat as champions.

Lower Bracket Semifinals

(#1) Bren Esports vs (#2) ECHO Philippines

Following both teams' defeats in the Upper Bracket Semifinals to Blacklist International and RSG Slate Philippines, Bren Esports and ECHO Philippines were slated to face each other in the Lower Bracket Finals. Despite the momentum comeback in Game No. 2, ECHO Philippines will eliminate Bren Esports' further playoff contention and will deny them the chance to move on further and represent the country in MSC.

Upper Bracket Finals

(#3) Blacklist International vs (#4) RSG Philippines

With both play-in teams going to the upper-bracket finals, RSG Slate Philippines and Blacklist International is set to face-off in a Best of 5 series in the upper-bracket. Despite the hopes of a reverse sweep, Blacklist International will return to MSC since 2021 and is set to repeat their title, defeating RSG Slate Philippines in four games.

Lower Bracket Finals

(#2) ECHO Philippines vs (#4) RSG Philippines

Following RSG's defeat in the Upper-Bracket Finals, RSG Slate Philippines and ECHO Philippines will have a rematch in the Lower Bracket Semifinals. With the efforts of forcing Game No. 5 before the Grand Finals, ECHO Philippines has set its course to MSC 2023 following the 3-2 victory over RSG Slate PH, denying RSG Slate their trip to MSC and a chance to reclaim their title as MSC champions. ECHO and Blacklist International will be facing each other in the Grand Finals for the second time in two-consecutive seasons.

Grand Finals

(#3) Blacklist International vs (#2) ECHO Philippines

With the victory over RSG Slate Philippines, ECHO Philippines will have their third rematch against Blacklist International. Previously, Blacklist defeated ECHO in the grand finals of MPL Philippines Season 10 in six games. In M4, ECHO sweeped Blacklist International who were the reigning MLBB M3 World Champions at the time. However, Blacklist International will suffer another 4-0 lost to ECHO Philippines. This will be ECHO Philippines' first title under the "ECHO Philippines" branding after being known as AURA Philippines during Season 6 to 7 before rebranding to the current team name in Season 8.

MPL Philippines Season 11's Grand Finals will become the first Grand Finals sweep by any team in MPL Philippines history.

MDL Philippines Playoff Bracket

Final Standings

Special Fan Awards

The First edition of the special fan awards were held after the Lower Bracket Finals. The awarded awards are listed:

* Freshest Face of the Season
* Most Fashionable Player Award
* Best Content Creator
* Best Sportsmanship Award
* Most Improved Team of the Season
* 3x Most Epic/Creative Gameplay Awards

MPL Philippines Hall of Legends Inductee(s)

Following its introduction in Season 10, a seasonal inclusion of players will be done per season. Blacklist International's Edward Jay "EDWARD" Dapadap was announced as the new member of the Hall of Legends.

Season Events

* February 25, 2023 - Johnmar "OhMyV33Nus" Villaluna surpasses Jeniel "YellyHaze" Bata-Anon to be the MPL Philippines All-Time Assists Leader (2,266).
* March 1, 2023 - MPL Philippines mourns the loss of former shoutcaster Robbie "Rob Luna" Chester De Luna.
* March 10, 2023 - Johnmar "OhMyV33Nus" Villaluna recorded 100 played matches in MPL Philippines.
* March 18, 2023 - Danerie James "Wise." Del Rosario recorded 100 played matches in MPL Philippines.
* March 26, 2023 - Angelo "Pheww" Arcangel surpasses Joshua "Ch4knu" Mangilog in the all-time MPL Philippines assist list.
* April 14, 2023 - Angelo "Pheww" Arcangel surpasses 2,000 MPL Philippines Assists.
* April 16, 2023 - Karl "KarlTzy" Gabriel Nepomuceno surpasses Earvin "Heath" Esperanza to rank fifth overall in the All-Time Assists Leader of MPL Philippines (1,778).
* April 24, 2023 - MPL Philippines mourns the loss of former boot camp Manager for Nexplay EVOS Charles Dave "Chad" Dela Pena and MDL Head Coach for team RSG Ignite Emmanuel "Coach Navi" Gacho.

References

{{MLBBesports

Esports competitions in the Philippines
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang competitions
2023 in esports