It’s our first taste of what’s undoubtedly going to be an exciting MLBB season.
We’re once again heading back to Malaysia to see the best professional MLBB action as the Snapdragon S6 Challenge Finals is quickly approaching. Starting February 10, the best MLBB teams in the world will converge at the Persada Johor International Convention Center. There we’ll get a first glimpse of what international competition for MLBB looks like for 2025.
Twelve teams will be participating, with one half being invited while the other qualified through the challenge season tournaments. The group stage will have the teams divided into two groups to play single round robin, best-of-three matches. The top three in each group will advance into the playoffs with the top team of each group seeding directly into the upper bracket semifinals.
From there it’s hybrid elimination with the losers of the upper bracket quarterfinals dropping out of the tournament. It’s best-of-three’s until the upper and lower bracket finals playing a best-of-five and the grand finals playing a best-of-seven. Aside from the winners getting the lion’s share of 150,000 USD, the top five teams will qualify for the ESL Snapdragon Mobile Masters 2025 happening later this April.
Teams to Watch
With the recent shakeup in the MPL PH, everyone should definitely be looking at Team Falcons PH. Originally, AP.Bren was one of the Snapdragon S6 Challenge Finals invited teams but since the entire roster of AP.Bren was acquired by Team Falcons, the invitation transferred to them. Will playing for a new banner reinvigorate the M5 champs? We’ll have to wait and see.
Speaking of world champions, ONIC Philippines is also one to watch in the Snapdragon S6 Challenge Finals. The Super Family looked like the best MLBB team in the world in 2024. It may only be the first tournament of the year but we’ll see if they’ll be off to a good start this 2025.
Then there’s the Selangor Red Giants. As the only Malaysian team in the tournament, there’s a lot of expectations on them. That’s nothing new for the Giants, however, as they’ve always had strong international performances. The question is if they’ll be able to get another international trophy in front of their home crowd.
Banner photo from MOONTON Games.