The ninth season of the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League-Philippines will officially raise its curtains on February 18, the league announced on Thursday night.
According to Tiebreaker Times’ sources, the league was planning to return to an offline setting but the threat of the Omicron variant later shelved the decision.
Instead, the MPL Philippines will hold its fifth-straight online event.
No new team will be added to the MPL Philippines roster with recently-crowned M3 world champion Blacklist International spearheading the eight-team cast.
The Tier One-backed squad, led by M3 Most Valuable Player Kiel “OHEB” Soriano, will gun for an unprecedented third consecutive title in Season Nine.
M3 grand finalist ONIC Philippines and the rejigged ECHO team will be the biggest threat for Blacklist International while Omega Esports, RSG PH, Bren Esports, Nexplay EVOS, and TNC will try to pull off surprises this season.
In the previous season, Blacklist International crawled back from the lower bracket and took out ONIC Philippines via a 4-1 win for its second-straight title to become the second MPL Philippines team to achieve the feat after Sunsparks in Seasons Four and Five.
The grand finals were held at the World Trade Center in Pasay.
Omega Esports was the bronze medalist of the event followed by Nexplay EVOS.
ECHO Philippines and RSG Philippines settled for the 5th-6th spot while M2 titlist Bren Esports and TNC missed the playoffs at seventh and eighth, respectively.
