Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, or MLBB, remains one of the most popular Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (or MOBA), primarily in Southeast Asia, especially in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Cambodia, extending to other continents and countries worldwide.
So, to determine the best teams and players in the region, Moonton, Mobile Legend’s developer, introduced the Mobile Legends M Championships in 2019, three years after the mobile game was first released. This allows various teams from different countries to battle it on a world stage in front of lively crowds to earn recognition and a hefty prize.
Table of Contents
- What is the Mobile Legends M Championships?
- Countries included in the M World Championships
- MLBB format of the M World Championships
- Mobile Legends M World Championships Rewards and Prize Pools
- ML M World Championships winners
What is the Mobile Legends M Championships?
The Mobile Legends M World Championships, or M-Series or simply M, is the biggest and grandest annual professional tournament of Mobile Legends for its pro players to determine the best ML Team in the world. This tournament has been administered by its developer, Moonton, since 2019 and is already in its fifth year.
Teams from different countries will first need to compete against each other to determine who will represent their country for the limited slots to enter the competition’s group stage. This event is also packed with large prizes in dollar amounts, easily converting to millions of pesos for Filipinos and other Southeast Asian teams.
What are the qualifications for the M World Championships?
The number of competing teams in the M World Championships is usually 16 for an easier grouping of four teams for the Group Stage. However, the only exemption was during the M2, as there have been only 12 teams, primarily due to the COVID-19 Pandemic restrictions.
For each M Tournament edition, teams must first qualify for their country’s respective Mobile Legends Professional Leagues, also known as MPL, like MPL Philippines and MPL Indonesia. These professional leagues will send one or two (winner and runner-up) teams as their country representatives.
However, not all teams will immediately enter the tournament proper as some will have to qualify first for the championship through a series of wildcard matches to fill in the remaining slots.
Countries included in the M World Championships
The M World Championships have become more represented through the years by the various ML professional leagues in different tournaments in each continent. However, you will notice that the biggest ML leagues are in Southeast Asia, like the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Cambodia.
The various Mobile Legends Professional Leagues that will represent their countries in the M Championships are:
- MPL Philippines
- MPL Indonesia
- MPL Malaysia
- MPL Singapore
- MPL Cambodia
- M Challenge (Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Brunei)
- NACT (North America)
- LIGA LATAM (Latin America)
- MCB (Bangladesh and Nepal)
- MPL MENA Fall (Middle East and Africa)
- MTC Turkey
- MLBB Continental Championship (CIS, Georgia, and Ukraine)
MLBB format of the M World Championships
There are some minor changes for each edition of the M World Championships. However, the primary format remained the same: a Group Stage followed by the Playoffs or Knockout Stage.
Group Stage
During the M5 Group Stage, the 16 qualified ML teams (including two wildcards) are split into groups of four that will play in a single round-robin, best-of-3 series. The top 2 teams of each group will go to the Knockout Stage, while the bottom 2 ML teams will be eliminated from the tournament.
This format is a change from what used to be an upper and lower bracket playoff during the past M World Championship editions, where the top 2 teams will be placed in the upper bracket, while the bottom 2 teams will be in the bottom bracket.
Note: During M2, which happened at the height of the pandemic, there were only 12 qualifying teams. So, each group only had three teams for the single round-robin matches.
Knockout Stage
The eight teams that qualified after the group stage will play in a best-of-5 double-elimination tournament until the two Grand Final Teams emerge. The last two teams standing will play a best-of-7 competition to determine the M World Champion.

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Mobile Legends M World Championships Rewards and Prize Pools
Since the M World Championships is the premier Mobile Legends competition, it is only natural to have a lot of sponsorship that increases the prize pool. Besides the Team Rewards, an MVP Prize is given to the tournament’s best player.
Each tournament also ensures that every competing team will get a portion of the prize pool. However, the difference between the champion and the 16th place is too great, so it’s natural to see each team contend to win everything. Here are the breakdowns of the previous winnings in each placement.
Place | M1 ($250,000) | M2 ($300,000) | M3 ($800,000) | M4 ($800,000) | M5 ($900,000) |
1st | $80,000 | $140,000 | $300,000 | $300,000 | |
2nd | $40,000 | $67,200 | $120,000 | $120,000 | |
3rd | $20,000 | $28,000 | $80,000 | $80,000 | |
4th | $12,000 | $16,800 | $55,000 | $55,000 | |
5th to 6th | $8,000 | $8,400 | $40,000 | $40,000 | |
7th to 8th | $6,000 | $5,600 | $30,000 | $30,000 | |
9th to 12th | $4,000 | $4,250 | $15,000 | $15,000 | |
13th to 16th | $3,000 | – | $10,000 | $10,000 | |
MVP | $3,000 | $3,000 | $10,000 | $10,000 |
ML M World Championships winners
Here is a list of the previous editions of the M World Championships, their location, prize pools, and the winners and runners-up.
Tournament | Location | Prize | Winner | Runner-Up |
M1 World Championship | Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia | $250,000 | EVOS – Indonesia | Rex Regum Qeon (RRQ) – Indonesia |
M2 World Championship | Singapore | $300,000 | Bren – Philippines | (Burmese Ghouls) BG – Myanmar |
M3 World Championship | Singapore | $800,000 | Blacklist International – Philippines | ONIC – Philippines |
M4 World Championship | Jakarta, Indonesia | $800,000 | ECHO – Philippines | Blacklist International – Philippines |
M5 World Championship | Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Manila, Philippines | $900,000 | – | – |
M1 World Championship
The inaugural M World Championships in 2019 was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where 16 of the best Mobile Legends Professional Teams battled it out in front of a live audience in attendance. The Finals became a clash between two Indonesian teams, EVOS Legends and RRQ Hoshi, where EVOS went home with the win.
M2 World Championship
The second M World Championship in Singapore happened during the pandemic, so certain modifications were necessary compared to the previous year’s setup. The Finals was between the Philippines’ Bren Sports and Myanmar’s Burmese Ghouls, where the Filipinos got the win and the championship.
M3 World Championship
The M3 World Championship saw a significant boost from its prize pool from $300,000, jumping to a massive $800,000 reward, where the Philippines reigned supreme as two Filipino teams battled it out in the Finals. Blacklist International defeats ONIC PH.
M4 World Championship
The 4th edition of the annual M Championship in Indonesia was also between two Filipino teams, where ECHO swept the defending champion Blacklist International, 4-0, to win the big chunk of the prize pool. In another first for the tournament, Karl “KarlTzy” Nepomuceno won his second M World Championship after he secured his first win with Bren Esports in M2.
M5 World Championship
This tournament is still to be determined. It’s scheduled to happen this coming December 2023. We’ll update this post once the tournament is over.