The North American (NA) region is one of the most underdeveloped regions in the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) esports scene. Even BloodThirstyKings’ (BTK) team captain Michael "MobaZane" Cosgun expressed his frustrations due to the lack of official leagues and tournaments in the region. Two of the most popular Mobile Legends Professional League (MPL) casters Joseph Charles "Naisou" Rezabek and Handy "Mirko" Loho discussed the possibility of MPL NA being established in the future. According to the casters, there is already a similar tournament called the NA Challenger Tournament (NACT) which is sponsored by Moonton. If the event sees success in its future seasons, the region may see its first official Mobile Legends Professional league.
Moonton needs to see potential before MPL NA gets established
Through a livestream hosted by Mirko, Naisou shared his thoughts on what needs to be done for Moonton to invest in an official league in the NA region. According to the Philippines (PH) caster, the esports scene in NA needs to attract more interest from players and fans for MLBB to grant an official MPL NA event.
“Talking with the guy that are heading most of this stuff… It’s more like ‘we want to see you guys kind of spearhead something, create something.’ And then if it pops off, then they’ll support it,” explained Naisou.
Back then, the NA region only had community tournaments mostly hosted by various personalities such as David "Assassin Dave" Mao and TR3X Senpai. With more competitive teams emerging in the esports scene, Moonton started getting involved with various sponsored events.
The NACT event is one of the esports events in NA that is organized by TR3X in collaboration with Moonton. While this tournament is not considered as an official league, Naisou thinks this is a solid step forward towards establishing an MPL NA in the future.
“At one point [the tournament] had probably a couple of thousand viewers. I mean, for NA, that doesn’t technically “have like a big scene” [but] that was a big step up for them,” stated Naisou.
BTK’s performance during the M3 World Championship also proved convincing in showing fans from various regions that NA has potential. The team managed to defeat the Philippines powerhouse team Blacklist International once during the world series event which shocked the fans.
The NACT is now in preparation for its fourth season which Naisou believes could be potentially used as a qualifier for the upcoming M4 World Championship. It will be interesting to see if BTK secures a slot for the upcoming world series or will there be a new contender that shall represent NA.
