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The Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League (MPL) Philippines (PH) is back for its 8th season, featuring a franchise-based model and a new tournament format. The MPL PH Season 8, which boasts a prize pool of P7.5 million PHP ($150,000 USD), will officially start on 13th Aug 2021. The seasonal league will no longer have open qualifiers, instead, the eight franchise teams will head straight into the regular season where the top six teams will be seeded in the playoffs bracket. More details regarding the prize pool, format, and where you can watch the upcoming MPL PH Season 8 can be found below.
MPL PH Season 8 Details
With the newly adopted franchising model in the MPL PH esports scene, the league will have access to a stable and standardized management system, providing the teams, players, and other people involved, the proper tools and resources that will be needed to thrive.
According to a report from Manila Bulletin, this new system will guarantee a much more sustainable esports ecosystem, offering teams and players a minimum salary and weekly subsidiaries. A projected revenue of P400 million PHP ($7,964,136 USD) in three years will also be shared among the teams.
The upcoming seasonal league will see eight franchise teams competing for the championship title and the lion’s share of the 7.5 million PHP ($150,000 USD) prize pool. The tournament will no longer have an open qualifier and will jump straight into the regular season where only the top six teams will proceed to the playoffs.
The eight franchise teams are the following;
ONIC PH
Omega Esports
Bren Esports
ECHO Esports
TNC Pro Team
Blacklist International
RSG PH
Nexplay EVOS
Tournament Format
The MPL PH Season 8 regular season will have a double round-robin format with a total of 56 BO3 matches. The top six teams in the regular season will proceed to the playoffs stage while the two bottom teams will be eliminated. The regular season will start on 13th August and will last until 3rd Oct 2021.
The teams who qualified for the playoffs will compete in a BO5 match and make their way to the grand finals where the top two teams will compete in a BO7 format. The playoffs will start sometime in late October.
Shifting to a franchise-based model is a giant leap for the improvement of the Mobile Legends esports scene in the Philippines. It will be interesting to see if this new franchise format will help bolster the esports scene in the region.
You can keep up with the league by following AFK Gaming’s event hub for MPL PH Season 8 which contains all the information you need to know including live scores, schedules, rosters, format, live stream links, and more.
