AP Bren at midnight Monday became the first professional esports team to win the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang World Championship, also known as M series, twice, beating Indonesia’s Onic in a pulsating 7-game series that went the distance and nearly saw the Philippine team almost squandering a commanding 3-1 lead.
With a total prize pool of USD900,000, the fifth edition of the M series, or M5, gathered the top 16 teams in the world, determined by a series of tournaments, including a first-ever wild card phase held in Malaysia.
Mobile Legends is one of the most popular mobile multiplayer online battle arena, and is owned by game developer Montoon Games, which was acquired in 2021 by ByteDance in a deal that reportedly valued the game developer at USD4 billion. ByteDance also counts in its portfolio Tiktok, CapCut, Lark and Pico.
The triumph of AP Bren in M5, which extended the Filipino teams’ dominance in the championship that started in 2019, came before a predominantly Filipino esports audience who packed at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum, venue of many historic sporting events including the Southeast Asian Games.
It was sweet victory fo AP Bren, who was swept by Onic in their 5-game battle on Saturday to earn the first of two finals slot. AP Bren, known as Bren Esports when it won the second edition of the M series in 2020, vented their ire on and swept fellow Philippine team and former world champion Blacklist International for the right to face Onic for the M5 trophy and a grand prize of USD300,000.
AP Bren quickly disposed of Onic in game 1, demolishing the Indonesia base in just 14 minutes. Onic came back with the vengeance in game 2 only to falter in games 3 and 4.
The Philippine esports team appeared headed to clinch the championship in game 5 but Onic had other plans. The Indonesians fought hard and won games 5 and 6 and apparently knocked the air out of their opponent. But AP Bren won’t be denied, and masterfully drafted a team that mowed down Onic in another 14-minute combat in game 7 .
David Charles Canon, known as FlapTzy, was adjudged Most Valuable Player and awarded a USD5,000 prize, an honor he said he probably doesn’t deserve given his errors during the series that cost AP Bren to drop at least one a game to Onic.
“I’m shocked. It was my teammates who won this championship. I actually did poorly when I used Arlot,” he said.
FlapTzy and team captain Angelo Kyle Archangel, whose non de guerre is Pheww, are the only two remaining members of the 2020 team—making them two of only three two-time M series world champions. Former 2020 teammate Karl Gabriel Nepomuceno, or KarlTzy, won his second world championship last year as member of Echo. The other member of the 2020 unit, Francis Glindro, who played using the name Ducky, now coaches AP Bren.
The other members of the M5 champion team are Rowgien Stimpson Unigo, or Owgwen, the team roamer Marco Stephen Requitiano, AP Bren’s gold liner called Super Marco, and Michael Angelo Sayson, known to MLBB fans by his nom de guerre KyleTzy
AP Bren won’t the 12th season of MPL Philippines in October against Blacklist to secure their seat in M5.
For placing second and third, respectively, Onic took home USD120,00 while Blacklist pocketed USD80,000.
