KUALA LUMPUR: Eight international Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) teams will be vying for the top two spots at the four-day M5 World Championship Wild Card to secure qualification for the M5 World Championship in Manila from Dec 2-12.
The JioSpace Arena in Petaling Jaya will host the M5 World Championship Wild Card from Nov 23-26.
The M5 Wild Card event will see teams from Mongolia, Nepal and China making their debuts on the global MLBB eSports stage.
Veteran MLBB player Sasa will seize the opportunity to reclaim his spot at the World Championship with Malaysia's Team SMG this year.
Team SMG won the eighth season of the MLBB Professional League (MPL) and recently were runners-up in Season 12.
The wild card tournament consists of two stages – the group stage and crossover matches.
In the group stage, eight teams will be divided into two pools of four teams each.
Group A comprises 4Merical Esports (Nepal), Team SMG, Team Falcons (Saudi Arabia), and Niightmare Esports (Laos), while Group B includes Umbrella Squad (EECA), Imperio E-sport (Peru), Team Lilgun (Mongolia), and Keep Best Gaming (China).
The top two teams from each group will advance to the semi-finals, with the winners securing a place in the M5 World Championship.
The M5 World Championship stands as the premier MLBB eSports event of the year, featuring sixteen teams competing for a prize pool of USD 900,000 (RM4.18 million) and the world title.
The global tournament consistently breaks peak-concurrent viewership records year after year. The M4 tournament was among the most popular eSports competitions, with a viewership of 4.26 million.