KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's Team SMG will be wiser in their second appearance in the M5 World Championship starting tomorrow in Manila.
SMG advanced to the World Championship after capturing one of the two final slots in the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) M5 Wild Card, last week.
They reached the crossover stage after topping Group A with three wins from three matches against Saudi Arabia's Team Falcons, Nepal's 4Merical eSports and Laos' Niightmare Esports.
SMG are the second Malaysian team to qualify for the M5 World Championship, they missed the direct slot after finishing runners-up in the MLBB Malaysian Professional League (MPL MY) behind HomeBois in October.
SMG team manager Benny Lai said going through the tough wild card round was the jolt the team needed and they have settled well since arriving in Manila on Tuesday.
"We qualified for the M5 World Championship through the harder way. We had to go up against regional champions in the wild card round and all the matches were hard-fought," said Benny.
"The matches gave a picture of what we can expect in the World Championship, it was a valuable lesson for us. The coach has identified our shortcomings during the wild card rounds.
"We felt we could be better in communicating, discipline as well as drafting...the players have been working on improving."
The M5 will feature the world's top 16 teams, who will battle it out for a slice of the US$900,000 (RM4.2 million) prize money.
SMG are drawn in Group B with M3 champions Blacklist International from the Philippines, Brazilian heavyweights RRQ Akira and Fire Flux Esports from Turkey.
The M5 marks SMG's second appearance at the World Championship after their debut in 2021 at the M3 in Singapore, where they failed to clear the group stage.
"We will face tough opponents again and we will take one match at a time, these are opponents that we have not played against before so we cannot think too far ahead," said Benny.
"The key is to enjoy the matches and the tournament but that doesn't mean that we will take the matches lightly."