In the history of MLBB World Championships, no host country comes out on top. In the heated grand finals against ONIC ESports Indonesia, Filipino Team AP Bren proves everyone wrong as the powerhouse team takes home their second M World Championship making them the only team to have 2 M World Championships under their belt.
AP Bren and ONIC Esports Indonesia fought in a grueling best of 7 Grand Finals at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum last December 17, 2023. There was no room for mistakes on either team as they took the series to a neck and neck battle for the ultimate MLBB M5 Championship Glory.
THE KNOCKOUT STAGES
Sixteen teams from around the globe flew to the Philippines for the M5 World Championships. The Group stages were held at the EVM Convention Center in Quezon City and concluded at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum. Ultimately, the fight came down to the ultimate rival countries in MLBB, ONIC Esports Indonesia and AP Bren Esports.
However, all teams fought tooth and nail for that finals slot. Filipinos were hoping to have a Philippines versus Philippines in the finals as Filipino Team Blacklist still had a fighting chance, however, Onic Indonesia proved that they are the ultimate thorn in Blacklist’s way as they sent the latter to the lower bracket, making the road to the finals even harder for Blacklist International.
In the first face-off between ONIC Indonesia and AP Bren in the upper bracket semi finals, AP BREN admitted in an interview that they got too cocky in facing ONIC Indo as their first match as they were leading with a 14-0 kill count and ONIC’s base wide open for their taking,, however ONIC Indo turned tables in a set made by Kiboy resulting in AP BREN being wiped out and ONIC Indo went straight for AP Bren’s base via the midlane, winning the match in a 6-15 kill count. It seems like this shook AP BREN’s core as the games between ONIC and AP Bren resulted in a 3-0 sweep in favor of ONIC Indonesia sending them to the finals and kicks AP Bren to the lower bracket to face their fellow Philippine Representative for a slot in the finals.
The Filipinos still got their Philippines vs. Philippines match, albeit a little too early for their liking. AP Bren’s thirst for victory was evident as they quickly swept the win from Blacklist International in a 3-0 win.
THE GRAND FINALS
In a game of best of seven, ONIC Esports quickly gained advantage in the first match of the Granfinals against AP Bren with Sanz’ Novaria choking the opponent’s team at the 18 minute mark gaining the first win for ONIC ESports.
In the second match, there was a moment when AP Bren failed to ban a hero, sending analysts, audience and even coaches to think that this was a mind game play on AP Bren’s part. However, in an interview, coach Duckie and Pheww admitted that they simply ran out of time because of the several options given at the last minute, no conniving mind games at all. But this proved to have an effect as the second and third matches goes to AP Bren.
When all the stadium thought that ONIC has bowed out of the finals, entering game 5 in a 3-1 score in favor of Ap Bren, ONIC proved that they still had fight in them as they took games 5 and 6 resulting in a very exciting game 7.
Game 7 showed team fight heavy composition for ONIC versus crowd control composition for AP Bren. 13 minutes was all it took when AP Bren made a decisive move to go straight for ONIC’s base via their exposed midlane instead of taking the lord, this worked in their favor ultimately securing their victory, breaking the host country curse and winning their 2nd M World Championship. FlapTzy was hailed the grand finals MVP for his outstanding gameplay and teamfight contributions.
(Source: MLBB Facebook Page)
With this win, AP Bren takes home the lion’s share of 900,000 USD and completely dominates the Mobile Legends Bang Bang scene, being hailed the best team for the M5 World Championship Series.
Any guesses on which hero will AP Bren choose a skin for? We’ll get to find out real soon!