Sweeping the defending champions with a 4–0 score, ECHO Philippines defeated Blacklist International in a best-of-seven series to become the fourth World Champions. It marked the second Mobile Legends: Bang Bang World Championships where two Filipino teams are upper bracket and lower bracket contenders for the said title. It also marked the third consecutive world championship title that a Filipino team has won, beginning in M2.
Karl Gabriel "KarlTzy" Nepomuceno is the first-ever MLBB player who has won two world championships. He would be joined by his former teammates, Kyle "Phewww" Arcangel and David "FlapTzy" Canon to win two world championships after their victories in the MLBB M5 World Championship.
Background
The MLBB M4 World Championships was the fourth edition of the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang World Championship and the first edition of the games to be held in Indonesia. Previously, Malaysia and Singapore held the first three editions of the games, M1 in Kuala Lumpur[3] and M2[4] and M3[5] in Singapore. The tournament was held from 1 to 15 January 2023, surpassing one year of the previous editions of the tournament.[6]
M4 featured sixteen (16) qualified teams from Asia, North America, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Europe and Latin America. Teams qualified through their region's qualification method, whether it will be an MPL Region or a Moonton-approved qualification tournament.
A notable fact is that in every edition of the World Championship, an exclusive battle pass skin and the champion skin will be released. Previously, the Fighter-hero Roger[7] was chosen to be the battle pass skin and the Champions Skin was Estes,[8] picked by Blacklist International. In the current battle pass, the Marksman Hero Beatrix was chosen as the Battle pass skin.[9]
Qualified teams
Qualifying for the M4 World Championships comes from the competing nation's Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League, commonly known as "MPL." However, regional qualifiers in the North America, Turkey, Myanmar, Mekong (Thailand, Laos, Vietnam), and Latin American regions were also held to broaden the reach of the Championship's teams. [citation needed]
Unlike in the previous MLBB World Championships, the Commonwealth of Independent States and Japan would not participate in the upcoming M4. On the other hand, Mekong and Myanmar will re-join after their absence in the M3 World Championship held in Singapore. The number of qualifiers for Singapore and Brazil has been reduced to one, while the Latin America region will now delegate two teams participating in the world championship.
The M4 World Championship was announced to be held in the capital city of Jakarta, Indonesia.
Previously, the group stages and playoffs will be held at XO Hall and Istora Senayan, but due to unforeseen circumstances and for the safety of fans, both venues were changed accordingly by the M4 organizers.[15]
Group stages for the tournament will now be held at the Bali United Studio, Jakarta Indonesia. In addition, the knockout stages will be hosted at the Tennis Indoor Senayan. The selling of tickets for the event started on October 19.
Marketing
During the build-up to the M4 World Championships, the MLBB official YouTube channel, alongside MPL Region YouTube channels such as the Philippines and Indonesia, has released several promotional and publicity videos to promote the upcoming world championships.
In the Philippines, the theme song "PINAS LANG MALAKAS", was released and was sung by KZ Tandingan, featuring Nik Makino.[16] The song included the four prominent members of both qualifying teams of the Philippines, Danerie "Wise." Del Rosario and Jonmar "OhMyV33Nus" Villaluna of Blacklist International, and Karl Gabriel "KarlTzy" Nepomuceno and Tristan "YAWI" Cabrera of ECHO Philippines. The music video also featured Joshua "CH4KNU" Mangilog of Smart Omega and selected shoutcasters of MPL Philippines.[17]
Format
Group stage:1 to 4 January 2023
16 teams qualified for the event are split into four groups of 4 teams each.
All matches in the group stage are played in a Bo1 series.
The top two teams per group qualified for the Upper Bracket Playoffs.
The bottom two teams per group qualified for the Lower Bracket Playoffs.
The Rosters for the MLBB M4 World Championships were a first with the majority of the players being Filipino or playing for the Philippines initially such as Kairi Rayosdelsol and Michael Bocado from Indonesia.
Broadcast talents
The following is the official talent line-up for the M4 broadcast in Jakarta, Indonesia:
Philippines
Indonesia
Malaysia
Singapore
United States
Mara (Mara Aquino)
Mirko (Frederick Handy Loho)
GideonQ (Gideon Khew Wei Yung)
Jayz (Chris Yeo)
Assassin Dave (Dave Mao)
Aeterna (Rachael Melati)
Wolf (Caisam Yvez Nopueto)
Leo (Dan Cubangay)
Gonie (Albert Serafin)
Laphel (Mohd Amirul Aiman Mohammad Kamal)
Naisou (Joseph Charles Rezabek)
Arashi (Brydon Maslimta)
Trex (H.B. Wagner)
Clara (Clara Kartika Sari Utoyo)
Group draw
The group draw was held on 8 December 2022. The sixteen teams that qualified for the global tournament were split into two pools and grouped into 4 groups of 4 teams each. The following were the rules for the group draw:
Teams from the same qualified region will not be drawn into the same group, if that happens the later team will be slotted into the next group.
Teams in Pool 1 will not be drawn into the same group, 2 teams from MLSL in Pool 2 will not be drawn into the same group.
The order of the draw is serpentine (ABCD-DCBA-ABCD-DCBA).
The group stages started on 1 January and concluded on 4 January. All games in the group stage will be in a Bo1 format. There will be no teams eliminated at the end of group stages, but the upper two teams in each group shall be qualified for the Upper Bracket playoffs, while the lower two shall be qualified for the Lower Bracket Playoffs.
Source: [20] (Q) Qualified for the phase indicated
Date
Game
Team 1
Result
Team 2
1 January 2023
1
BLCK
1
0
INC
2
INC
1
0
FCON
3
FCON
1
0
BURN
3 January 2023
4
INC
1
0
BURN
5
BURN
0
1
BLCK
6
FCON
1
0
BLCK
Tiebreaker
A three-way tie emerged between Incendio, Blacklist, and Falcon Esports each having a 2–1 win-loss standing. With this, three additional tiebreaker games were played after the final group stage game was held to determine the teams that would make the upper and the lower bracket. These tiebreaker matches were counted in the standings as per the official website.
M4 featured the same bracketing strategy from the previous MLBB M3 World Championship format,[23] a sixteen-team double-elimination bracketing system wherein the teams will be split into four groups. In these four groups, a round-robin format proceeded to determine which two teams would be qualifying either to the upper bracket or lower bracket.[24] The first two rounds of the lower bracket were a best-of-3 series, the rest of the matches were a best-of-5 series, except for the Grand Final, which were a best-of-7 championship series.
Announced in the official M4 Press Conference & Group Draw Ceremony on YouTube, UBS Gold, an Indonesian-based Jewelry retailer and manufacturer,[25] announced the partnership with M4 to create the very first MLBB World Championship Ring made out of solid gold. This will be the first Championship ring presented to the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang World Championship champion.[10]
(NEW) World Championship Ring (Exclusive design for M4)
The MLBB World Championship Plaque / Trophy
MLBB M4 Gold Medal for Each Player and Coach/Manager
The announcement of the venue of the M4 World Championship was made on 25 August 2022, when the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang official YouTube channel released the Host City announcement where Jakarta was chosen to host the fourth iteration of the tournament. However, it would take until 7 December 2022,[26] when the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang social media accounts were to begin to hype up the upcoming world tournament.
On 5 December 2022, Moonton confirmed that M4 will be held in Indonesia and the tournament is set to follow its original schedule with the release of the official trailer on YouTube.[27]
M4 Pass
On 16 December 2022, Moonton announced that the Marksman Hero Beatrix will be receiving this edition's special M4 Pass Skin.[28] The M4 Pass is a in-game pass that gives players rewards and incentives while doing Daily Tasks and Challenges. The M4 Pass included custom M4 effects such as Recall Animations, Kill Animations, a Trail Animation for the Hero, Limited Edition Skins and in-game rewards that can be used to unlock more rewards.
Upon purchasing any M4 Pass, Beatrix's "Light Chaser" Skin would be attained by every person who purchases it while its prime skin "Stellar Brilliance" can be attained once the player's M4 pass reaches Level 75.[29] The M4 Pass was officially made to be available on 20 December.
Theme Song
On 18 December 2022, the teaser for this year's M4 was released. Eventually, on 24 December 2022, "Dare To Be Great" was released as the official song of the tournament.[30] Three days later, the official music video was released featuring players from the 16 qualified teams and rosters of the tournament.[31]
Sponsors
The M4 World Championships oversees regional partners from different countries to get the chance to stream the tournament in the participating countries and also worldwide.[32]
The M4 World Championships is available to be streamed and watched on YouTube on the official Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Channel and the official MPL Regional Channels with their languages.
On 26 December 2022, Moonton announced that it has partnered with ABS-CBN, the largest network in the Philippines to broadcast the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang World Championships on Cable TV and on its social media channels in the Philippines.[33]
After the opening ceremony of the MLBB M4 World Championship Grand Finals, the host for the upcoming MLBB M5 World Championship was announced alongside the MLBB calendar of events to occur in 2023 and it will be held in the Philippines, with Abraham Tolentino, the President of the Philippine Olympic Committee confirming the Philippines' affirmation to hold the tournament.[34]
