MSC 2025

The 2025 Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Mid-Season Cup will be the second international tournament of the esports Multiplayer online battle arena game Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. It will be the eight iteration of the competition and the second iteration under the branding "Mid-Season Cup" since its inception in 2024.^[1][2] The tournament will begin with the Wild Card stage from July 10 to July 13, and will end with the Grand Finals on August 2, 2025.^[3]

MSC 2025 for the second time will be coincidingly held with the 2025 Esports World Cup as the men's division for MLBB. It will occur alongside the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Women's Invitational and other esports titles in the EWC.^[4][5] Formerly based in Southeast Asia, MSC 2025 will be the second edition for Moonton to determine its international outreach as since the 2023 edition of the games, newer regions were introduced to compete such as North America.^[6][7]

The current champions Selangor Red Giants OG Esports—who partnered with Dota 2 organization OG—recently qualified in MPL MY S15's upper bracket finals and are returning to MSC 2025 for a chance to repeat.^[8][9]

MSC 2025 will be held once again coinciding with the 2025 Esports World Cup, a yearly international tournament held is Saudi Arabia where most of major esports titles are competed by the worlds' renowned teams such as League of Legends, Dota 2, PUBG: Battlegrounds, and Valorant. Mobile Legends: Bang Bang was part of the inaugural EWC in 2024^[10] and is the first time that the tournament was played under the name "Mid-Season Cup" alluding similarities to the League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational or MSI.

Yearly, game developers Moonton releases patches and versions for Mobile Legends: Bang Bang that would eventually culminate to forming of METAs or the "most effective tactics available" alongside the usage of newly released or buffed up heroes for their tactical advantage. Usually, MSC patches would undergo similar patches available to the universal—or regional available—patches for the game.

The MSC x EWC 2025 management have announced their introduction to the "Time Rewind" tool, the first of its kind to be included in the tournament. The Time Rewind Tool is the ability for marshals to restore a previous point of a gain if an incident affects the competitive integrity of the match. The tool is then used to rewind to a certain point of the game with both sides agreeing to the rewind. The management said that there were only two ways that marshals gave a fair opportunity for both teams to try and fix patches and errors such as the traditional pause where matches are paused in a specific time for five minutes in which marshals and members of the technical team would try to fix the error in game or in the venue or a rematch.

In accordance with the MSC x EWC 2025 handbook, strict provisions were imposed for both the teams and the marshals from ever abusing their rights and authority to use the Time Rewind Tool. The management has said that any tactical exposure for either teams may be experienced if the tool is used however, the management has made it clear that communications between players are prohibited during the pause and only permitted communication will be from the players and marshals only.^[11]

Similarly to MSC 2024, the venue for MSC 2025 will be in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia with details regarding the main venues to be announced.

Fifteen of the sixteen group-stage teams will be outright qualifying from major regions in Mobile Legends. These regions have made a name for themselves as the home of powerhouse teams including Indonesia^[12][13] and the Philippines^[14][15] alongside emerging powerhouse regions such as Malaysia^[16] and Singapore.^[17] Also included in the group-stage are established regions in their own right, with Moonton accredited competitions being the qualifying tournament for MSC such as Cambodia, MENA, North America, and Turkey. Meanwhile, Myanmar's inception returned following all esports competition halting in the region due to the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état^[18] and China with its growing esports base was seemed fitting to be of the same caliber as pre-established teams.^[19]

Eight teams from the different regions of accredited Moonton tournaments will battle for the one wildcard slot in the group stage. These eight teams will be grouped into two different groups and will follow the GSL Format—The Global StarCraft II League Format—where all teams have three chances to qualify for the knockouts.^[20] The GSL Format has been used as the tournament format for several esports titles including the aforementioned StarCraft II and Dota 2.

In the opening match, the four teams will play a Best-of-3 series. Winning teams will advance and face each other in the winner's bracket while losing teams will advance to the loser's bracket. The team who wins in the winner's bracket will qualify for the knockout stage while the losing team will wait for the winner in the losers bracket. Simultaneously, the winner of the loser's bracket will face the loser of the winner's bracket while the loser of the loser's bracket will be eliminated.

In the redemption round, whoever wins Round 3 will qualify for the knockout stage while the loser will be eliminated. All teams who won 2-0 and 2-1 series will advance, those who loss 1-2 and 0-2 will be eliminated. The four teams who qualified for the knockout stage will battle each other to advance to the wild card finals. The winner of the wild card finals will qualify for the group stage.

In the group stage, the two representatives from Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia, joined by the champions of Myanmar and the EECA (CIS) will be put in Seed 1 while the remaining teams will be put into Seed 2. According to the group stage format video released by MLBB esports on YouTube these teams were split into two groups prompting regional diversity as per caster Gideon Khew "GideonQ" Wei Yung. All of these teams will be drawn into two brackets and no region will be bracketed in the same group.

Each team will then play a Best-of-3 series in a double-elimination format. Similarly to the Wild Card stage, teams with a record of 2-0 and 2-1 advances and qualifies to the knockout stage while teams with a 1-2 and 0-2 record will be eliminated.

In the knockout stage, the eight qualified teams will be divided into two groups: teams who won 2-0, and teams who won 2-1. Teams with a 2-0 advantage will have the luxury to pick their 2-1 challengers. In the same video, the thought of a 2-0 team picking a weaker 2-1 team is palpable however, tides may turn regardless of their opponents. As of June 24, according to Yung, the team who will pick first will only be determined once the competition begins. For the first time since MSC 2023, a third-place match will be introduced. All matches in the knockout stage from the Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and the Third Place match will be a Best-of-5. Only the Grand Finals will be a Best-of-7.

A total of sixteen teams will be competing in the Group Stage while only eight are to advance to the knockout stage. Details regarding the format of MSC 2025 are still to be announced however, with the recent announcement of qualifier and slot allocations for every participating region, the wild card stage will return for the third-consecutive time since its inception in 2023.^[21]

For MSC 2025, Japan will be making its MLBB comeback. Japan last competed on a MLBB competition during the MLBB M2 World Championships and has since not competed.^[22]

Majority of the qualified teams for MSC 2025 are returning teams from the previous edition and/or during the Southeast Asian Cup editions of the games. These include current champions Selangor Red Giants OG Esports (2024) and former champions ONIC Esports (2019, 2023). MSC 2025 is uniquely the first edition of the games where two sister-teams have qualified for the tournament, that being ONIC Esports and ONIC Philippines.

On June 30, 2025, Moonton announced that S8UL Esports,^[23] who qualified as the North American Challenger Tournament (NACT) Spring champions, were no longer eligible to compete at MSC 2025 after two of their players, Michael "MobaZane" Cosgun and Jang "Hoon" Seong-hun, participated in a promotional event for the rival MOBA game Honor of Kings (also present at Esports World Cup) and got disqualified. As a result, NACT Spring runners-up Area 77 qualified in their place. See: S8UL Esports Disqualification

Legend:

 Bold  - Background denotes that the team is the Defending champions.

  - Background denotes that the team is the Former MSC champions.

  - Background denotes that the team's best finish is the Playoff/Knockout stage in its history.

  - Background denotes that the team's best finish is the Group Stage in its history.

  - Background denotes that the team's best finish is the Wild Card Stage in its history.

  - Background denotes that it's the team's first time qualifying for MSC.

In a closed-door draw session for the wild-card stage, the eight competing teams for the MSC Wild Card stage were grouped into the following brackets. Four teams will advance to the Wild Card Crossover Knockout Stage where only one team will advance to the main Group Stage.^[28]

Also occurring in the 2025 Esports World Cup is the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Women's Invitational, the second iteration of the MWI to be held coinciding with both MSC and EWC 2025, and the third iteration of the tournament itself. The MWI is the professional female division of the MLBB esports competition and is the pinnacle tournament for the female division.^[29]

MWI will feature sixteen teams from across the international scene.^[29] Similarly to its male counterparts, the group stage format will be the similar except, MWI will feature four group stage bracket qualifiers instead of two. Each team will be grouped into four and this will determine the eight teams that would qualify for the playoffs and the eight teams to be eliminated.^[30]

Defending MWI champions NAVI Philippines—the team that acquired the roster of Smart Omega Empress^[31]—will be defending their title in this edition of MWI.^[32]

Most regions held local qualifiers for female teams to qualify for MWI 2025 however, Indonesian representatives Team Vitality and ONIC Pertiwi are both teams that have finished Top 2 in the Southeast Asian Invitational league Battle of Gamehers^[33] of which, NAVI Philippines were among the teams competing. Vitality were the champions of this invitational while Pertiwi were third behind NAVI PH.

Like MSC 2025, two sister teams have qualified for MWI 2025, NAVI Philippines and NAVI Malaysia whom have their main team, NAVI Indonesia competing in MPL Indonesia.^[31]

Legend:

 Bold  - Background denotes that the team is the Defending champions.

  - Background denotes that the team is the Former MWI champions.

  - Background denotes that the team's best finish is the Playoff/Knockout stage in its history.

  - Background denotes that the team's best finish is the Group Stage in its history.

  - Background denotes that the team's best finish is the Wild Card Stage in its history.

  - Background denotes that it's the team's first time qualifying for MSC.

On June 28, 2025, Facebook community members were quick to point out the recent made posts by S8UL Esports Mid Laner Jang "Hoon" Seung-hun and Michael "MobaZane" Cosgun's then remarks regarding their participation and live streaming of the Multiplayer online battle arena game Honor of Kings, a direct competitor of MLBB on the mobile esports scene. Speculations around the team's fate were further bolstered after all group stage MLBB teams' rosters were unveiled except for S8UL.

On June 30, 2025, the MSC 2025 committee has officially suspended Jang and Cosgun from the competition and with it, S8UL Esports. The committee's handbook specifically says that it must fuel at least a six-man roster with prepared substitutes being put for reserves. Since Cosgun was the team's reserve and Jang as their starting Mid-Laner, S8UL Esports did not have enough players to replace Jang's lane, thus the team being disqualified for MSC 2025 for not meeting the requirements the roster rules. Fans and community members alike criticized Moonton and MSC Management for their decision in suspending S8UL Esports, attributing to a somewhat similar situation to Vitrus.pro whose jungler was underaged to travel with the team, thus signing Omega Jungler Andoryuuu.^[35]

• Esports World Cup
• 2025 Esports World Cup
• MSC 2024