MSC 2024


The 2024 Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Mid Season Cup, commonly referred to as MSC 2024, was the seventh edition of the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Mid Season Cup, an annual mid-year international esports tournament for the mobile game Mobile Legends: Bang Bang organized by Moonton.
MSC 2024 was the first edition of the tournament bearing the name "Mid Season Cup", formerly known as the "Southeast Asia Cup". The tournament was rebranded to the Mid Season Cup in lieu of the Southeast Asia Cup due to its venue, hosted by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the first tournament in MLBB to be held outside of Southeast Asia and the expansion of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang globally. Also following the previous edition in Phnom Penh, the tournament included new regions apart from Southeast Asia organizations from competing. Furthermore, it has the largest prize pool so far in any MLBB professional tournament in history, boasting a $3 million prize pool with the champions winning a prize of $1 million.
Selangor Red Giants from Malaysia defeated the M5 world champions from the Philippines, Falcons AP Bren, 4–3, in a best-of-seven series. This is the first time that Malaysia has won an international tournament officiated by Moonton.
Defending champions ONIC Esports were eliminated in the group stage, setting a knockout stage that saw Indonesia finish its worst placement in MSC history with both of its representatives getting eliminated in the group stage. This iteration of the tournament showcases the first time that an Indonesian representative has not qualified for the playoffs/knockouts.

Background

MSC 2024 was the first edition of the annual tournament held in the City of Riyadh. Apart from MSC 2024, the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Women's Invitational is also hosted in Riyadh as part of the 2024 Esports World Cup. The announcement of the Mid Season Cup was done in January 2024 following certain leaks that MSC is heading to the Middle East, specifically Saudi Arabia.
Previously, the tournament was named as the "Southeast Asia Cup", a regional tournament for teams in the Southeast Asian region. However, during MSC 2023, the addition of Turkish, North American and Chinese teams were taken into consideration the point of the name "Southeast Asia Cup" in the first place. Game developers Moonton released the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang 2024 Roadmap during the beginning of 2024.
The addition of the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang in the 2024 Esports World Cup was likely due to the partnership between Moonton and Qiddiya City, the entertainment megaproject launched by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Moonton explained that the reinforced partnership between it and Qiddiya is seen as both organization's "commitment to deliver captivating experiences to global communities."
With its participation in the 2024 Esports World Cup, MSC 2024's prize pool featured a hefty-increase from $300,000 to $3 million. MSC 2024's prize pool is part of the $60 million cumulative prize pool which also includes the prize pool for the different esports titles, $7.6 million for qualifiers and $1.1 million for MVP awards. MSC 2024's prize pool was identical to the prize pools of PUBG Mobile and Honor of Kings. These three games' prize pool are just behind Dota 2's prize pool of $5 million.

Patch

MSC 2024 was played on Patch 1.8.92 which was released on 19 June 2024 wherein certain adjustments were made to the in-game equipment and hero skills. These included nerfs and buffs and adjustments. The new hero named Zhuxin is not available for utilization and playing for MSC 2024 in lieu of new, revamped, buffed, and nerfed items.

Venue

MSC 2024 was announced to be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The wildcard stage was held at the Festival area of Riyadh's Boulevard City, while the group stage, knockout stage and the Grand Finals will be held at Square 2 of Boulevard City, also known as the 5V5 Arena or the Amazon Arena for sponsorship purposes.

Qualified teams

Qualifying for the MSC 2024 tournament comes from the competing nation's Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League, commonly known as "MPL". However, regional/non-MPL qualifiers in the North America, Turkey, Myanmar, and Chinese regions were also held to broaden the reach of the Championship's teams.
MSC 2024 was composed of the following twelve regions that automatically send 15 teams combined:
RegionLeagueQualification methodTeam nameIDGroup
PhilippinesMPL PhilippinesMPL Philippines Season 13 Champions

Qualified rosters

Group Stage

Wildcard Stage

Group and Wildcard Draws

Group Draw

The Group Draw for the upcoming MSC 2024 was announced via the official for Mobile Legends Esports. These include the dates of the tournaments' stages such as the Wild Cards and the Group Stages. Moreover, the post also announced the rules for the upcoming Group Draw for MSC 2024.
Group Draw:
  • All 16 qualified teams for the Group Stage will be split into 2 Pools: Pool 1 and Pool 2.
  • Pool 1 includes the Champions and Runners-up for MPL Philippines and MPL Indonesia's recently concluded seasons, all other teams including the lone-team that have qualified via the Wild Card tournament will be put in Pool 2.
  • The Group Draw order will be ABCDABCDABCDABCD until all teams have been grouped.
  • There will be no avoidance principle for teams from the same region.
  • Team As from the Group Draw order will all be Pool 1 teams while the remaining teams will come from Pool 2.
  • The Group Draw was not broadcast but was announced on the official website of Mobile Legends Esports.

    Wildcard Draw

The Wildcard draw was also announced in the same post.
Wildcard Draw:
  • All 8 Wildcard teams will be put into one pool.
  • The first drawn team will be put in Group A and the second drawn team will be put in Group B. This system will repeat until all teams have been separated into two groups of four teams.
Group AGroup BGroup CGroup D
Indonesia

Wild Card rounds

Teams qualifying for the Wild Card tournament were divided into two groups of four teams each, playing in a single round-robin format. Matches in the wild card rounds were scheduled to be played from June 28–30. All matches in the elimination phase were a best-of-one series, with only the top seed per group qualifying for the decider match that determined which team will advance to the group stage. The decider match was a best-of-five series.

Group A

Group B

Decider match

After a 30 and a final victory over Nepal's Trained To Kill, HomeBois advances against Group A leaders Entity7 in the Decider Match. After a 11 start, HomeBois won two straight games to send E7 home and advance to the Group Stage, 3 games to 1.

Group stage

Matches in the group stage are a best-of-two series, with potential best-of-one tiebreakers to be played if necessary. Only the top two teams per group advance to the quarterfinals.

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Knockout Stage

All matches are a best-of-five series, except for the Grand Final which is a best-of-seven series.
Following the conclusion of Falcons AP Bren and Falcon Esports' match on 7 July, the Knockouts Stage Draw was conducted in the English Livestream.

Quarterfinals

(C1) Liquid ECHO vs. (D2) Falcon Esports

Liquid ECHO started the series strong with both games finishing in under fifteen minutes. With the current patch being introduced to the Mid Season Cup, the utilization of Assassins in the Jungle has been grown significantly. However, after a speculative Akai pick from KarlTzy, Falcon Esports forced the series to four games, winning Game three in under 20 minutes. However, after letting the Chip go and debuting the Natan in the knockouts, Liquid ECHO ended the series and sent Falcon Esports home 3 games to 1. The handover of Falcon Esports’ key was done during the interview with Liquid ECHO's head coach Tictac. The key was overseen by KarlTzy.

(B1) Selangor Red Giants vs. (A2) Fire Flux Esports

Selangor Red Giants came back in Game 1 despite having their backs against the wall with Fire Flux Esports pushing from the top lane. The team used the advantage to turn the game to their favor. Fire Flux would rebound with a fifteen-minute game win for Game 2 but would suffer a 20k gold differential loss that gave SRG match point.
Another Game 4 performance from Selangor Red Giants almost sealed the fate of the Turkish representatives however, after a perfect team fight, Fire Flux forced the Malaysian champions a Game 5. However, the Turkish representatives were overwhelmed with certain picks that made them vulnerable in certain pickoffs and fights. SRG won the quickest game for the match at 12:06. APEX47 handed Fire Flux's key to Selangor Red Giants.
In a separate interview, SRG's head coach Arcadia admitted the overwhelming prowess Fire Flux were able to give them in the best-of-five series—adding on the fact that the team was a new organization in MPL Malaysia whilst Fire Flux has been a name situated into Turkish MLBB dominance.

(D1) Falcons AP Bren vs. (B2) SeeYouSoon

Determined to become the only remaining undefeated team in the Group Stage and the Knockout brackets, Falcons AP Bren made quick works against Cambodian champions SeeYouSoon, ending Games 1 and 2 by under fifteen minutes and with great gold-differentials. This was also shown as Falcons AP Bren have been consistent in both contesting and winning objectives on the map including the Lord and the Turtle.
Many have predicted that Falcons AP Bren would falter in Game 3 after being too-complacent in certain team fights that enabled SeeYouSoon's Jungler MP the King on the Roger to deal immense damage. This included a Triple Kill on the mid lane that let the team break an inhibitor in the middle and bottom lane. However, following a neutralization effort by Owgwen that pushed Roger to the main base, Falcons AP Bren turned the tides to their favor and ended the game with the first and only sweep in the Knockout Bracket.
Falcons AP Bren and Liquid ECHO would meet in the Semifinals and will qualify the Philippines to the Grand Finals for the fourth-consecutive iteration of the Mid Season Cup.