The fifth season of the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) Professional League Malaysia and Singapore Season 5 (MPL-MY/SG S5), with Yoodo as its official digital telco, came to an end yesterday with Singapore’s Resurgence taking the championship after beating Malaysia’s Geek Fam 3-1 in the Grand Final of the Playoffs. Resurgence takes home US$25,000 (RM107,000) in prize money while their MPL-MY/SG veterans Lim “ly4ly4ly4” Yang, Jason ‘Jason’ Koh Wei Hao and Ho “SynC” Ee Hong become the first-ever two-time MPL champions.
Happening over the Labour Day weekend from 1st – 3rd May 2020, eight of the best MLBB teams in Malaysia and Singapore battled it out for the top spot in the fifth season of Malaysia and Singapore’s premier MLBB championship. With Resurgence and Geek Fam bagging first and second place of MPL-MY/SG S5, the third and fourth spots went to Malaysia’s Orange Esports Reborn and Singapore’s defending champions EVOS SG respectively. The fifth and sixth place went to Team Bosskurr and Todak, while seventh and eighth went to Axis Esports and Team SMG.
This season of MPL-MY/SG was extra competitive as multiple former MPL-MY/SG champions made it into the Playoffs with hopes of becoming the league’s first-ever two-time champions. In the end, it was the first-ever MPL-MY/SG champions from season 1, IDNS SG’s ly4ly4ly4, Jason and SynC, who clinched the honours.
Resurgence’s veterans guided the team through an eventful outing at the Playoffs, first beating Team Bosskurr 2-1, then losing to Geek Fam 0-2 in the upper bracket semifinals. Landing in the lower bracket after the loss, they brushed aside this season’s biggest underdogs Orange Esports Reborn 2-0 in the lower bracket final to get another shot at Geek Fam in the Grand Final. The ‘Singapore Slayers’ Geek Fam were unable to reproduce their Singapore-beating form from Season 3 and fell timidly to Resurgence 1-3 in the Grand Final.
Resurgence looked like the better team from the get-go as they easily took Game 1 due to overconfidence from Geek Fam’s players. Geek Fam regained their mojo in Game 2 despite letting Natalia slip through the banning phase for Resurgence to snap her up. After tying the series, Geek Fam capitulated in the third and fourth games. Poorly taken team fights in Game 3 and a risky draft in Game 4 led to the Season 3 champions’ downfall. Nevertheless, it was a brave showing and they can be proud of their achievement.
“It’s an incredible feeling winning MPL-MY/SG for the second time. The league has grown so much since Season 1 and there are so many talented players and teams in the scene today. We salute Geek Fam for being amazing opponents, we’re sure that they will bounce back next season. We are so grateful to everyone who has supported us along the way, especially to our fans from both Singapore and Malaysia, you guys are the reason we keep on going,” said SynC of Resurgence.
“Hey there Fam, we played our hearts out, but Resurgence were the better team today, so a huge congratulations to them. Of course, we are disappointed with the result considering our performance throughout the entire season, but it is what it is. We are truly sorry for letting our fans and our country down. Know that this will only serve as motivation for us to come back stronger, and there is nothing we want more than raising the Malaysian flag high once again,” said Mohamad Zul Hisham, aka Xorn of Geek Fam.
Fans can watch the Playoffs again on the MLBB Facebook Page at www.facebook.com/MobileLegendsGameMalaysia. For updates on upcoming tournaments, fans can follow the official MLBB Esports page at www.facebook.com/MLESPORTS/.
