Onic Philippines and Omega Esports are set for a first-round clash in the Mobile Legends Professional League Invitational following the results of the Captain’s Draft held on Sunday, October 31.
Representatives of the four MPL champions from Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore were present in the thrilling draft that saw the top teams got pitted against each other as early as the first round of the tournament.
MPL Philipines’ two-time champions Blacklist International was represented by Coach Bonn “Bon Chan” Ricaplaza while MPL Indonesia Season 8 titlists Onic Esports had Coach Ahmad Marsam “Mars” Fakhre for the draft.
Completing the casts were Matthew Chan, the Regional Vice President for Singapore MPL champions EVOS SG and Coach James “Jamesss” Chen of the MPL Malaysia winners Team SMG.
The four squads got an outright spot to the quarterfinals and the privilege to draft the teams in their respective brackets.
Onic PH and Omega, the MPL PH’s 2nd and 3rd runners-up were pitted against each other by Team SMG in the first round of the tournament. Likewise, Coach James also picked the MPL ID’s 2nd and 3rd placers, RRQ Hoshi and Evos Legends in a classic Indonesian showdown on the other side of Team SMG’s bracket.
READ MORE: Blacklist, Onic keep lineup intact for MPL Invitational
In Onic Esports bracket, it will be a sister-team showdown with RSG Philippines facing RSG SG while ECHO, formerly known as Aura Philippines, will lock horns with Indonesia’s Aurafire on the other side of the bracket.
Nexplay Evos, on the other hand, will take on Rebellion Genflix in the first round and will face the winner between Alter Ego and Orange Esports should it advance to the next round in the bracket of EVOS SG
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Coach Bon Chan meanwhile drafted MPL Cambodia champions See You Soon against Malaysia’s Todak while it will be Bigetron Alpha versus Geek Fam on the other side of Blacklist’s bracket
Tournament will be in a single elimination format with all of the matches being in a best-of-three series except for the Grand Finals which will be a best-of-five showdown.
MPLI action starts on Tuesday and will last until its finale on November 7 to determine the team who will make it to the top and get the lion’s share of the $100,000 prize pool.