The final week of the regular season of the MPL Philippines Season 9 is seen to play a huge part not just on how the playoff picture will look but also on determining the players who can vie for the coveted regular season MVP award.
In a statement released Tuesday, MPL bared new rules in selecting nominees for the top individual award. The MPL casters will take an active hand in the nomination as they will select three players for the award under specific criteria.
The nominees should come from the top two teams at the end of the regular season and they should have played well with at least one weekly MVP citation or had excellent player data. Also, these players should also be cleared of any violation throughout the season.
The three (3) nominees will be ranked from 1 to 3, with 1 being the highest. The top ranked player will receive 5 points, while No. 2 and 3 be allocated 3 and 1 points, respectively.
The player with the highest cumulative points will be declared as the regular season MVP which will be announced through the MPL PH's official Facebook page on April 12.
Under these rules, players from ECHO, TNC Pro Team and RSG Philippines are the ones who still have the chance to be nominated since these teams are still in contention for the top two spots of the standings as of Week 7.
Among their players, Daniel “SDzyz” Chu and Jomearie "Escalera" Delos Santos won weekly MVP citation for TNC. Eman “Emann” Sangco and Dylan “Light” Catipon also held the honors for RSG while Jankurt “Kurttzy” Matira for ECHO.
Other players who could be nominated for their stellar performances in the regular season are TNC skipper Ben “Benthings” Maglaque, ECHO star jungler Karl “Karltzy” Nepomuceno and RSG carry Jhonard “Demonkite” Caranto.
That list will still be shortened after Week 8 as these teams still have a couple of games to play.
TNC still has two games to play against Nexplay Evos and Bren Esports. ECHO will take on NXPE and Onic Philippines while RSG PH's also has the M3 runner-up as its final assignment in the regular season.
Last season, it was Salic "Hadji" Imam who won the award after helping Blacklist International finish the regular season atop the standings with the league-best 13-1 win-loss record.