The groups have been drawn as the M4 in Jakarta inches closers.
The Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) M4 World Championship is set to happen from Jan. 1 to 15. The top 16 teams from around the world will fly to the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, to compete in the LAN tournament for the title of world champions. Adding to the stakes, a prize pool of $800,000 is on the line.
Ahead of the anticipated tournament, MOONTON held a group draw to seed the 16 teams into four groups of four teams each. No team is eliminated in the group stage of the competition but there is still a lot on the line as the top two teams will make it to the upper bracket while the bottom two will have to fight in the lower bracket.
M4 World Championship: Groups and teams revealed
The group stage will take place from Jan. 1 to 4. The 16 teams have been evenly split into four groups. Each group will compete in a single round-robin BO1 format. The M4 World Championship groups are as follows:
Group A
- Blacklist International
- Burn x Team Flash
- Falcon Esports
- Incendio Supremacy
Group B
- Malvinas Gaming
- MDH Esports
- ONIC Esports
- TODAK
Group C
- ECHO
- Occupy Thrones
- RRQ Hoshi
- RSG Singapore
Group D
- RRQ Akira
- S11 Gaming Argentina
- Team HAQ
- The Valley
The storylines to watch out for in M4 World Championship Group Stage
While the groups are pretty balanced, there are two key storylines to emerge in the group stage.
The first is Group B which has the Indonesian champions and home team, Onic Esports, along with Malaysia’s second seeds, TODAK.
While Onic are one of the favorites to take home the M4 World Championship crown, TODAK have shown throughout the year that they can be a force to be reckoned with as well. The team won the MPL Malaysia earlier this year and came second in the previous season.
However, it was their performance in the recently-concluded ONE Esports MPL Invitational which got eyeballs turning to them. They were able to make their all through to the semifinals where they fell to ONIC Esports in an intense 2-0 series. At the M4 World Championship’s group stage, they now have a chance for vengeance.
The other key storyline is in Group D where Brazil’s RRQ Akira, LATAM’s S11 Gaming Argentina, Malaysia’s Team HAQ, and the North American champions Team Valley have been drawn into one group.
With three teams from the Americas in the same group, it will surely be a fight between continents. The majority of Team Valley constitutes BTK, which placed third in the M3 last year. However, RRQ Akira and S11 Gaming have dominated locally and will be looking to replicate that in the Group Stage.
The favorite to top the group are the Malaysian first seeds Team HAQ. But, NA fans will be hoping that Team Valley pulls a performance like last year and starts causing upsets in the group stage itself.
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