Week 1 of the Mobile Legends Professional League Season 9 in the Philippines has come to an end, with some massive results to look at.
headline image courtesy of MPL Philippines
On Friday, February 18, MPL PH Season 9 kicked off, and over the weekend we were treated to some of the most epic series to open things up. From game one, it was intense, with massive plays, huge upsets, and the beginnings of what is going to be a fantastic eight-week journey to playoffs. As always, there are winners and losers – and Week 1 certainly separated those quite clearly, but not in the way any of us expected.
The winners
TNC Pro Team
Taking on Blacklist International and Smart Omega Esports in Week 1 is no easy task, unless you’re TNC, of course. Having rebuilt their squad, with SDzyz and Benthings being the two core members of the team, nobody really expected TNC to come out swinging in the manner that they did. After smashing through the MSC 2021 champions on Friday, TNC followed up by dismantling, decoding, and destroying the M3 World Champions on Saturday. The team were even bold enough to showcase Valentina in their victory over Blacklist, and we are looking forward to seeing much more of their brilliance in the coming weeks.
ECHO
It was smooth sailing for ECHO in Week 1 of MPL PH Season 9 too, as they secured a double victory without any losses, much like TNC. Once again, ECHO faced two extremely tough challengers in the form of Smart Omega and Bren Esports – but the team seemed virtually unstoppable. Having signed a host of amazing players over the break, it will be interesting to see if ECHO will be chopping and changing players often, or if they will now stick with what works.
The losers
Blacklist and Smart Omega
Although it is only the first week of MPL PH Season 9, two teams which dominated last year in MPL PH and MSC are now struggling to find their footing. For Blacklist, this could be almost expected as they are without OhMyV33nus and Wise for this season, with a new player looking to cement their position on the team. Even with the two losses, Blacklist still managed to tackle the giants that are ONIC PH head on, almost securing a win. However, for Smart Omega, the double losses are unprecedented, as the team barely made any main roster changes.
This could just be early jitters from the top teams, as Onic also found themselves going down to Nexplay EVOS on Sunday. Whatever it might be, Week 1 of MPL PH Season 9 has certainly set us up for a magnificent tournament, as we countdown towards playoffs.
