Image: MOONTON Games
After surviving the M6 Wildcard Stage, ULFHEDNAR Gold Laner Sunshine has set his sights on taking down some of the biggest contenders in the Swiss Stage.
The Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) M6 World Championship is set to kick off on Thursday (November 28) with its Swiss Stage, where 16 of the best MLBB teams from all across the world will be battling to be among the eight squads advancing to the Knockout Stage.
Türkiye's ULFHEDNAR are arguably the team most raring to go, having survived the M6 Wildcard Stage and becoming the 16th and final team to qualify for the Swiss Stage. ULFHEDNAR are no strangers to MLBB's biggest stage, as most of its roster previously competed in the M4 and M5 World Championships in 2023 under Incendio Supremacy and Fire Flux Esports.
M6 is ULFHEDNAR Gold Laner Emre “Sunshine” Sari's third foray in the M World Championship series, and he remains as hungry as ever to capture the game's highest honour. In order to do that, ULFHEDNAR will have to overcome some formidable competition.
In an exclusive interview with GosuGamers, Sunshine said he sees Filipino powerhouses Fnatic ONIC PH and Aurora Gaming as the two opponents he wants to face the most in his team's campaign for the 2024 MLBB world title.
“We want to face Fnatic ONIC PH and Aurora because they show a very good performance and their playstyle is very interesting. We would like to play a friendly match with them and prove we are the best Mobile Legends players,” said Sunshine.
Of course, ULFHEDNAR will be taking things one step at a time. Before they can challenge the those two juggernauts, the team from Türkiye will first have to emerge victorious in their first Swiss Stage match against North America's BloodThirstyKings (BTK).
ULFHEDNAR and BTK share some striking similarities despite coming from two very different regions. The rosters of both squads include some of the best MLBB players outside of the game's heartland of Southeast Asia, and they all have the experience to back it up. Last year, Sunshine and Fire Flux Esports finished in the Top 8 of the M5 World Championship while BTK gained renown for finishing third in the M3 World Championship back in 2021.
Suffice to say, the match between ULFHEDNAR and BTK in the opening round of the Swiss Stage will make for some entertaining viewing. For his part, Sunshine hopes that he and his team can show how well they've prepared for M6 by defeating BTK and getting a good start to their Swiss Stage campaign.
"We are very confident that we will win because we have prepared meticulously from the day we arrived in Malaysia. We hope that we can show a good game to the viewers and have a good match with BTK," said Sunshine.
READ MORE: M6 World Championship team profile: ULFHEDNAR, the Wildcard survivors
The competition in the Swiss Stage will surely be fierce, but ULFHEDNAR have already shown they have the potential to go up against the best of the best through their dominant showing in the Wildcard Stage. As one of the biggest favourites to come out of the Wildcard, ULFHEDNAR were quick to prove their worth by winning all their matches in the Wildcard Group Stage.
The Turkish squad swept Egypt's Geekay Esports and Laos' Niightmare Esports before defeating China's DianFengYaoGuai (DFYG) in three games to advance to the Wildcard Decider. However, game three of ULFHEDNAR's showdown with DFYG was marred by controversy and have soured what would become a truly dominant run.
After that hiccup – in which the team are by no means at fault – ULFHEDNAR locked in their spot in the Swiss Stage by soundly sweeping Russia's Insilio. ULFHEDNAR dropped just one game in the entire Wildcard Stage, but Sunshine thinks there's still another level that they can rise to. The Swiss Stage will be the perfect proving ground for them to see if they are indeed worthy to call themselves contenders for this year's MLBB world championship.
“Our performance [in the Wildcard Stage] wasn't 100%, and there's always room for improvement for the Swiss Stage. We previously lost one of our regional tournaments, and that made us reflect on our past performances and how we will perform in both the Wildcard and the Swiss Stage. There's always room for improvement and we can learn as fast as possible to overcome challenges,” said Sunshine.
The M6 World Championship will take place from November 21 to December 15 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and is split into three distinct phases: the Wildcard Stage from November 21 to 24, the Swiss Stage from November 28 to December 5, and the Knockout Stage from December 7 to 15.
Sixteen teams have qualified for the Swiss Stage after a gruelling Wildcard Stage. All participants will fight for their lives in the tournament, as only eight slots are open for the Knockout Stage. For everything you need to know about the M6 World Championship, check here.