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Mobile Legends2 years agoJarrad "Belandrial" Adams

MPL PH Season 8 playoffs are here

After a short break for the teams to craft new strategies and have a rest, it is time for the MPL PH Season 8 Playoffs to kick off.

With a grueling seven weeks of Regular Season action now behind us, the Mobile Legends Professional League in the Philippines is ready to crown a new champion, as the six remaining teams go to battle over the coming weekend. With best-of-five elimination series to fill the weekend, along with a best-of-seven grand finals to culminate a superb season, MPL PH Season 8 is set to close in an epic fashion. With that in mind, we take a look at the six remaining teams and who we think will take home all the spoils


The bracket

A quick look at the bracket reveals all six teams and where they will begin their Playoff bracket run – with the top two seeds from the Regular Season moving straight into the second round, while the remaining four will need to work just that little bit harder to survive day one.

MPL PH playoff bracket

The teams

Nexplay EVOS

As we moved into a franchised league system for MPL PH Season 8, we saw the emergence of a few new organisations, with Nexplay Evos being one of them. Pulling together the old NXP roster, with some brilliant new additions, NXPE definitely shook the MLBB scene as they marched to some massive victories in the Regular Season. Having the long-standing jungler, H2Wo, was definitely part of the teams brilliance, as he came second in the kill rankings for the Regular Season, with only Kairi of Onic PH topping him. However, the teams ticket to the Playoffs was not a one man job, as the MPL PH veteran, Yellyhaze, was a big part of the journey.

NXPE have a clear strategy in mind, it would seem, as taking Lords and Turtles are not really their game plan. However, they look to their core players to create chaos on the backline, as they dominate their opponents across the map. The key to their victory will shutting down both their jungle and mid-laner, but that’s not to say they do not have more backup waiting to take over.

RSG Philippines

Mentioned previously, we now have a franchised league for MPL PH, which saw the addition of a massive name in MLBB – one known across all of the Southeast Asia region, RSG. The team’s inaugural season has already seen them blast through many tough challengers, although they only just managed to scrape through into the playoffs. However, even though they finished in sixth place for the Regular Season, this team is that underdog that can bite back hard.

With Demonkite dominating from the jungle, plus Heath and Aqua finding the perfect setups, RSG PH are truly a scary team when they get things right. With fantastic objective control, and great map awareness, RSG have a chance at taking down any challenger if they get themselves into the right mindset.

Smart Omega Esports

There are a million aspects of the Smart Omega team that work together to form a coherent demolition squad – and this season has definitely seen that. Even when playing without Kelra, Smart Omega did not give up, which is why we see them making it into the playoffs for Season 8. We know that the ex-Execration roster can produce absolutely insane plays to take control of any game, but we have seen a new star rising through the team, Raizen. This young star has already shown that he has what it takes to play among the best in the world and he is going to be a key factor in the Omega challenge this season.

Beyond Raizen, this team has Ch4knu, Kelra, Kielvj, Renzio, E2Max, and much more talent than we could even begin to describe. So, now all that remains to be seen is whether or not they will get another chance to fight Blacklist International.

ECHO

Once again, we see a team under a new name and new organisation, but this time in a change of colour too. Aura PH underwent a rebranding through the off-season and have come back in blue, leaving the fiery orange behind and taking on the form of a whale. This metaphor goes a long way with Echo, as they have played a massive Regular Season to get through to the playoff stage, starting with some big wins in week 1 and, although suffering a few losses, still managing to dismantle some iconic teams.

With Rafflesia as captain and Hadess in the jungle, Echo have managed to carve a crucial path forward for themselves, one that has led them straight into the MPL PH Season 8 playoffs. However, one more player that any team is going to have to worry about is RK3, who is definitely showing his prowess in the mid-lane and could be key to their victories.

ONIC Philippines

Now we move onto teams that really need no introduction when it comes to MPL PH, with Onic PH being our second seed. Throughout the Regular Season Onic looked as though they were unstoppable at times, even being the only team to put a blemish on the perfect Blacklist International run. While dropping some seemingly easy series, Onic would always recover, picking themselves back up for their next matchup. This shows solely from looking at the team’s Season 7, which ended dismally in 7th/8th place, to where they are now as the second seed in playoffs.

With Kairi controlling the jungle, and as the top player on the kill leaderboards currently, Onic have seen some huge success this season. This could also be due to the great leadership of Baloyskie, as well as the addition of Micophobia. Whatever it might be, Onic are certainly hungry for a MPL title, having been denied it twice previously in the grand finals.

Blacklist International

Our final team for the MPL PH Season 8 playoffs is none other than the reigning champions of Season 7, Blacklist International. This team oozes both skill and confidence as they march out into the Land of Dawn, commanding every corner for themselves. Much like last season, Blacklist’s unbeaten Regular Season was hit with a single red dot, as they lost to Onic, but it did not stop their dominance then, and it’s unlikely to do so now either.

Not only do they have an amazing roster, featuring some of the best players in the MLBB world, but they also have a star coach, Bon Chan, who has had his fair share of experience as both a player and a coach. The question that has to be asked is if there is a key to taking down this squad, as they seem to always have an answer somewhere down the line. But, that said, we have seen it happen at MSC 2021 and we know that they have weaknesses, it just remains to be seen if anyone can exploit them.


All in all, this weekends playoffs for MPL PH Season 8 are set to be absolutely spectacular, as the six remaining teams will throw everything that they have at one another. We can definitely expect to see some new strategies, big plays, objective steals, and all out epic MLBB action as we search for the Season 8 champion.

Author
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Jarrad "Belandrial" AdamsBelandrial has spent most of his years following Dota 2 closely, but now has found a new home in the complex world of Mobile Esports. When not watching nearly every possible esports title available, you can find me running around Azeroth or building strange bases in Valheim.

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