20 Southeast Asian teams will compete for a $100,000 USD prize pool in a tournament presented by the Ministry of Tourism & Creative Economy of the Republic of Indonesia.
ONE Esports, a subsidiary of ONE Championship™ (ONE), the largest global sports media property in Asian history, and Moonton, developer of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, today announced the 2020 Mobile Legends Professional League Invitational (MPLI).
Featuring the best teams from the Mobile Legends Professional League (MPL), the tournament will take place online across five countries in Southeast Asia. 20 invited teams from Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, and Singapore will compete for the $100,000 USD prize pool.
Set to begin on 27 November, the tournament will span two action-packed weekends with the finals culminating on 6 December 2020. The event will be broadcast to fans across the world via both the ONE Esports and Mobile Legends official streaming channels. The event is made possible by the Ministry of Tourism & Creative Economy of the Republic of Indonesia, which is the presenting partner for the event.
Carlos Alimurung, CEO of ONE Esports, stated: “I’m proud of how the ONE Esports and Moonton relationship has blossomed to now include this unique competition, which, for the first time, will enable the best teams from each of the four Mobile Legends Professional Leagues to compete in an online tournament. I thank the Ministry of Tourism & Creative Economy of the Republic of Indonesia for supporting our mission to share and celebrate the stories of esports heroes who ignite the world with strength, hope, dreams, and inspiration. Without them, delivering this first-of-its-kind competition to the esports community would not be possible.”
Lucas Mao, Moonton Esports Managing Director, stated: “The MPL Invitational is an event that can give the opportunity for our teams from different MPL countries to play in a professional setting so as to gauge each region’s level of play against one another. Esports is developing at an extremely fast pace in Southeast Asia, and we are so grateful to have our partners, teams, players, and community for showing their support and commitment to the MPL ecosystem. We saw a big increase in our peak concurrent users with Indonesia hitting 2.8 million and Philippines hitting over 700,000 in our latest MPL. We look forward to breaking another record and bringing MLBB esports into the international esports stage.”
Wishnutama Kusubandio, Minister of Tourism & Creative Economy of the Republic of Indonesia, stated: “I highly appreciate and support ONE Esports’ 2020 Mobile Legends Professional League Invitational as a virtual sports tourism event that will create compelling and engaging travel experience content to encourage domestic tourism travel in Indonesia, while adhering to health protocols. This is in line with our goal to promote Cleanliness, Health, Safety, and Environmental Sustainability in the super priority tourism destinations in Indonesia including Borobudur, Lake Toba, and Mandalika.”