Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Mid Season Cup, (previously known as Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Southeast Asia Cup) referred to as MSC, is an annual international tournament for professional esport teams for the MOBA game Mobile Legends: Bang Bang hosted by Moonton in the middle of years, since 2017.
On 1 January 2024, Moonton announced the rebranding of the formerly SEA-based tournament, "Southeast Asia Cup" to the "Mid-Season Cup" as the first international tournament before the second leg of MLBB professional leagues.[1] The Mid-Season Cup is the newly-internationalized tournament with teams from varying regions participating, and will take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This year saw the introduction of the Wild Card format, which will bring in eight international teams to fight for a slot in the Group Stage happening in July.
The first season of MSC started on 1 September 2017 and was held in Jakarta, Indonesia,[3] at Mall Taman Anggrek venue.[4] It is a 3-day event with 8 teams from 5 countries: Philippines, Malaysia, Cambodia, Singapore, and Indonesia, and a total prize pool of $100,000.[5] IDoNotSleep (IDNS), an esports team based in Thailand were crowned as the champion.[6] MSC 2017 used a qualification system in determining the finalists.[7][8]
MSC 2018
The second year of MSC took off on 27 to 29 July 2018 and was held again at Jakarta, Indonesia with a similar prize pool of $100,000. MSC 2018 did not use a qualification system but started to invite teams from countries with established Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional Leagues (MPL). 10 teams were invited from 7 countries: Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam.[9] IDNS, a competing team, reported technical issues during the tournament where the game casts skills without player input. Moonton put out a notice for a rematch but took it down and no rematch occurred.[10] Regardless of the technical difficulties, Aether Main – a Philippines based team – won the championship.[11]
The third year of MSC 2019 was held at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in the Philippines from 19 to 23 June 2019. There were a total of 12 teams from 9 countries in Southeast Asia. The nine countries that took part were Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam with a total prize pool of US$120,000.[12]ONIC Esports - a team based in Indonesia were crowned as champions after defeating fellow Indonesian based team Louvre Esports in the Grand Finals. This marked the 1st MSC Champions title for Indonesia.
MSC 2020
On 11 May 2020, Moonton announced that the 2020 Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Southeast Asia Cup was officially canceled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.[13][14] Moonton explained that due to international travel limitations, and local government regulations about COVID-19, the events were impossible to be held.[14] Hereby, Moonton planned to conduct alternative esports events in each participating MSC country respectively.[14]
The 2021 Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Southeast Asia Cup, would be held virtually from 7 to 9 June 2021 for the Group Stages, and from 11 to 13 June 2021 for the Playoffs.[15] At the Grand Finals, two Philippines based teams, Blacklist International and Execration, reigned supreme and battled it out at for the title in the first best of 7 series ever in the history of Mobile Legends. The title went to Execration,[16] winning $150,000 and gave the Philippines its 2nd MSC Champions title.
MSC 2022
The 2022 Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Southeast Asia Cup was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 11 to 19 June 2022. Twelve teams from nine countries participated in the championship with a total prize pool of $300,000. At the Grand Finals, RSG Philippines and RRQ Hoshi fought to win the championship. RSG Philippines swept RRQ Hoshi 4 to 0 and were deemed the Champions of the 2022 MSC (Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Southeast Asia Cup) and gave the Philippines its 3rd MSC Title, currently the most out of any country playing for MLBB.[17]
The 2023 Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Southeast Asia Cup was held in Cambodia from 10 to 18 June 2023. Twelve teams from ten countries participated in the championship with a total prize pool of $300,000. At the grand finals, ONIC Esports of Indonesia won Blacklist International of the Philippines.[18]
The upcoming Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Mid-Season Cup will be the first of its editions after rebranding the tournament. During the rebranding announcement, it was confirmed that MSC 2024 will be held outside of SEA (Southeast Asia), the first MSC tournament to be held outside of Southeast Asia.[1] It would later be announced that the tournament would be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia as part of the Saudi-financed Esports World Cup.[19]
Format
Two teams from Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional Leagues (MPL) in different Southeast Asian countries are invited to MSC. For countries without MPL, local qualifiers are hosted. The tournaments start with a group stage where teams fight for the spot in the upper bracket through the best of 3 round robin. Teams winning the best of 3 in the group stage get the spot in the upper bracket. The other two teams compete on play-ins where the winning team gets to the lower bracket and the losing team is eliminated. After the group stage is the tournament proper. Losing teams from the upper bracket are demoted to the lower bracket while losing teams from the lower bracket are eliminated. One finalist will come from each bracket and compete in the Grand Finals.[20] From 2017 to 2019, the Grand Finals are played in best of 5, but since the 2021 version, it is played in best of 7.
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ONIC Esports (2nd title)
