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The two biggest professional leagues of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang are down to their final regular-season weeks. Dot Esports updated its pages on MPL Indonesia and MPL Philippines Season 18 on October 5, 2026, after the seventh week of play: Team Liquid ID lead the Indonesian table and Team Falcons PH the Philippine one, with the last week of the regular season scheduled for October 8 to 10 in the Philippines and October 16 to 18 in Indonesia.
Both leagues play the same format and offer the same prize at the end: the two teams that reach each grand final go to the M8 World Championship, the game's world championship, whose finals Moonton Games, the publisher, holds in Istanbul, Türkiye, in January 2027.
Dot Esports, MPL Indonesia and MPL Philippines Season 18 pages, updated October 5, 2026.
One format for two leagues
MPL Indonesia and MPL Philippines are the national professional leagues of the game in the two countries, and both are franchised: their places belong to franchise teams. MPL Indonesia has nine franchise teams this season and MPL Philippines eight, 17 in all.
The regular season is a double round robin, in which every team meets every other team twice. Every match is a best-of-three, won by the first team to take two games. A match win is worth one point and a loss nothing, so a team's points equal its match wins. The official MPL PH Season 18 rulebook, dated August 2026, sets 14 matches per team for the eight Philippine teams. With nine teams, the Indonesian schedule gives each team 16.
When teams finish level, the Philippine rulebook ranks them first by net game wins over the season, the games won minus the games lost, then by head-to-head results. If teams are still level after that, tiebreaker matches, played as a single game, are held after the regular season and before the playoffs.
Related readRiot Names 32 VCT Partners as Americas Kickoff Qualifiers OpenThe top six of each table go to the playoffs. The third to sixth seeds play a single-elimination first round, in which one loss ends a team's season. The top two get a bye straight into the second round, which is played in double elimination: a team is out only after a second defeat. The Philippine rulebook pairs third against sixth and fourth against fifth in the first round. The winner of the first pairing then meets the second seed, and the winner of the second meets the first seed.
The playoff matches are longer. They are played as best-of-fives, won with three games, except the lower bracket final and the grand final, which are best-of-sevens, won with four.
Team Falcons PH lead the Philippines
The Philippine table has a clear leader. Team Falcons PH, runners-up of Season 17, had won 11 of their 12 matches after the seventh week. Team Liquid PH, the defending champions, followed with a 9-2 record. ONIC PH and Aurora Gaming PH were level on eight points, with ONIC ahead on the printed order and a better game record, 19-11 against 18-12.
| Team | Matches | Games | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Team Falcons PH | 11-1 | 23-7 | 11 |
| Team Liquid PH | 9-2 | 19-5 | 9 |
| ONIC PH | 8-4 | 19-11 | 8 |
| Aurora Gaming PH | 8-5 | 18-12 | 8 |
| Omega Esports | 6-7 | 13-18 | 6 |
| TNC Pro Team | 4-8 | 12-18 | 4 |
| AP.Bren | 3-10 | 10-21 | 3 |
| Twisted Minds PH | 0-12 | 2-24 | 0 |
Dot Esports, MPL Philippines Season 18 page, updated October 5, 2026. Highlighted: the six playoff places in the printed order.
On the printed records, none of the teams below could catch those four. Behind them, Omega Esports, fourth in Season 17, held fifth place on six points, two ahead of TNC Pro Team. AP.Bren had three points. Twisted Minds PH, who shared fifth and sixth place last season, had yet to win a match.
The printed records also show how much is left to play. With 14 matches per team, Team Falcons PH had two to go and Team Liquid PH three, so Liquid could still reach 12 points, one more than Falcons' current total. Omega Esports, with one match left, could finish no higher than seven points; TNC Pro Team, with two left, no higher than six.
Related readVCT 2027: eight partner teams in every twelve-team KickoffThe Philippine season is also the shorter of the two. Dot Esports dates its regular season, played at the Victoria Sports Tower in Quezon City, from August 21 to October 11, with Week 8, the last, scheduled from October 8 to 10. The playoffs follow from October 21 to 25 at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig City. The league's prize pool is US$150,000; Dot Esports gives no split by place yet.
Team Liquid ID ahead in Indonesia
The Indonesian race is closer at the top. Team Liquid ID, fourth last season, led with ten points from a 10-3 record. Natus Vincere, eighth in Season 17, were one point behind at 9-3, and Alter Ego third on eight. Bigetron by Vitality, the defending champions, sat fourth with seven.
| Team | Matches | Games | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Team Liquid ID | 10-3 | 22-9 | 10 |
| Natus Vincere | 9-3 | 19-9 | 9 |
| Alter Ego | 8-5 | 18-11 | 8 |
| Bigetron by Vitality | 7-5 | 15-15 | 7 |
| ONIC | 5-7 | 14-15 | 5 |
| EVOS | 5-6 | 12-14 | 5 |
| Dewa United Esports | 5-7 | 12-17 | 5 |
| RRQ Hoshi | 3-9 | 10-20 | 3 |
| Geek Fam ID | 3-10 | 10-22 | 3 |
Dot Esports, MPL Indonesia Season 18 page, updated October 5, 2026. Highlighted: the six playoff places in the printed order.
The page marks only Team Liquid ID and Natus Vincere as through to the playoffs. The fight for the last places is tight: ONIC, last season's runners-up, EVOS and Dewa United Esports were level on five points in fifth to seventh place, and EVOS had played one match fewer than the other two, 11 against 12. RRQ Hoshi, ninth in Season 17, and Geek Fam ID, third last season, had three points each.
With 16 matches per team, Team Liquid ID had three left and Natus Vincere four, enough for Natus Vincere to finish level with or above the leaders. Bigetron by Vitality, with four matches to play, could still reach 11 points.
Indonesia has two weeks left. Week 8 is played on October 8, 9 and 11 and Week 9, the last, from October 16 to 18, all at XO Hall, the MPL Arena, where the group stage began on August 14. The playoffs then move to the Jatim Expo in Surabaya from November 4 to 8, which closes a season that runs from August 14 to November 8.
Related readVCT Americas Stage 1: two groups of six and three Masters London spotsA new map every game in Indonesia
The two leagues differ on one point of play. MPL Indonesia uses what Dot Esports calls the Annual Map Change system: every game is played on a random variation of the map, chosen among four, Dangerous Grass, Broken Walls, Flying Cloud and Expanding Rivers.
The Philippine page describes map selection rules instead. In a best-of-three, the home team chooses the map of the first game, the away team chooses a different one for the second, and a third game is drawn at random from the two maps left. Best-of-fives follow a similar system. In best-of-sevens, a map that has been played leaves the pool until all four have been used, and the cycle then starts again.
What the Indonesian title is worth
MPL Indonesia's prize pool is IDR 4,860,000,000, which Dot Esports gives as US$271,873, about 1.8 times the Philippine league's US$150,000. Both finalists, the teams that also go to M8, take the largest shares.
Dot Esports, MPL Indonesia Season 18 page, updated October 5, 2026. Total prize pool IDR 4,860,000,000.
The champion receives IDR 1,280,000,000 and the runner-up IDR 966,000,000. The gap between fifth and sixth place is small: IDR 385,000,000 against IDR 364,000,000. The team that finishes last of the nine is paid IDR 189,000,000, so every franchise team earns a share.
The road to M8
For the four finalists, the season leads to M8, the eighth edition of the M Series, the game's yearly world championship. Moonton announced on August 26, 2026 that the M8 Finals will be held in Istanbul next January, and that the Wild Card, the qualifying stage at the start of the event, goes to Bangkok, Thailand. Moonton's page gave no dates or venues for either city.
Related readVCT Americas Stage 2: Challengers teams enter, Finals go to São PauloThe Wild Card will be the largest yet: a record ten teams, against eight at the M7, playing for three places in the 16-team Main Stage, one more than at the last edition. Moonton's page does not say which teams start in the Main Stage and which in the Wild Card.
The Philippine rulebook gives its league two places at the M Series and two at the Mid Season Cup, the game's other international event, both drawn from the teams that reach the grand final. Dot Esports gives the same two M8 places to the finalists in Indonesia.
M8 is also the first world championship fed by the MLBB Championship Tour, which Moonton introduced in 2026 as a new layer of its competitive structure. That structure is organized in five regions: Southeast Asia, where Indonesia and the Philippines belong, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Europe with the Middle East and Africa, East Asia, and the Americas. Moonton's August page does not say how the tour's results translate into M8 places.
The rules around the Philippine teams
The rulebook sets the frame within which the eight Philippine teams build their rosters. Each must register a general manager, a head coach and five starters, with between one and five substitutes, and no team may hold more than ten players. A coaching staff counts up to three people.
Pay has a ceiling. The aggregate monthly salary of all members of a team's active roster may not exceed 900,000 Philippine pesos, and teams must pay at least the minimum monthly salary set by Philippine law. The rulebook confirms the league's eight places in the regular season, all held by franchise teams.
The next dates are close. In the Philippines, Week 8 completes the table and sets the playoff seeding between October 8 and 10, before the playoffs open on October 21. In Indonesia, the regular season ends on October 18 and the playoffs in Surabaya start on November 4.
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