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Fifteen brands will put their names on the 18th season of MPL Malaysia, which starts on Friday, August 14, 2026. Moonton Games, the publisher of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, set out the season and its sponsors in a release dated August 11: CelcomDigi returns as presenting partner, Infinix returns as official sponsor, and the league welcomes three further partners, CHERY Malaysia, AXE and Joytify.
MPL Malaysia is the country's professional league for Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, the mobile game in which two teams of five players try to destroy each other's base. Season 18 is its second season under the Partnership Programme, the model Moonton introduced in February with eight teams. The sponsor list is the commercial side of that model, and it shows which contracts signed a year ago have reached the season they were written for.
Moonton Games, MPL Malaysia Season 18 release, August 11, 2026.
Who backs Season 18
Moonton's release gives each of the main partners a title and a role. CelcomDigi, a telecommunications company, is the presenting partner, the sponsor whose name is attached to the league's presentation; the destination of the teams that reach the playoffs is called the CelcomDigi Dream Stage. Infinix, which the release says provides mobile technology for players, is official sponsor. Grab Malaysia returns as official food delivery partner. TODAK joins as official partner, and OBSBOT is official camera partner, bringing what Moonton calls AI-powered technology to capture the key moments.
| Partner | Title | On the list |
|---|---|---|
| CelcomDigi | Presenting Partner | Returns |
| Infinix | Official Sponsor | Returns |
| Grab Malaysia | Official Food Delivery Partner | Returns |
| TODAK | Official Partner | Joins |
| OBSBOT | Official Camera Partner | Continues |
| CHERY Malaysia, AXE, Joytify | Partners | First-time partners |
| Yamaha, Nando's, TNTCO, Quill City Mall, Media Prima, Tonton, Fairrie | Partners | Return |
Moonton Games, August 11, 2026. No financial terms or contract lengths are given for Season 18.
Muhammad Rifai, Overseas Branding Manager for Asia Pacific and Oceania at OBSBOT, said in the release that the company was excited to continue its partnership with the league for Season 18 and remains committed to supporting leagues as esports grows across Southeast Asia.
Related readTeam Vitality sign French retailer Leclerc as main partnerBelow the five main titles comes a group of ten partners. Three are welcomed as first-time partners: CHERY Malaysia, AXE and Joytify, which Moonton notes was formerly called Lapakgaming. Seven return: Yamaha, Nando's, TNTCO, Quill City Mall, Media Prima, Tonton and Fairrie. Moonton groups the ten under activations in lifestyle, entertainment and community, without detailing what each will do.
One of the returning names is tied to the league's own operation: Quill City Mall houses the arena where the season is played. The release gives no figure for any of the deals and no length for the Season 18 agreements.
The audience those brands buy into has one published reference point. In its Season 16 release, Moonton said MPL Malaysia held the record for peak concurrent viewers, the highest number of people watching at the same moment, with 870,000 the year before, citing the data firm Esports Charts. The August release gives no audience figure for Season 17.
Contracts signed a year ago reach their term
A comparison with the previous year shows how the list was built. When Moonton announced Season 16, in a release dated September 9, 2025, it gave several sponsors multi-season terms.
CelcomDigi was then named Official League Presenter for Seasons 16 to 18. Moonton described it as the telecommunications company's first sponsorship of an esports league. Infinix, at the same time, extended its partnership to Season 18, after an earlier one-year deal that ran through Season 16. Its title in 2025 was Official Gaming Smartphone, attached to one of its phones, the Infinix GT 30 Pro. For both companies, the season that opens on August 14 is the last one their published terms cover.
Related readTwisted Minds Sign Americana Foods and Biofit Ahead of EWC 2026Yamaha was named Official Motorcycle Partner for Seasons 16 and 17, which Moonton then called the brand's global debut in esports, with a new motorcycle model launched during the opening week of that season. Its name appears again in the Season 18 list among the returning partners, so its presence now runs beyond the two seasons announced at the time. The August release does not say on what terms.
Other names have moved. Grab Malaysia was official food delivery partner for Season 16 and keeps the same title for Season 18. Fairrie, then Official Rewards Partner, is among the returning partners. Three brands named for Season 16, 100PLUS as Official Isotonic Drink and CeraVe and Playaz as strategic partners, are not on the Season 18 list. Moonton gives no reason for any change, and none is stated here.
TODAK, from team to partner
The most unusual entry on the list is TODAK. Moonton introduces it as joining as official partner, marking its evolution from an esports team. In Season 18, in other words, it comes to the league as a commercial partner rather than as a competitor.
Its role is merchandise. According to the release, TODAK is teaming up with five MPL Malaysia teams to sell official merchandise, under a line it calls Todak 2.0, Cultured by Todak, and it presented the new collection at Kuala Lumpur Fashion Week 2026. Moonton does not name the five teams.
Fadzli Rahim, Senior Manager for Business Development at TODAK, described the move as the company turning from an esports team into an esports lifestyle brand. "Season 18 marks a defining chapter for us," he said in the release.
Related readTeam Vitality's ApEX Joins Oakley's Athlete RosterEight weeks in a mall arena
The regular season runs from August 14 to October 18, 2026, which Moonton counts as eight weeks. All matches are played at the MPL MY Arena, on Level 6 of the Quill City Mall Convention Centre in Kuala Lumpur. The release does not give a date or a venue for the playoffs that follow.
That setting is itself a change. Season 16, the last season of the league's old format, was played at Sri Putra Hall in Bukit Jalil. It had ten teams in a single round robin, a format in which every team meets every other once, with matches played as a best-of-three, the first team to win two games taking the series. The top six teams advanced to the playoffs. Its regular season ran six weeks, from September 13 to October 19, 2025.
Season 18 has eight teams. When Moonton presented the Partnership Programme on February 24, 2026, its eight members were Selangor Red Giants, Team Vamos, Team Rey, Rex Regum Qeon, Bigetron MY by VIT, All Combo, Invictus Gaming and Team Flash; the August release speaks of eight teams without listing them again. The theme of the season is 8 Cerita, Malay for eight stories, which the publisher presents as eight teams on eight journeys towards the same final stage.
The road to Istanbul
The season decides more than the national title. The two best teams will represent Malaysia at the M8 World Championship in Istanbul, Türkiye, the game's world championship, which Moonton says will be the first edition of the M Series held in Europe. The release places the season in the game's tenth anniversary year. The number of places is the same as a year earlier: Season 16 sent two Malaysian teams to the main stage of the M7 World Championship in Indonesia, according to Moonton's release of September 2025.
Related readBrazil's betting ban strips sponsors from its Counter-Strike teamsThere is a new route as well. The best team of the MLBB Academy League Malaysia, the country's development league, will face the top teams of MDL Philippines and MDL Indonesia for a place in the MCT SEA Knockout Playoffs and a chance to reach M8.
The season follows a mixed summer for the Malaysian teams. At the Mid Season Cup, the game's international tournament held this year at the Esports World Cup in Paris, Team Vamos, runners-up of Season 17, gave Malaysia its best showing with a run through the group stage, according to Moonton. Selangor Red Giants, five-time winners of MPL Malaysia and champions of the first Mid Season Cup at the Esports World Cup, went out before the knockout stage. Krystal Tan, Head of Market for Esports at Moonton Games, said in the release that the results showed the competitive gap had closed and that no team's dominance could be taken for granted.
The public bodies behind the league
Alongside the commercial partners, the release lists the public and sporting bodies that support the league: the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Esports Integrated, Rakan Muda and the Malaysia Esports Federation. The same four bodies were named in the Season 16 release, together with Persatuan Stadium Malaysia, which is not listed this season.
CelcomDigi was already present when the new model was unveiled: Moonton's release of February 24 says the presentation of the eight partner teams was powered by the company. That release also described the league's growth opportunities as running from talent development to commercial collaboration and closer ties with fans.
CelcomDigi's support also reaches below the professional league. Its Arena CelcomDigi program, in the release's description, supports talent development, grassroots programs and partnerships with professional teams. For the presenting partner, the professional season and the grassroots program sit under the same name.
Tickets for the matches are on sale through the league's own ticketing channel, according to Moonton. The first week of the regular season begins on Friday, August 14, at the Quill City Mall arena.
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