BLING-BANG-BANG-BORN: The Fulcrum Esports’ M6 World Championship review
Photo from Mobile Legends Esports
BLING-BANG-BANG-BORN: The Fulcrum Esports’ M6 World Championship review
The recently-concluded M6 World Championships wasn’t short of memorable storylines, continued rivalries, the fight for status quo, and the emergence of talents, teams, and regions. After almost a month of seemingly nonstop Mobile Legends: Bang Bang action in Putrajaya and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, fans can’t stop buzzing, from Facebook and Instagram to YouTube and Reddit.
While the iron’s still hot, let’s look at what transpired for four weeks in Malaysia, as we review the struggles of teams fighting for the last spot in the main stage, to Fnatic ONIC Philippines being Greater Than Ever.
To the next, to the top of the world
Fnatic ONIC Philippines, building up on their momentum last MPL Philippines Season 13, grabbed the Season 14 crown in a dominant fashion. The Super Family continued to display their superiority in the M6 Swiss stage.
In arguably the most dominant run in the entire history of the M-Series, FNOP didn’t concede a single series, grabbing wins against Team Liquid ID, CFU Gaming, and BloodThirstyKings and quickly getting a seat in the playoffs.
From there, they shoved hometown favorites Selangor Red Giants, fended off Myanmar’s Falcon Esports, before defeating Team Liquid ID again twice in the upper bracket finals and the Grand Finals, without breaking much sweat.
Who’s the best? I’m the best! Oh yeah!
Duane “Kelra” Pillas showed greatness on a different level, being the man on a mission the entire 2024. WIth all Fnatic ONIC Philippines’ players complimenting his calculated but explosive playstyle, Kelra was almost untouchable in all 21 games played, even in their rare defeats.
Kelra, hailed as the Finals’ MVP with 29 total kills and an average of 7.5 KDA, took the Finals MVP honors, joining the likes of Kiel “Oheb” Soriano and Benedict “Bennyqt” Gonzales as Filipino Finals MVP gold lakers.
The superstar marksman is also on a league of his own, being the only player in history to claim the Finals MVP honors in MPL, MSC, and the M-Series. While he still don’t consider himself as “The Gold Standard,” he already showed why he is the one anointed with the title.
Error struck
It was a tournament to forget for Aurora MLBB.
Being touted as one of the tournament favorites given the names on their roster as well as their performance in both MPL PH and the ESL Snapdragon, the Auroras have saw themselves losing their first two matches before eliminating Ulfhednar.
However, they found themselves bowing out early after a sweep against Team Liquid ID in Round 4, prematurely ending their run.
And while we know being basically a rookie MLBB organization formed a few months ago, this shock exit will put a cloud of doubt in them, which can either hurt them more or boost their motivation for Snapdragon and MPL PH Season 15. With them sticking to the same lineup for the foreseeable future, they have nowhere to go but up from here.
Adding up to the teams performing below expectations were semifinalists Selangor Red Giants, who have to crawl their way in the Swiss stage, RRQ Hoshi, who was on a four-game win streak in M6 only to be booted out in the lower bracket quarterfinals by SRG, and RRQ Akira, who didn’t even made it to the Wildcard decider match.
Raising the bar
We have to look at the gruesome Wildcard stage, where eight hopefuls fought tooth and nail just to grab that last spot in the Swiss stage, and setting the bar to future contenders of the global MLBB scene.
RRQ Akira, one of the favorites to get out of the wildcards, was left stunned after conceding a 0-2 upset against Vietnam’s Legion Esports, which boosted EECA’s second-best team Insilio’s chance and eventually making it past the Brazilian juggernauts.
On the other side of the bracket, Turkey’s Ulfhednar (formed by the members of the then-released Fire Flux Esports roster) found themselves in a tight battle with China’s DianFengYaoGuai, eventually defeating the peak monsters before sweeping Insilio in the decider match.
The Wildcards had saw several memorable matches alongside RRQ Akira’s loss to Legion, such as DFYG beating a more-experienced Geekay Esports and Insilio completely shutting down the door to RRQ Akira.
As always, I upgrade mysеlf every day
We witnessed the return of Singapore and Myanmar to the upper echelons of MLBB as well as the feel-good story of Team Spirit being one of the more consistent teams today.
While they are already in the second-tier of MLBB prominence (behind PH, Indo, and MY of course and on par with Cambodia), their representatives’ recent performance in M6 showed that they can give the top three nations a run for their money.
NIP Flash continued to reap the rewards of the sponsorship buff from Ninjas in Pyjamas, improving their standing from 9th-12th to 7th-8th and riding on their deep run in MSC 2024. Jaymark Aaron “Hadess” Lazaro and Jankurt “KurtTzy” Matira showed why they are the top players in Singapore right now.
Falcon Esports rode on their dark horse persona and continue to do what Myanmar MLBB is doing: giving all top teams a reason to fear them. The Burmese champions racked up impressive upsets against Aurora, Selangor Red Giants, and BTK and only lost to Fnatic ONIC Philippines and Team Spirit in close games.
Speaking of the Dragons, we have witnessed the steady rise of the Eastern Europe region, racking impressive wins including an upset to Team Liquid ID. The Vrendon “Vren” Pesebre-led team even scored huge wins against Team Vamos and Falcon Esports before conceding to SRG.
I’m the man who can compete with guys
John Vincent “Innocent” Banal is not that Innocent (oops I did it again!)
Ever since joining SRG in early 2024, he unleashed his potential to being one of the best gold lakers in town, and it became ever more evident in M6.
The former TNC standout tallied 121 kills and 103 assists in 23 games played, even breaking the record set in M4 by RRQ Hoshi’s Schevenko “Skylar” Tendean of most kills in a game by 19.
MLBB Esports may have awarded the breakout player of the year to Innnocent, but we think Anton Igorevich “Hiko” Pak deserved to be mentioned here as well
The youngest player in the tournament at a few months from 16 years old, Hiko evolved from a quiet performer in MSC 2024 to one of the most explosive gold lakers in the game.
The soft-spoken marksman sparked into the scene, getting just the third savage in the entirety of M-Series with a 12/4/6 output of his Beatrix against CFU gaming.
It’s brawn!
We have three contenders for the best series of the tournament.
First is the fight between CFU Gaming and Team Spirit in the Swiss Stage Round 4, as the Cambodian champs spoiled a Hikomania special in Game 1 only to be tilted in Games 2 and 3 thanks to Hiko and Stanislav “SAWO” Reshnyak.
Second is the match between BloodThirstyKings and Fnatic ONIC PH, when Layla made her debut at the hands of the Gold Standard, only to have a fierce battle between him and Ziameth-Jay “ZIA” Caluay that extended to all three games.
But our pick here is Fnatic ONIC PH’s match against Falcon Esports in the upper bracket semifinals, which was played in five games.
Yehtet “KidX” Sithu and Min “Beni” Swan Kon became huge problems to the Super Family in Games 3 and 4, with the Burmese champions forcing a Game 5.
However, Frince “Super Frince” Ramirez and Borris “Brusko” Parro stepped up when needed and had their best games as their Khaleed-Yve combo wreaked havoc in the final moments of Game 5 and sealed the win.
All-Mythical Teams
With all that said, we have decided to create an all-M6 Mythical first, second, and third teams out of all the 16 teams participating from the Swiss stage to the Grand Finals. This is the one that is hardest to make given that it’s not easy to put three massive all-star fives with more talented players being left out.
This list will be more of a subjective one based on how we see them perform during the course of the tournament, from the group stages to the grand final, while also considering their in-game performances and statistics throughout the tournament.
All-M6 First Team
- Grant Duane “Kelra” Pillas (FNOP)
- King Cyric “K1NGKONG” Perez (FNOP)
- France Miguel “Super Frince” Ramirez (FNOP)
- Jann Kirk “Kirk” Gutierrez (FNOP)
- Borris James “Brusko” Parro (FNOP)
All-M6 Second Team
- John Vincent “Innocent” Banal (SRG)
- Favian Bayu “Faviannn” Putra (TLID)
- Kemiran “Sunset Lover” Kochkarov (TS)
- Arkar “Royal Milk” Bhone Pyae (FCON)
- Stanislav “SAWO” Reshnyak (TS)
All-M6 Third Team
- Sultan “AeronnShikii” Muhammad (TLID)
- Alexander “ONESHOT” Sharkov (TS)
- Yehezkiel “Yehezkiel” Wiseman (TLID)
- Aldhia Fahmi “Aran” Aranda (TLID)
- Muhammad Qayyum Ariffin “YumS” Bin Mohd Suhairi (SRG)
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