MLBB M7 World Championship

The 2025 Mobile Legends: Bang Bang World Championship, commonly referred to as M7 or the M7 World Championship, will be the upcoming international esports tournament for the mobile multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. It will be the seventh iteration of the annual M-series World Championship organized by game developers Moonton Games. M7 is set to be hosted in Jakarta, Indonesia on 3 January until the Grand Finals on 25 January 2026.

It will be the second time Indonesia will host the event after holding the M4 World Championship edition in the same city. M7 will be the second world championship to be hosted a year later than it should. This is primarily due to the conflicting schedules with the 2025 SEA Games scheduled to be held by the end of 2025. Twenty-two teams will qualify based on their placements within their regional leagues with major and minor regions being relegated in different phases of the tournament.

ONIC Philippines, the defending world champions from MPL Philippines, failed to qualify for the M7 World Championship after being eliminated by TNC Pro Team in the lower bracket of MPL Philippines Season 16.^[1] ONIC had previously claimed the world title by defeating Team Liquid Indonesia in the M6 World Championship.^[2] Their absence marked the second consecutive instance of a defending champion failing to return to defend their title in M-Series history.

The Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League Philippines (MPL PH), MPL Indonesia, (MPL ID), and MPL Malaysia (MPL MY) will each send two representatives to M7.^[3] Representatives from MPL MENA, MTC (Turkiyë), VMC (Vietnam), MCS (China), and the MCC (EECA) are each allocated two slots: one directly seeded and one to begin from the Wild Card phase. MPL LATAM and MPL Cambodia each secured one direct Group Stage representative while Japan, Mongolia, and the Mekong region were each granted one Wild Card slots.

Similar to past editions, no team is automatically qualified for M7. All slots will be earned through ongoing or upcoming professional league seasons across the regions. The Wild Card stage will determine several advancing teams, and for the first time since its inception in M5, two of the winning Wild Card teams will advance directly into the main group stage. The exact number of advancing teams and the final format of the main event have yet to be announced, as all professional leagues are still in progress or just beginning their current seasons.

M7 will see the return of Japan to the World Championships for the first time since M2.^[4] LATAM's representation decreases from two teams in M6 to just one, while Cambodia continues its streak of participation since M1. Mongolia will make its third consecutive appearance at the World Championship since M5, and Mekong will once again have a representative at the world stage, continuing its presence since M4.

For the first time since M2, no North American teams will be participating at M7. This is likely due to the departure of one of North America's most famous MLBB teams BloodThirstyKings (BTK) to MLBB's rival, Honor of Kings.^[5]

The MLBB M7 World Championship will be held in Jakarta, Indonesia, across two main venues. The Wild Card, Swiss Stage, and first round of the Knockout Stage will take place at XO Hall (MPL Arena). The tournament will then move to the Gelora Bung Karno Tennis Indoor Stadium (Tennis Indoor Senayan) for the remaining Knockout Stage matches and the Grand Finals.^[6] According to Martinus Manurung, head of eSports and business development at Moonton Games, the Indonesia Arena was initially considered for the Knockout Stage or Grand Finals, but it was already booked for another event,^[7] leading organizers to relocate the matches to Tennis Indoor Senayan, the same venue used for the MLBB M4 Knockout Stage and Finals.^[8]

The MLBB M7 World Championship will feature an expanded competitive structure consisting of three phases: the Wild Card Stage, the Swiss Stage, and the Knockout Stage. The format will aim to provide a more balanced and merit-based progression system while increasing opportunities for emerging regions to qualify for the main event.

The Wild Card Stage will feature eight teams divided into two groups of four. Each group will compete in a single round-robin, best-of-three (Bo3) format. The top two teams from each group will advance to a cross-group playoff, where the first seed from Group A will face the second seed from Group B, and vice versa. The winners of these best-of-five (Bo5) matches will advance to the Swiss Stage.

This will mark the first time in M-Series history that two teams from the Wild Card Stage will qualify for the main event.

Returning for the second consecutive edition after its debut in M6, the Swiss Stage will feature a five-round system. The first and second rounds will be played as best-of-one (Bo1) matches, while the third, fourth, and fifth rounds will transition to best-of-three (Bo3) series.

• After the third round, two teams that achieve a 3–0 record will automatically qualify for the Knockout Stage.
• In the fourth round, three teams with 3–1 records will join them.
• The fifth and final round will determine the last three qualifying teams among those with 3–2 records.
• Teams finishing with 2–3, 1–3, or 0–3 records will be eliminated from the tournament.

The Knockout Stage will feature the top eight teams from the Swiss Stage, drawn randomly into a double-elimination bracket, continuing a tradition maintained for the seventh consecutive M-Series championship.

• The Upper Bracket Quarterfinals will be contested as best-of-three (Bo3) series.
• All other matches, excluding the Grand Finals, will be best-of-five (Bo5).
• The Grand Finals will conclude the tournament in a best-of-seven (Bo7) format, determining the world champion.

This comprehensive format will emphasize both consistency and adaptability, ensuring that teams from diverse regions will have multiple opportunities to prove themselves across various match lengths and stages.

Unlike its predecessor, the M7 World Championships will only be held during the entirety of January 2026 with the wild card stage occurring on 3 January until 6 January, the swiss stage from 10 January to 17 January with a minor break in between on 14 January, and the Knockout Stage from 18 January to 24 January with a two-day break in between on 19 and 20 January. The Grand Finals will cap off the tournament on 25 January in the Tennis Indoor Senayan.

Mobile Legends Esports

Moonton recently unveiled a power ranking leaderboard on its official social media accounts highlighting the top teams across the participating countries and regions ahead of M7. In Indonesia, ONIC Esports currently leads, building on their M5 runner-up finish^[9] and MSC 2023 championship,^[10] followed closely by Bigetron by Vitality.^[11] The Philippines is spearheaded by Aurora Gaming, with Team Liquid PH, the MSC 2025 champions,^[12] ranked second. In Malaysia, CG Esports sits at the top, followed by Team Vamos. Team Spirit leads the EECA region, while Team Falcons is the frontrunner in MENA. YBINGAME currently dominates China, and Galaxy Legends leads Cambodia. LATAM sees Influence Rage is tied with Alpha 7 Esports as their strongest contenders, while Myanmar's top teams include Team 7 and Yangon Galacticos. In Turkey, Aurora Turkiyë, the sister team of Aurora Gaming, is recognized as the region's strongest squad.^[13]

Several teams that were part of the MLBB M6 World Championships have notably been eliminated or are not fueling rosters in MLBB at this time. Grand finalists Team Liquid Indonesia have been eliminated from MPL Indonesia Season 16's playoffs, denying them a repeat appearance in the world championships.^[14] Other teams that have been eliminated from playoff contention are MTC Season 4 champions S2G Esports who are currently 0-7 in MTC, Ulfhednar (who has now had its team absorbed by Aurora Gaming), and BloodThirstyKings (BTK) who has transferred to MLBB's rival Honor of Kings.^[5]

Swiss Stage

Fourteen teams outright qualify for the Swiss Stage while two teams await qualification from the wildcard, the first time that two teams will qualify from the wildcard stage since its inception in M5.

Wild Card Stage

Unlike the previous edition, the wildcard stage will produce two qualifying teams this time instead of one. Three regions: China, EECA, MENA, and Turkiye are non SEA-regions who have two seeds, one in the group stage and one in the wildcard.

The Wild Card Draw ceremony for the MLBB M7 World Championships was held on 12 December 2025. The event was hosted by Indonesian MLBB caster Rachael Melati "Aeterna" Nalapraya, who began the proceedings by announcing the in-game introduction of the new MLBB M7 Pass.

The official group draw was conducted by two representatives of the tournament's sponsors: Mr. Alfian from Realme and Mrs. Nathalia Nugrahani, Head of Marketing for Visa Inc. Notably, Visa's participation marked the payment giant's inaugural entry into the MLBB esports ecosystem.^[17]

Draw Procedure

The Wild Card Draw determined the final group assignments for the eight participating regional teams. These teams were initially divided into two separate seeding pools.

The drawing mechanism ensured balanced grouping: the first team selected by the representatives was allocated to Group A, while the second team drawn was allocated to Group B. This alternating cycle continued until all eight teams were assigned to their respective groups for the upcoming stage.

All bracket stage matches were either a Best of 1 or Best of 3. The winning team will qualify in the upper portion of the Swiss bracket until the first top two teams whom have an undefeated record advance to the knockout stage. Three teams would follow suit and will qualify in the second round of qualifiers and the final three teams with a 3-2 record will qualify for the knockouts.

Every round featured a random draw by the players themselves to determine the succeeding matchups. Both Malaysian representatives took significant defeats against underdog regions in Turkey and MENA when S2G Esports defeated MSC 2024 champions Selangor Red Giants and Twisted Minds defeating MPL Malaysia's runner-up Team Vamos. The Philippines and Indonesia have equal numbers of teams in the 1-0 and 0-1 brackets with Fnatic ONIC Philippines and RRQ Hoshi in the 1-0 bracket and Aurora Gaming and Team Liquid ID in the lower half.

This series of the world championship became the first since the M1 World Championships that the Philippines only has one remaining contestant in the competition prior to the knockout stage after the 2–0 sweep by Team Liquid ID at Aurora Gaming. This series also was the second-consecutive world championships that North America will fail to qualify for knockouts. The last time it qualified was during the M4 World Championships.

• MPL Philippines
• 2025 MPL Philippines season
• MPL Indonesia
• MSC 2025
• MSC 2023
• Mobile Legends: Bang Bang World Championship
• MLBB M6 World Championship
• MLBB M5 World Championship
• MLBB M4 World Championship