MPL Philippines bares new playoff format as Season 9 looms

The Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League (MPL) Philippines has announced a tweaked playoff format for the highly-anticipated Season 9 that commences on February 18.

In a post last Saturday, the local pro esports league bared that only the top six teams out of the eight competing squads will earn berths to the playoff round. To ensure excitement and competitiveness, the first and third-seeded teams after the regular season will pick which teams will slug it out in the first games of the playoffs.

Both the top and second-seeded teams will clinch an outright slot into the second round of the playoff.

The #1 seed selects the placement of the #3 and #4 teams on the bracket, while the #3 seed can determine the placement of #5 and #6.

This new format gives seeded teams the chance to put their biggest threats in a tough position.

Aside from these format changes, Moonton is also set to implement tweaks in the coaching system as teams can now have up to three assistant coaches, one of which can join the head coach during the draft.

One assistant coach can also substitute as the head coach.

MPL Philippines has yet to reveal whether the games will return to an offline setup or remain as an online event but in a previous interview, Moonton said it is targeting to go fully offline. 

—Bea Micaller/JMB, GMA News