Twisted Minds, Team Falcons officially enter MPL Philippines

New challengers are coming into the local esports scene as Twisted Minds and Team Falcons formally announced their arrival in the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League (MPL) Philippines starting in Season 15.

The Saudi Arabia-based organizations' entry was made official on Friday, just days after champion teams Blacklist International and RSG Philippines bared their departures from the local league.

"I think we’ve all heard about the Esports World Cup, the EWC, was created and existed last year and ML:BB was one of the games that was competing at this event so it kinda forced us," Grant Rousseau, Team Falcons' global esports director, said in a special media event on Friday in Makati.

"If we wanted to compete at the EWC, we need to look at this game and so we did a lot of research about the game, where we could enter. The Philippine region is the strongest in this game from a performance perspective and so initially that was what drew us to come here."

Twisted Minds and Team Falcons are no strangers to the esports scene with both teams having competitive clubs in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region while both have featured Filipino imports in the past as well.

Twisted Minds recently ruled MPL MENA Season 6 to clinch a spot in the M6 World Championship in Malaysia, where the club fell short of entering the knockout stage. Team Falcons, meanwhile, has endeavors beyond ML:BB with teams in various titles like DOTA 2 and Counter Strike while its Mobile Legends team participated in the M5 Wildcard stage. 

Team Falcons may be familiar to local fans as it recently had a partnership with multi-titled Philippine team AP. Bren, which has two world titles and two MPL titles under the franchise's banner.

This collaboration was actually one of the factors considered by Team Falcons in finally buying its own slot in MPL Philippines.

"You’ve seen our partnership with AP Bren over the last year. It's been Falcons AP Bren and that was really a chance for us to learn and understand the scene when it comes to ML:BB in the Philippines," Rousseau added.

For Twisted Minds' part, the Philippines is the strongest ML:BB team as evidenced by the fifth straight world championships and joining the country means elevating the competition.

"I think it’s the same with Falcons Esports, they have the experience before with AP. Bren, but we decided to have our own," Ibrahim Bin Jibreen, CEO of Twisted Minds, shared.

"We think Philippine Mobile Legends is the best one especially when it comes to competition [and also] fandom. So that’s why we decided to be in the Philippines."

The teams have yet to reveal their respective rosters but said they will field competitive team so as to be on par with powerhouse clubs like Onic Philippines, Aurora, and Team Liquid Echo.

"We're here to have a strong team and we're gonna make sure we invest in a team we have now but also the future team. We're gonna be bringing a performance system in place," Rousseau said.

—JMB, GMA Integrated News