Teams are already flying down to Jakarta as the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) M4 World Championship is set to take place from Jan. 1 to 15. Sixteen squads from around the world will compete, but only one will get the chance to lift the trophy.
The tournament has been split into the Group Stage and the Knockouts. The group will take place from Jan. 1 to 4. For this, the 16 teams have been split into four even groups. They will compete in a single round-robin format.
While no team will be eliminated in the group stage, there is still a lot at stake. This is because the top two teams will advance to the upper bracket while the bottom two will have to fight through the lower bracket.
Just to give a comparison of what this entails, the upper-bracket teams need to win only three series to make it to the finals. For the lower bracket teams, this number is six series for a spot in the Grand Finals. You can catch all the action live on the MLBB Esports YouTube channel.
With this, Esports.net takes a look at the Power Rankings for each group of the MLBB M4 World Championship.
Group A: Defending MLBB world champions Blacklist expected to perform
Blacklist International were crowned the M3 World Championship. Now, they are looking to defend their title in Jakarta. They come into the tournament with a victory at the most-recent MPL Philippines, which is one of the strongest regions for the game.
They will face competition from Myanmar’s Falcon Esports, though. The region might not be very advanced for MLBB esports, but Falcon has been an impressive team. They have won almost all of their local tournaments but the real feather on their cap is the fourth-place finish at the MLBB SEA Cup 2022.
- First place: Blacklist International (Philippines)
- Second place: Falcon Esports (Myanmar)
- Third place: Burn x Team Flash (Cambodia)
- Fourth place: Incendio Supremacy (Turkey)
Group B: Onic Esports are looking to start strong in the MLBB M4 World Championship
Group B houses Onic Esports, who after a terrific year are one of the favorites to take home the trophy. They won the MPL Indonesia Season 10 and also the ONE Esports MPL Invitational and are storming into the M4 with a lot of confidence.
While there isn’t any clear team to challenge Onic for the throne, Malaysia’s Todak outranks the other two teams for second place as the team has been impressive in 2022 as well. They won and placed second respectively in the two seasons of the MPL Malaysia this year. Their highlight, however, came during the ONE MPL Invitational where they managed a 3rd-4th place finish.
At the bottom of the table, Argentina’s Malvinas Gaming has an edge over Vietnam’s MDH Esports due to more international exposure having competed in the M3 as well.
- First place: Onic Esports (Indonesia)
- Second place: Todak (Malaysia)
- Third place: Malvinas Gaming (Argentina)
- Fourth place: MDH Esports (Vietnam)
Group C: Group of death in the MLBB M4 World Championship?
Group C, with RRQ, RSG, Echo, and Occupy Thrones, has to be the toughest group in the M4 World Championship.
RRQ Hoshi, the home team, are the favorites to take first place. They are also hungry for the title this year after narrowly missing out on the trophy in the MLBB SEA Cup 2022 as they fell in the final.
RSG SG and ECHO can both take second place. However, RSG looks better posed to do so as they performed better in international tournaments this year.
Lastly, the Occupy Thrones from the newly established MPL MENA region will face an uphill battle on the group stage.
- First place: RRQ Hoshi (Indonesia)
- Second place: RSG SG (Singapore)
- Third place: ECHO (Philippines)
- Fourth place: Occupy Thrones (MENA)
Group D: The battle of the Americas
The last group in the MLBB M4 World Championship houses three teams from North and South America – making it a real fight between the regions. The odd one out is Malaysia’s Team HAQ, who after winning the MPL Malaysia and placing fifth to eighth in the MPL Invitational look poised to take first place.
It won’t be easy, though, as they will be up against NA’s The Valley. The roster consists mostly of the same players who placed third in the M3 last year under the team name BTK. They will be looking to cause upsets this year as well.
The last two teams are Brazil’s RRQ Akira and S11 Gaming from Argentina. RRQ Akira look to be the better team on paper as they have stormed into the M4 having won all three of their tournaments in 2022, including two first-place finishes at the MPL Brazil.
- First place: Team HAQ (Malaysia)
- Second place: The Valley (NA)
- Third place: RRQ Akira (Brazil)
- Fourth place: S11 Gaming Argentina (LATAM)
Read next: MLBB World Championship (M4) Tournament Page
