MLBB M7 World Championship

The 2025 Mobile Legends: Bang Bang World Championship, commonly referred to as M7 or the M7 World Championship, was the seventh iteration of the M Series World Championship for the mobile multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) organized by its developers Moonton. M7 was held from 3 to 25 January 2026 in Jakarta, Indonesia, the second time both the city and country hosted the tournament after the M4 in 2023.

M7 was the second tournament to be held later than the usual window due to the 2025 SEA Games in Thailand, where MLBB is contested as a discipline in esports. 22 teams qualified based on their placements within their regional leagues with major and minor regions being relegated in different phases of the tournament. Defending champions ONIC Philippines notably failed to qualify for the tournament after being eliminated in the lower bracket of MPL Philippines Season 16. Their absence marked the second consecutive time the defending champions failed to return to defend their title in the tournament history.

The tournament final featured the third consecutive appearances of a Philippine and Indonesian team. Aurora Gaming Philippines defeated Alter Ego Esports 4-0 to claim the Philippines' sixth consecutive world title. Roamer Dylan "Light" Catipon is awarded the Finals MVP.

The Grand Finals reached over 5.68 million peak concurrent viewers to become most-watched mobile esports tournament in history, breaking the all-time viewership record for a mobile esports tournament previously set by the 2021 Free Fire World Series in Singapore.

Qualification

The national leagues of the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia each received two direct slots for the tournament. Representatives from the regional leagues of Turkey, Vietnam, China, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECC) each received two slots as well, one directly and one through the Wild Card stage. The regional leagues of Latin America (LATAM) and Cambodia received a single direct slot. For the first time since M2, Japan returns to the tournament with a single Wild Card slot along with Mongolia and the Mekong region. Notably, no slot was allocated for the North American region.

Venues

The tournament was held in two venues in Jakarta, Indonesia. The initial Wild Card and the main group stage along with the first round of the knockout stage was held at the XO Hall (MPL Arena). The remaining knockout matches was held at the Gelora Bung Karno Tennis Indoor Stadium (Tennis Indoor Senayan). According to Moonton, the Indonesia Arena was initially considered for the later stages, but it was booked for another event. Tennis Indoor Senayan was the same venue used for the later phases of the M4.

Format

The tournament has three stages: a single round-robin Wild Card phase, a Swiss system group stage, and a double-elimination knockout stage. For the first time since the introduction of the Wild Card phase in M5, two teams advances to the main group stage alongside the fourteen directly qualified teams.

The Wild Card stage featured eight teams divided into two groups of four, with each group playing in a best-of-three single round-robin format. The top two teams of each group advances to a seeded single best-of-five play-off with the top two teams of the other group, where the winners of each play-off advances to the main group stage.

Returning after being introduced at the M6, the group stage featured a Swiss system format. The first and second round is a single match, while the succeeding rounds is a best-of-three series. After the third round, two teams who won all three matches automatically qualifies for the knockout stages. By the fourth round, three teams will advance. The fifth and final round will determine the remaining three teams to qualify. The eight remaining teams will then be drawn randomly into the double-elimination knockout stages. The quarterfinals is a best-of-three series, while the remaining rounds features a best-of-five series, except for the Grand Finals, which is a best-of-seven series.

Participating teams

Power Ranking Leaderboard

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 and MSC 2023 championship, followed closely by Bigetron by Vitality. The Philippines is spearheaded by Aurora Gaming, with Team Liquid PH, the MSC 2025 champions, ranked second. In Malaysia,Selangor Red Giants or SRG.OG sits at the top, followed by CG Esports. 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 Türkiye, the sister team of Aurora Gaming, is recognized as the region's strongest squad.

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. Other teams that have been eliminated from playoff contention are MTC Season 4 champions S2G Esports, Ulfhednar (who has now had its team absorbed by Aurora Gaming), and BloodThirstyKings (BTK) who has transferred to MLBB's rival Honor of Kings.

Qualified teams

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 Turkey are non SEA-regions who have two seeds, one in the group stage and one in the wildcard.

Participating Rosters

Swiss Stage Teams

Wild Card Teams

Draw

Swiss Stage

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.[citation needed]

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.

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.

Wildcard Stage

The wildcard stage remains the same as its previous iterations since M5 however, this will be the first wildcard stage where two teams would advance to the swiss stage instead of one.

Group A

Group B

Crossover Match

The crossover match is a best-of-five matchup between the top two seeds of each group. Whoever wins the Best of 5 advances to the main swiss stage with the first team qualifying for Swiss matching up against Myanmar's Yangon Galacticos and the second being with Indonesia's ONIC Esports.

Down 2–0, Team Zone of Mongolia reverse swept the Chinese runner-ups from the crossover match to qualify to the main swiss stage. Meanwhile, Turkey's Boostgate Esports denied Mid-Season Cup wildcard winners Virtus.pro in a back-and-forth best-of-5.

Swiss Stage

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Bracket

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.

Indonesian runner-ups Alter Ego Esports qualified for the knockout stage after a 2–0 win over Myanmar's Yangon Galacticos. Alter Ego Esports are joined by Selangor Red Giants after an upset 2-1 win over the heavily favored Team Liquid PH

Knockout Stage

Similarly to its predecessor M6, the knockout bracket system carries over to the M7 World Championship knockout stage. Formerly–during M5–the Upper Bracket Quarterfinals was played as a Best-of-5 like its immediately succeeding rounds, however, since M6, the upper bracket quarterfinals have since transitioned to a Best of 3. It is the only best-of-three in the entire knockout stage.

Sponsorships

The MLBB M7 World Championships consists of several international brands and products. Its headlining sponsor is Visa Inc. being the official payment partner of the world championship, making its official entry to MLBB.

See also

• 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