"With the collaboration we are able to take MLBB to the wider audience in the west." MLBB Esports head talks about the Esports World Cup collaboration

The MLBB Esports is collaborating with the Esports World Cup, and fans are jubilant. The community is anticipating more new players to enter the title as it gets more popular among Western gamers. Ray Ng, the head of MLBB Esports, had similar expectations from the mutually beneficial collaboration when we asked him about it in a recent interview.

Read on to get more information regarding the upcoming Mid Season Cup and MLBB Women’s International of MLBB Esports that will be featured in the Esports World Cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This way, you'll also get details regarding the constant rise in viewership of the regional and M tournaments of the title and more.

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Ray Ng, the MLBB Esports head talks about MWI, MLBB Esports - Esports World Cup collaboration, and more

Question: Congratulations on the MLBB Esports and Esports World Cup collaboration. What are your expectations from the multi-year partnership deal? What effects do you think it will have on the global mobile esports and MLBB esports ecosystem?

Esports World Cup will occur in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Image via Moonton Games)

Ray Ng: Yeah, thanks for your question, and again, thanks for your congratulations. Since it is a three-year partnership, I think that set a very strong expectation and foundation for us to grow alongside our ecosystem.

It is not a one-year thing; that’s a promise to our community that it will be ongoing for a couple of years. And with the Esports World Cup foundations enabling us to be one of the competing titles under their umbrella, it gives MLBB a sense of introduction to a wider audience, exactly what we need.

As I mentioned before, MLBB is a familiar title for the Eastern audience, like in Southeast Asia and even Eastern Europe. However, for the Western audience, there’s a lack of education regarding the mobile esports product itself, I would say. Because when you look at the overall mobile esports viewerships of other titles, most of their viewership is coming from Asia and not from the Western side.

So, with the collaboration with Esports World Cup, we can introduce MLBB as a product to a newer and wider audience in the West. So that they can learn about MLBB becoming a main competing title. Maybe they will try it out, and it will form some esports clubs there. Maybe they will want to set up an MLBB esports team from the West competing in the Esports World Cup.

So, I think it is also something that will be beneficial for both parties (Esports World Cup and MLBB). As I mentioned, we can help them expand the reach to the eastern audience. So I see that as a very mutually beneficial partnership of MLBB Esports and Esports World Cup working alongside the foundation.

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Question: Moonton is also hosting some academic leagues to improve the esports scene from the grassroots level. Do you think the increased prize money in the Esports World Cup will raise the level of competition in these MSC and MWI tournaments?

Ray Ng: Yeah, those development leagues are very important, as these leagues at the grassroots levels will develop the future stars of the esports scene. The design concepts of these leagues, like MDL Indonesia and MAL Malaysia, are the same. And they focus on incubating and nurturing future players to help them enter the (esports) scene so that we maintain a high level of competitiveness in the MLBB Esports.

This is a very important aspect for fans, as when they tune in to watch the tournament, they expect the best players to compete. So, this will be a very important ecosystem that we are building for both men's and women’s tournaments.

The local teams are building their strategies on how to recruit players for them to represent a country or a region to compete in the upcoming MWI tournaments. So, it will also give the local regions a pathway to grow.

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Question: Having started in 2022, MWI is relatively new to the MLBB esports scene. What are the aspects of the tournament that you feel require improvements, and what are your plans regarding it?

MWI 2023 was hosted offline in Indonesia (Image via Moonton Games)

Ray Ng: We had the MWI product for the past two years, and last year, one of the biggest improvements was to host it offline in Indonesia. From there onwards, we want to further level it up as a platform to cover more countries and regions with the help of this MLBB Esports collaboration with the Esports World Cup.

We hope that it makes esports teams from other regions think about the women’s esports scene and develop it by working with their local partners. At the end of the day, we want to have the best teams representing each region compete in the MWI series.

So, I think we are building a platform or foundation for all the local regions to further develop the local scene so that we can create a tournament that attracts the best talents to compete.

Indonesia is a very good example, as they are having their own women’s tournament. Season 8 of the tournament is coming out, and it can be a very good example that other regions can copy and host local women’s tournaments to present a stepping stone to these talents.

I would say this is just the middle step for us to create a platform for women to compete. In the future, we will fairly love to see professional MPL teams creating their own women’s teams. I think there are a lot of steps that need to be taken for the women’s team to catch up, but definitely, this is something we are ambitious about.

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Question: The viewership of the regional tournament, as well as the M championships, has seen a huge rise in 2023. How optimistic are you about the upcoming esports season this year (2024)?

Ray Ng: I think the whole MLBB Esports team is very optimistic about the viewership. We are very happy about the viewership diversity, as many viewers from many countries enjoy the games through our streaming channels and via different streaming languages.

Even setting aside Southeast Asia, the matches streamed in different languages have contributed a lot to increasing the overall viewership. So, that is an area that has a high potential for us to continue to grow MLBB Esports as a global product, which attracts those new audiences to watch the tournaments.

So there is a lot of untapped area, and both MLBB Esports and the Moonton Esports team are very optimistic about the trend of Mobile Legends Esports.

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