Team Liquid PH unseated the defending champion ONIC PH and took the first Immortal Cup in the grand finals of MPL (Mobile Legends Professional League) Philippines Season 15 on Sunday at Green Sun Hotel in Makati City. 

Alston “Sanji” Pabico bagged the Finals MVP (Most Valuable Player) award, leading the Cavalry in crucial wins with his Luo Yi and Selena for their second title in three seasons. His team took the MPL PH Season 13 crown over Falcons AP.Bren.

MPL PH, or Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League Philippines, is the official professional mobile games competition in the country held by the game company Moonton. It is among the most-watched MLBB esports events worldwide. (See sidebar on how the game is played.)

Season 15 offered a prize stake of $150,000 (₱8.3 million) with the champion bringing home $46,560 (₱2.6 million) and the runner-up, $30,660 (₱1.7 million). As finalists, Team Liquid and ONIC also become the official representative of the Philippines to the Mid Season Cup (MSC) in the Esports World Cup 2025 scheduled in July in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Eight franchise teams battled for the Immortal Cup: Team Liquid, ONIC, Team Falcons PH, Aurora Gaming, TNC Pro Team, Twisted Minds, Omega Esports, and AP.Bren. Per tournament rules, the top six teams advanced to the playoffs after a double round-robin format for the regular season. 

The playoffs used a hybrid elimination format in which the third to sixth seeded teams compete in a single elimination while the first and second seeded teams receive a round bye and clash in a double elimination. All matches are in a best-of-five series, except for the Lower Bracket Final and Grand Final, which are in a best-of-seven series. 

Cavalry’s Revenge

After their insane reverse-sweep win over Team Falcons on Day 2 of the playoffs to advance to the upper bracket finals, Team Liquid was a win away from securing the first grand finals spot. ONIC, however, stopped Team Liquid’s stampede with a 3-0 sweep to send the stallions down to the loser’s bracket to face Team Falcons again. 

Eager for revenge, Team Liquid bested Team Falcons, 4-2, to book a grudge match against the ONIC Super Fam in the grand finals.

Looking like a different team already, the Cavalry finally hit their stride against the reigning champs as they sealed the grand finals opener win in 23 minutes, courtesy of Jaypee “Jaypee” Dela Cruz’s Mathilda tallying 2 kills, 12 assists, and zero deaths.

The Mathilda proved to be the perfect pick for TLPH as it denied the threat of Jann “Kirk” Gutierrez’s Gloo while also enabling Kiel “Oheb” Soriano’s Granger who erupted with 8 kills, 3 assists, and 2 deaths.

Riding high on their opener win, TLPH looked unstoppable in the early game of Game 2—securing all three Turtles while maintaining a comfortable 3K gold lead.

As Team Liquid took the first Lord of the game, ONIC PH then punished the Cavalry for overstaying their welcome in the pit as King Cyric “K1NGKONG” Perez performed a masterful maneuver towards the enemy backline for a Triple Kill with his signature Ling. Now taking hold of both the turret and gold lead, the Super Fam outplayed their opponents in the 22nd minute Lord fight for a 4-0 trade and the map win, 1-1.

In Game 3, Team Liquid again took the early gold. After a successful Lord take on the 16th minute, they were on pace to widen the gold and turret lead margin, but a couple of misplays from Jaypee’s Chip allowed ONIC to punch back, 1-2. 

Chef steps up to the plate

Looking to equalize the series, Alston “Sanji” Pabico took matters into his own hands with a surgical Selena performance in Game 4—dishing Abyssal Arrows left and right for the win and the match MVP honors, 2-2. 

In the pivotal Game 5, Team Liquid dominated both the early and mid-game with 3 Turtles and 2 Lords while keeping a 4.5K lead well into the 14th minute, courtesy of a monster start from Oheb’s Granger with 9 kills and zero deaths. 

As the Lord continued to wreak havoc inside ONIC’s base, Kirk pulled off a massive 5-man Flicker-plus-Penalty Zone combo for a 3-0 trade plus momentum. With the stallions on the backfoot after ONIC secured the third Lord, a brilliant Diversion play from Sanji’s Luo Yi flipped what seemed to be a losing team fight at the top lane into a Hail Mary base push in the midlane for a championship point, 3-2. 

Their backs to the wall, the reigning world champs dominated Team Liquid in 14 minutes. Duane “Kelra” Pillas’ Granger scored 10 kills, 2 assists, and 2 deaths to even the series, 3-3.

In the deciding Game 7, Oheb picked up the Granger for himself, denying Kelra of his previous Hero who settled for the Harith pick. This proved to be to the detriment of ONIC’s hopes as Kelra struggled in the early game with 2 deaths and zero kills to his name. 

The Cavalry continued to stampede through the game. With three Lords to their belt and a rampaging Granger from the Filipino Sniper, Kelra’s massive blunder of going for a solo kill on Sanji’s Luo Yi led to the stallions trampling their throne and achieving immortality, 4-3. 

Sanji received the MPL PH Season 15 Finals MVP award and the Infinix My Greatest Teammate award for his crucial performances throughout the epic finale of a series.

With the MPL PH Season 15 out of the way, Team Liquid and ONIC are now set to compete in the July Esports World Cup 2025 MSC in Riyadh for a prize pool of $3 million.

SIDEBAR

How Mobile Legends: Bang Bang is played

Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) is a mobile Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) game between two teams with five players each battling to take the other team’s base tower. 

Each player can use a character called a “Hero” with unique skills and abilities. There are also six roles—Tank, Marksman, Assassin, Fighter, Mage, and Support—that determine the responsibilities of players for their teams. 

Taking down the enemy’s base is the main goal to win the game. There are three lanes in the game: gold (top), exp (bottom), and mid (middle). Between each lane is the jungle where different creeps and monsters give buffs, experience, and gold to those that kill them.

A player cannot attack the enemy base directly without first taking down its turrets in at least one lane. Each lane has three turrets that deal damage to heroes if they step within tower range. To destroy the turrets without taking damage, a player needs help from the team’s minions, which constantly spawn at the teams’ bases and travel along each lane. 

The teams can also choose to kill the neutral objective called Lord which, with the lethal blow, grants the group a huge advantage in destroying the turrets during its march down the lane.