Which teams will compete at M8: interim results from all leagues

This past weekend, the first participants in the M8 World Championship were determined in our region—Team Spirit, Aurevia, and Team Yandex are confirmed to compete in this year’s flagship tournament; at the LAN event in Moscow, they’ll only need to determine who gets the direct spot in the playoffs and the two wild-card slots.

Meanwhile, the competition continues in 13 regional leagues and several national qualifiers around the world. Today, we’re taking stock of the race for spots at M8, reviewing the situation in all tournaments offering slots for the World Championship in Istanbul.

In the region’s strongest league, two clear contenders for the M8 have already emerged—just like in the spring, Team Liquid and Team Falcons look far stronger than everyone else. Throughout the entire regular season, each team lost only one series to other teams.

Surprises are possible, but for that to happen, either Team Liquid or Team Falcons would have to miss the playoffs—any slip-ups will be capitalized on by Aurora and ONIC. Two other teams still have a theoretical chance at M8, though in practice they trail all four powerhouses. 

Seven teams are vying for Indonesia’s two slots—the teams still have to finish their final regular-season matches before the playoffs. Dewa United (5-9) still has a mathematical chance of catching up to ONIC (6-8), but both teams are, in any case, extremely far from having a realistic chance of making it to M8.

Just like in the MPL PH, the regular season has identified two favorites: Team Liquid ID and NAVI. However, in this case, their positions don’t look quite as secure, especially since the M7 finalists from Alter Ego are closing in. EVOS stands out as a “dark horse”: the team has shown it can even beat Liquid, but remains extremely inconsistent.

The most predictable of the three top leagues might just deliver some intrigue this time around. The region’s undisputed leaders, Selangor Red Giants, are just one win ahead of their two closest pursuers—Team Rey and Team Vamos. SRG will most likely secure one of the M8 slots anyway, but the battle for the second spot should be interesting.

In theory, four more teams could join the fray: only AC Esports has lost its chance to make the playoffs. But none of the four chasing teams even has a winning record—Invictus Gaming is 6–6, and the others are doing even worse. The chances of overtaking two of the three powerhouses at once are purely theoretical.

The situation in Turkey resembles that in our region: there is a clear favorite in Aurora Gaming, which is far ahead of everyone else and is the undisputed contender for a direct spot in M8. During the regular season, the world’s top-6 team and bronze medalist at the Games of the Future lost only four maps across 12 series. 

The battle for the second slot is fiercer: Bushido Wildcats and FUT Esports, both sitting at 10-2 in the regular season, are vying for it. Overall, all eight teams in the league still have a chance at the World Championship, but in reality, it’s unlikely that anyone else will be able to join the real fight in the playoffs.

The Middle East is the second region after EECA to have already determined its M8 participants. With the regular season and most of the playoffs behind them, the finalists now only need to determine which of the two teams is more deserving of starting the World Championship directly in the group stage.

Titan Esports Club advanced to the grand final via the upper bracket: the former Axe roster featuring three Egyptians (top 20 in M7), bolstered by familiar foreign players—Karl “Carvi” Tinio and Mikkel “Boro” Busch. The second participant in M8 will be Team Falcons, which currently features a Korean player from Saudi Arabia and two well-known players from Mongolia: Ermuunbatar “MuMu” Timurbaatar and Anand “Xeno” Batarhuu. 

Starting this year, all leagues in the SEA region (except for the three major MPLs) are combined into an additional qualifying tournament, which will take place in Bangkok in the first half of December. The first stage of qualifiers is currently underway in Asia—teams have not yet finished competing in their respective championships.

One interesting development is that this time, the winners of the youth leagues in the top regions (MDL Philippines, MDL Indonesia, and the Malaysian MLBB Academy League) will also qualify for the MCT SEA. And the “academy” teams will certainly have a chance to advance to the M8: for example, during the Asian Games qualifiers, Team Liquid Academy PH defeated teams from the MPL Philippines, so they won’t be out of place even among the powerhouses of weaker leagues.

The MLBB Super League Thailand Season 2 also deserves attention: the host country of the wild-card event will receive two slots in the MCT and one direct slot in the M8 preliminary stage. The winner will have a choice: participate in the MCT and try to advance directly to the main stage of the World Championship, or secure a spot in the M but start from the wild-card round. 

The second option seems less competitive but more reliable. In the main tournament, a team must finish in the top 4; otherwise, it risks missing out on the year’s main championship entirely—and to advance to the main stage of the M8, a team must finish in first or second place. And there will be plenty of competition at the MCT: just look at Yangon Galacticos from Myanmar, a Mid-Season Cup finalist and Asian Games champion.

In addition to Yangon, the contenders for M8 include PRO Esports from Cambodia (top 8 at the MSC in Paris), IGNITE Gaming and Evil from Singapore (M7 and Mid-Season participants), and the youth team Bigetron Academy from Indonesia’s MPL. However, first they need to win their national leagues—favorite status does not guarantee an invite to MCT SEA for anyone.

This MCT will feature the top teams from China, Mongolia, Japan, and South Korea. The main competition is expected to be between teams from the first two countries—the Koreans and Japanese do not have full-fledged leagues and are just beginning their journey in competitive MLBB.

Mio AHP could end up being the odd one out, as it has already outperformed expectations even within the Mongolian league. That said, The MongolZ looks like the favorite to secure a spot in the main stage, while the Chinese teams are more likely to be vying for a wild card. However, surprises are always possible—we’ll find out for sure by the end of October.

This final interregional tournament brings together the two American leagues—the North and the South. The NA and SA divisions do not face each other until the very last match: first, each division crowns its champion, and then the top two teams from each division meet in the final. The winner of the battle of the regions will advance to the M8 group stage, while the loser will go to the wild-card.

Recently, teams from South America have been winning more often. The favorite of the group and the entire MCT is 9z Team—the former Entity7 roster that knocked Team Liquid itself out of the Mid-Season Cup. In the first stage, the team didn’t lose a single map, even though there were plenty of worthy opponents: take, for example, Alpha7 Esports with its Filipino players or the Brazilian team DreamMax.

In North America, Vendetta unexpectedly achieved the same result (7–0 across three matches). In the playoffs, the more high-profile teams LYON and The Night Horde may still be able to turn things around and get their revenge, but judging by the first stage of the tournament, their chances of doing so are slim.

Finally, we’ve compiled a tentative list of teams that are highly likely to qualify for M8. So far, no team in the world has secured a spot in the main stage of the flagship tournament, but as many as five—representatives from EECA and MENA—are already guaranteed to participate at least in the wild-card stage.