PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia — Following the success of the women's scene in Mobile Legends Bang Bang for 2024, Moonton Games has announced the development of a local women's league in the Philippines.
"2024 was a good year for the MLBB women's scene as we had three international tournaments, the MWI, IESF Women's Event, and the Asian Esports Games in Bangkok. It was a very good year for us. Moving ahead, we are developing the local women's scene. We want to increase the competitiveness in each region. Indonesia was dominating because they started the women's ecosystem earlier, they started in 2020 when they launched the Women's Star League. They incubated their talent and why they are so dominant,” said Moonton Games' Head of Esports Ecosystems and New Markets
Announced during the M Summit — Moonton Games' business summit — the women's league is part of the developer's diversity and inclusivity strategy, sending a message that esports is for all regardless of gender.
"We're going to launch a more structured [women's league] in the Philippines. The ultimate goal is to have this stepping stone design, eventually women players can have a chance to go to the pro scene. Last year in Indonesia, we had the winner from the women's league enter the development league. That's what we want to do, generally close the gap [between genders] and in the future, the ultimate goal is to have a mixed-gender team compete at the highest level. It might take years but that's the ultimate goal,” added Ng.
Pattering what has been happening in the women's scene in Indonesia, Ng hopes that the newly developed women's league will be a place to incubate talents and might also see a move similar to Indonesia wherein the winner of the women's league gets to compete in the development league.
"We want to copy the success of [the Indonesian women's league] to the Philippines. Team Vitality, formerly BTR, are dominant but there are a lot of competitive teams within that ecosystem as well and we want to bring that to the Philippines. After that we will decide on the next step, whether or not we will follow that the champion to go to the MDL is something we can replicate but for now we want to focus on having a proper structure,” explained Ng.
The country's top women's MLBB team, Smart Omega Empress, won its first international title as it defeated rival Team Vitality from Indonesia during the Mobile Legends Women's Invitational at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia last July. The team is also part of the country's national esports team, Sibol, and won silver in last month's Asian Esports Games for women's MLBB.