MLBB Mid-Season Cup (MSC) 2026 preview, teams, format, and favorites to win

Wasif Ahmed Published 13/07/2026

The Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) Mid-Season Cup (MSC) 2026 is set to be the biggest edition of the MSC so far. With 25 teams and a prize pool of just over $3 million, the tournament will be held at the Esports World Cup (EWC) 2026 in Paris.

The MSC 2026 group stage will begin on July 22 with the grand final happening on August 1 at the Lenovo Legion Gauntlet Arena in the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles which is a 160,400 square meter exhibition space in the French capital.

So far, the Wildcard stage of the tournament has concluded. Here, nine teams competed from emerging MLBB esports regions like Laos, MENA, the Americas, and more for a single slot to the group stage.

Notably, with the EWC moving to France, Verso Time from Russia will be unable to travel to the country for the tournament. France currently has visa restrictions in place for Russian residents, owing to the conflict with Ukraine.

Therefore, only nine teams competed in the Wildcard Stage, with MENA’s Team Falcons coming out on top. This gives the Saudi Arabian esports organization two teams in the group stage, besides its Filipino Falcons team, to compete for the title.

With Falcons looking to defend its EWC Club Championship title, the organization will be looking to maximize points from MSC.

MLBB Mid-Season Cup (MSC) 2026 format explained

The group stage will run from July 22 to 26 with the 16 teams split into two groups of eight teams each. Each group will feature a double-elimination bracket, with the top four (eight total across both groups) making it to the Knockout Stage.

The Knockout Stage will happen from July 29 to August 1 where the eight teams will battle in a single-elimination bracket to decide the champion.

The overall format is similar to MLBB’s women’s tournament, also happening at the EWC, called the Women’s International (MWI).

Full list of teams at the MSC 2026

The complete list of teams is as follows:

• Team Vitality
• ONIC
• Team Liquid PH
• Team Falcons PH
• Selangor Red Giants
• Team Vamos
• PRO Esports
• Yangon Galacticos
• IGNITE Gaming
• Geekay Esports
• Team Spirit
• Aurora Gaming
• Guangzhou Gaming
• Entity7
• True Rippers
• Team Falcons MENA

Favorites to win

SRG OG at the MSC 2025 in Riyadh. Image credit: Esports Foundation

The Philippines tends to be the region to watch out for in international MLBB esports tournaments, as it has won the most when compared to other regions.

The two teams from the country this time around are Team Liquid PH and Falcons PH.

For Team Liquid PH, the MSC champions from 2025, the team is looking to defend its title. They have come into the tournament after winning the MPL PH Season 17, making it their third consecutive MPL PH victory.

Despite their dominance, cracks in Team Liquid PH’s armor were exposed at the M7 World Championship’s Knockout Stage earlier this year as it suffered a shocking 2-3 loss to Indonesia’s Alter Ego.

The favorites to stop them, however, are Falcons PH and Malaysia’s Selangor Red Giants.

Team Falcons PH had a terrible 2025 season, failing to qualify for both—the MSC and M7. This year, the team realized it needed some changes, so it loaned out Angelo “Pheww” Arcangel and brought in Salic “Hadji” Imam in the middle lane.

Hadji is a M3 champion and an M4 runner-up along with being a multiple-time MPL PH champion. The move seemed to have been a good one, as they placed second in the MPL PH for this season. Now, Falcons will be looking to settle the score at the MSC. They are a team to watch out for during MLBB betting too.

Last but not the least are SRG, one of the most dominant rosters in recent MLBB esports. They were the 2024 champions and the runners-up in 2025. The team also placed third at the M7 this year.

SRG have come into the tournament with one goal, to win it all for Malaysia.

Featured image credit: Esports Foundation

Wasif Ahmed

About Wasif Ahmed

Wasif Ahmed is the Lead Esports Editor for WIN.gg. He has been covering esports for nearly eight years, although his gaming journey started much earlier, when he was just four years old and was introduced to Road Rash on a dusty PC. Hit him up on X to talk about esports, why partnership models are the best fit for esports games, or if Halo 7 has finally been announced.

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