TWO national eSports teams – Team SMG and HomeBois are representing Malaysia at this year’s Mobile Legends: Bang Bang World Championship.

The teams were given a send-off by Deputy Youth and Sports Minister Adam Adli Abdul Halim in parliament on Nov 27. Each team was given a Malaysian flag to take with them to the tournament, which is also dubbed the M5 World Championship and is being hosted by the Philippines.

HomeBois qualified after being crowned MPL Malaysia season 12 Champion, while Team SMG secured the spot at the M5 World Championship by being one of the two teams to win the M5 Wild Card tournament.

The two teams will be going up against 14 other international teams for a lion’s share of US$900,000 (RM4,202,100) prize pool, along with the bragging rights of being this year’s best Mobile Legends: Bang Bang team.

Those teams are from the Philippines, Indonesia, Brazil, Singapore, Cambodia, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar, Turkey, the US and Mongolia. The championship kicked off with the group stage first at 2pm Malaysian time (GMT+8) on Dec 2.

The first day saw Team SMG go against Turkey’s Fire Flux Esports team and later that day, HomeBois butted heads with Indonesia’s Geek Fam.

Today, at 8pm, Team SMG will be going against the Philippines’ formidable Blacklist International, who were the first runner-up during last year’s M4 World Championship grand finals.

The way the championship will play out will see the 16 teams being divided into four groups as they play in a single round-best-of-three match.

Two of the teams that come out on top in each group will advance to the knockout stage while the bottom two in each group will be eliminated. The knockout stage will take place from Dec 9 to 16, while the grand finals are dated for Dec 17.