By Sagar V. Mankar Smart Omega Empress (OMGE), a Filipino team, just won the first and only women‘s tournament at the Esports World Cup, Mobile Legends: Bang-Bang Women’s Invitational (MWI) 2024.
In a thrilling finale, they defeated the reigning champions, Team Vitality, and clinched $180,000 prize money with 1,000 club points.
This is the first time MWI held outside Southeast Asia. The 2024 edition was hosted at the Amazon Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as part of the inaugural Esports World Cup. This global stage brought together 12 international teams, showcasing the growing worldwide appeal of women’s esports.
What Makes This Victory So Special?
Smart Omega Empress’s triumph is groundbreaking for several reasons:
- They are the first Filipino team to win a championship at the Esports World Cup.
- The team ended Team Vitality’s impressive 24-match winning streak dating back to 2021.
- They executed a clean sweep in the Best-of-Five (BO5) Grand Finals against their Indonesian rivals, Falcons Vega.
OMGE Journey to Historic Win
Smart Omega Empress (OMGE) faced intense competition throughout the tournament.
- Topped Group B in Group Stages with 3 wins and a single loss against DreamMax Girls.
- In the quarterfinals, they came back from losing the first game to defeat Gaming Gladiators Homegirls 2-1.
- In the semifinals, Omega Empress achieved a clean sweep victory over Victory Song Gamers by 3:0.
- In the Grand Finals, Omega Empress stunned the tournament favorites Team Vitality with a clean sweep victory 3:0 in BO5 format.
OMGE member Sheen “Shinoa” Perez was named Finals’ Most Valuable Player (FMVP), earning $50,000 for her outstanding performance.
EWC x MLBB MWI 2024 Breaks Several Records in Viewership
The EWC x MLBB Women’s Invitational 2024 also did well in viewership numbers achieving over 2.5 million Hours Watched, the highest among all MWI tournaments.
According to Esports Charts, it became the most-watched women’s event of 2024 and the second most-watched in the history of women’s Mobile Legends tournaments.
The Finale between OMGE and VT drew a peak of 265,100 concurrent viewership, which was the highest for the year and the fourth highest ever for a women’s esports tournament.
The tournament also topped in average viewership, with 74,300 viewers per broadcast — twice more than MLBB Women’s Invitational 2023.
Nearly 200 channels broadcasted the event, including Indonesian, English, Malaysian, Tagalog, Arabic, and Russian. Arabic and Russian accounted for over 10% of the total Hours Watched.
Post-Match Reflections
OMGE Roamer, Meraaay, expressed the team’s emotions during the post-match press conference::
“We want to give honor to our country. I hope we made our kababayans proud, including those who went to the venue to support us. It feels like a dream for all of us. We would like to take our hats off to Team Vitality, who gave us a good fight. We can already call ourselves world champions.”
She also shared words of encouragement for aspiring female esports players:
“To all aspiring female MLBB players out there, continue what you’re doing, especially if it is something that you love. We started from scratch, always almost losing every time, but we continued playing because we felt like this is something we love.”
Ray Ng, Head of Esports Ecosystem at MOONTON Games, shared his excitement about the progress made:
“The competitive women’s esports scene has taken a huge step forward with the MWI 2024. We believe that esports is for everyone, so we’re delighted to have given the world’s best female athletes the stage and #TimeToShine.”
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