By Sagar 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.
Team Smart Omega Empress makes history by winning the first women’s championship at the #EsportsWorldCup. pic.twitter.com/FcnjUiZHnq
— Saudi On Demand (@SaudiTVEN) July 28, 2024
OMGE Journey to Historic Win at EWC x MWI
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.
SHINOANS MAG-INGAY!!
Our Savage Shinoa is our Finals MVP! 💪
Special thanks to our official sponsors:
mWell
HONOR Philippines#BagongBarangayOmega #SmartOmega #LiveMoreToday pic.twitter.com/TLLWif9HNy— Smart Omega Esports (@OmegaEsportsPH) July 27, 2024
Prize Pool
The tournament has a $550,000 prize pool (Men’s one has $3 million). It spread among all 12 participants as seen below:
- 1st: Omega Empress: $180,000 + 1,000 Club Points
- 2nd: Team Vitality: $80,000 + 600 Club Points
- 3rd-4th: Falcons Vega & Victory Song Gamers: $40,000 + 275
- 5th-8th: Zino Lilies, Net Angels, Cloud9 Female, Gaimin Gladiators: $25,000 + 60
- 9th-12th: CFU Serendipity, DreamMax Girls, Falcons Vega MENA, Tidal Legends Gaming: $15,000
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 VIT 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 in multiple languages, including Indonesian, English, Malaysian, Tagalog, Arabic, and Russian. Arabic and Russian accounted for over 10% of the total Hours Watched.
The EWC x MLBB Women’s Invitational 2024 has set new benchmarks for the series, achieving the highest total watch time and average viewership! 🔥
More on #MWI2024:
👉 https://t.co/Ud1gG1pH8t pic.twitter.com/1b5HhmROTN— Esports Charts 🇺🇦 (@EsportsCharts) July 30, 2024
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.”
Meraaay with her MERAAAYCLE PLAY! 😎#BagongBarangayOmega #SmartOmega #LiveMoreToday pic.twitter.com/SK6D8xkiQ4
— Smart Omega Esports (@OmegaEsportsPH) July 28, 2024
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.”
Thank you Philippine Embassy in Saudi Arabia of KSA, for Welcoming the newly crowned 2024 MWI World Champions: Smart Omega Empress!
Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! 🇵🇭#BagongBarangayOmega #SmartOmega #LiveMoreToday pic.twitter.com/TDL1vl3YxF
— Smart Omega Esports (@OmegaEsportsPH) July 28, 2024
“Why be a Queen when you can be an Empress?”
We are in a new age of Women’s MLBB 🏆 Smart Omega Empress sweeps the indomitable and seemingly immortal Team Vitality 3-0 in the grand finals of #MWI2024 #EsportsWorldCup pic.twitter.com/bkN1qljwaq
— Leo 🦁 (@LeoCastsPH) July 27, 2024
In the men’s front, Malaysian Team Selangor Red Giants defeated Falcons AP Bren and clinched the MLBB Mid-Season Cup in the second week of EWC with the grand prize of $1 million and 1,000 club points.
For more information, visit the official EWC website. And remember to subscribe to Gaming Foodle for more news!
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