Philippines team Smart Omega Empress upsets the two-teams champion with a 3-0 score during the MWI 2024 finals, bringing their first ever MWI trophy to the country.
MLBB Women's Invitational (MWI) 2024, or the Mobile Legends: Bang-Bang Women tournament of Esports World Cup (EWC), has announced the new champion Smart Omega Empress, after the Philippines team defeated the two-times champion Bigetron Era now known as Team Vitality with a dominating 3-0.
Smart Omega Empress upsets the defending champion
Smart Omega Empress was indeed not a newcomer team, as they have been a regular on MWI since 2022. However, they have yet to succeed on bringing home a trophy, losing in Quarterfinals on MWI 2022 and Semifinals at MWI 2023. In today's match, they have to compete with Team Vitality, the back-to-back champion of MWI 2022 and MWI 2023.
Despite the unfavorable odds, Ayanami, Keishi, Amoree, Shinoa, and Meraay dominate the series, using Ruby, Valentina, Hayabusa, Karrie, Barats at the match point and winning the game against Team Vitality.
Team Vitality is no doubt the viewers' favorite, boasting an 82% win prediction over Smart Omega Empress. That's why a 3-0 upset in a Best-of-5 match was not a result the majority of viewers expected to witness.
The players themselves said during the winning interview, while crying tears of joy, that they didn't expect to win the tournament.
Related articles
MWI 2024 prize pool distribution
Aside from USD180,000 prize money, Smart Omega Empress also won 1,000 EWC club points, boasting their club position to 5th place as of July 27. Their Gold Laner, Shinoa, also gain an additional USD50,000 for claiming the MVP title.
Rank | Team | Club Points | Prize Won (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Smart Omega Empress | 1,000 | 180,000 |
| #2 | Team Vitality | 600 | 80,000 |
| #3-4 | Falcons Vega | 275 | 40,000 |
| #3-4 | Victory Song Gamers | 275 | 40,000 |
| #5-8 | Zino Lilies | 60 | 25,000 |
| #5-8 | Net Angels | 60 | 25,000 |
| #5-8 | Cloud9 Female | 60 | 25,000 |
| #5-8 | Gaimin Gladiators | 60 | 25,000 |
| #9-12 | CFU Serendipity | 0 | 15,000 |
| #9-12 | DreamMax Girls | 0 | 15,000 |
| #9-12 | Falcon Vega MENA | 0 | 15,000 |
| #9-12 | Tidal Legends Gaming | 0 | 15,000 |
Prove the strength of Southeast Asia once again
Smart Omega Empress's victory in MWI 2024 could be seen as proof of the strength of the Southeast Asia region in the MLBB scene.
On this year's EWC, Malaysian team Selangor Red Giants won the Men category, while Philippines team Smart Omega Empress won the Women's category. The finalists of both categories were also from SEA.
This is definitely not surprising, seeing that MLBB has been around SEA countries longer than other regions.
Stay tuned on esports.gg for other EWC 2024-related news.
