If you want a seat at PhilSports Arena this week, the cheapest playoff ticket still listed is ₱250, the Grand Finals Legend tier is ₱600, and the first two series of the MPL PH Season 18 playoffs already went the full five games. ONIC Philippines beat TNC Pro Team 3-2 and Aurora Gaming edged Smart Omega 3-2 on Day 1, October 21, according to the official MPL PH results page. Both winners face the top seeds today, and the champion is crowned on Sunday, October 25.
Day 1 results: two five-game play-ins
- ONIC Philippines 3-2 TNC Pro Team (3:00 PM)
- Aurora Gaming 3-2 Smart Omega (7:00 PM)
The ONIC-TNC series was the tighter story. In GMA News' recap, TNC drew first blood in Game 1 behind Jomari "Jowm" Pingol's Obsidia, ONIC answered in Game 2 with Cyric "K1NGKONG" Perez on Aulus, and Borris "Brusko" Parro's Atlas caught three TNC heroes at the 13:39 mark of Game 3 to put ONIC on match point. TNC then picked Atlas itself in Game 4 and forced a decider. Game 5 ran past 20 minutes before Perez, now on Hirara, took the third Lord uncontested and ONIC closed the base.
All-Star Magazine's write-up adds the box-score detail: Perez's Aulus finished 7-1-8 in Game 2, Parro went 0-1-11 on Atlas in Game 3, Ryota's Freya (4-0-2) was named Game 4 MVP, and SuperFrince's Lylia ended the decider at 5-0-12.
GMA notes that ONIC has now posted four straight Top 4 finishes in MPL Philippines but has missed the championship round in each of the last two seasons.
Playoff schedule at PhilSports Arena, Pasig City
All times are Philippine time, as listed on ph-mpl.com.
| Date | Time | Match |
|---|
| Wed, Oct 21 | 3:00 PM | ONIC 3-2 TNC (play-in) |
| Wed, Oct 21 | 7:00 PM | Aurora 3-2 Omega (play-in) |
| Thu, Oct 22 | 3:00 PM | ONIC vs Team Falcons PH |
| Thu, Oct 22 | 7:00 PM | Aurora vs Team Liquid PH |
| Fri, Oct 23 | 3:00 PM | Upper Bracket Final |
| Fri, Oct 23 | 7:00 PM | Lower Bracket Semifinal |
| Sat, Oct 24 | 5:00 PM | Lower Bracket Final |
| Sun, Oct 25 | 5:00 PM | Grand Final |
The Friday session labels come from the ticket listings for those slots; the bracket itself is published only as an image on the league site.
Who is left and how they got here
Six of the eight franchise teams made the playoffs. The regular-season table, per the official standings:
| Seed | Team | Match W-L | Game W-L |
|---|
| 1 | Team Liquid PH | 12-2 | 25-6 |
| 2 | Team Falcons PH | 12-2 | 26-10 |
| 3 | ONIC Philippines | 9-5 | 21-14 |
| 4 | Aurora Gaming | 9-5 | 20-13 |
| 5 | Smart Omega | 7-7 | 15-18 |
| 6 | TNC Pro Team | 4-10 | 14-22 |
AP Bren (3-11) and Twisted Minds PH (0-14) were eliminated. The two top seeds skipped the play-ins and are waiting in today's upper-bracket semifinals.
Team Liquid PH enters as the team to beat. Spin.ph reported that the Cavalry completed an unprecedented three-peat last May, beating Team Falcons 4-2 in the Season 17 Grand Finals at the FilOil Centre after a 13-1 regular season. Falcons, the team they beat in that final, is the other top seed this time.
Ticket prices and what is already sold out
Tickets are sold only through the league's ticketing partner Tickelo via ph-mpl.com/tickets. Moonton said in its venue announcement that tiers started at ₱200 when sales opened on September 26. The prices and status shown on the ticket page when we checked on October 22:
| Session | Mythic (rows 2-4) | Legend (lower/upper box) |
|---|
| Oct 21-23 sessions | ₱350 | ₱250 |
| Oct 24, Lower Bracket Final | ₱600 | ₱500 |
| Oct 25, Grand Final | ₱700 (sold out) | ₱600 |
The VISA Mythical Glory Day Pass, which covers a full day with front-row couch seating, merchandise and a players' signing, is ₱1,800 for Days 1 to 3, ₱2,000 for Day 4 and ₱2,500 for Day 5. Every day pass from Day 2 onward was marked sold out, and both Day 1 sessions were sold out as well.
Two rules worth knowing before you buy: tickets are transferable but non-refundable, and the venue does not admit children under 7 or unaccompanied minors aged 7 to 17. The page also says that if a tier shows sold out, unpaid pending orders are cleared every 15 minutes, so a slot can reappear.
How to watch for free
Every match streams on the league's official Facebook, YouTube and TikTok channels, which are linked from ph-mpl.com. Today's games start at 3:00 PM (ONIC vs Falcons) and 7:00 PM (Aurora vs Liquid).
What is at stake: ₱9.4 million and a ticket to Istanbul
Liquipedia lists the Season 18 prize pool at $150,000. At the ₱62.985-per-dollar close that GMA News reported on October 16, that is about ₱9.4 million, by our conversion.
The bigger prize is the trip. Moonton said the playoffs decide which Philippine teams represent the country at the M8 World Championship in Istanbul, Türkiye, in January 2027. M8 is the next edition of the M Series, the same championship that Visa signed on to sponsor through 2029.
The move to PhilSports Arena is itself a milestone. The venue is run by the Philippine Sports Commission and hosted the 2005 and 2019 Southeast Asian Games, and Moonton's Philippine esports marketing head Jane Dela Cruz framed the choice as a bigger stage for the game's 10th-anniversary year. Moonton says Mobile Legends: Bang Bang has passed 1.5 billion installs and 110 million monthly active users worldwide.
