Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

Mobile Legends: Bang Bang is a mobile multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) developed and published by Moonton. Released in 2016, the game has become popular in Southeast Asia and was among the games chosen for the first medal event esports competition at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games in the Philippines.^[1]

Gameplay

General

Mobile Legends: Bang Bang is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game designed for mobile phones. The two opposing teams fight to reach and destroy the enemy's base while defending their own base for control of a path, the three "lanes" known as "top", "middle" and "bottom", which connects the bases. Weaker computer-controlled characters, called "minions", spawn at team bases and follow the three lanes to the opposite team's base, fighting enemies and turrets.

In each team, there are five players who each control a character, known as a "hero" using analog/joystick controls. Heroes can be grouped into 6 different roles, Marksman, Assassin, Mage, Support, Fighter, and Tank.

Game Mode

Main Article: Game Modes

Additionally, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang have different kind of arcade games, featuring different gameplay mechanic respectively, such as:

Survival, a battle royale game mode
Chess-TD, a tower defense game mode
Magic Chess, an auto battler game mode

Characters

Mobile Legends initially had ten heroes upon its release in 2016. It later grew to 70 by November 2018, and as of May 2020, 95 heroes are currently in the live server.

Moonton regularly collaborates with Southeast Asian countries to create new characters from their respective histories or folklore to further increase the game's appeal, introducing characters such as:

Lapu-Lapu Lapu Lapu (Philippines)
Minsitthar (based on Kyansittha;(Myanmar)
Kadita (based on Roro Kidul; (Indonesia)
Badang [1] (Malaysia).

Development and Release

After Moonton's staff of 20 finished developing its first game called Magic Rush: Heroes, released in 2015 to commercial success, they proceeded with developing the company's next project, a mobile multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game later titled Mobile Legends. The staff's experience with engineering Magic Rush for a global market, such as in customizing its features for the differing cultures and state of telecommunications of various countries, became beneficial for them to more effectively design Mobile Legends as an appealing game for global players.

Mobile Legends was released by Moonton with the subtitle "5v5 MOBA" on 14 July 2016. The game became highly popular in Southeast Asia, notably in Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, where it was the most-downloaded free mobile game app among iPhone users in 2017. The game is distributed by Elex Tech in the United States.

MLBB 2.0

Main Article: Epicon 2019

On July 18, 2019, Moonton announced MLBB 2.0 via its Epicon 2019 conference. MLBB 2.0 consists of an engine upgrade to a more recent version of the Unity game engine from version 4 to version 2017. Moonton also promised faster loading times and start-up speed of up to 60%. Other improvements of the update include reduced lag, improved character modeling, and the new in-game map Imperial Sanctuary. The update helped increase the cross-platform social media views earned by the game from 56 million in September 2019 to 76 million the next month making the game ranked fourth of all channels from all gaming brands in the US.

Project NEXT

Main Article: Project NEXT

Announced on June 5, 2020, Project NEXT is Moonton's next project for Mobile Legends including revamps to older heroes' 3D models, skill sets, stories, and voice lines. They also announced an improved targeting method called "Smart Targeting" improving accuracy.

Related media

Crossovers

1.) Garudayana

In June 2017, Moonton approached Is Yuniarto, an Indonesian comic book artist that best known for Garudayana, a Javanese action fantasy comic series from Indonesia. The Garudayana comic series was published by numerous comic publishers in Indonesia such as Koloni (Original imprint version), Curhat Anak Bangsa (Garudayana Saga), Webtoon (Digital comic), and CIAYO Comics (Web comic). On 11 August 2015, Is Yuniarto stated on his Facebook page that he has officially cooperated to release the comic which is now in its fifth saga with one of the most famous online comic publishers in Japan, Digital Catapult, in which Garudayana comic originally only available in indonesian language, now also available for english and japanese language for audiences outside Indonesia.

The reason Moonton approached Is Yuniarto is to included Gatotkaca from Garudayana as a playable character in Mobile Legends: Bang Bang to promote the game, attracting local audiences as well as boosting the game popularity in Indonesia. Moonton also later included Kadita, an Indonesian goddess of the sea from Sundanese and Javanese beliefs as playable character in Mobile Legends: Bang Bang to further appeal Indonesian playerbase.

The King of Fighter

In March 2019, Moonton approached SNK for collaboration, introducing characters from The King of Fighters (KOF) as skins in Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. The skins have unique KOF ability effects and voice overs. The 1st KOF series skins released in the game were Iori Yagami for the hero Chou, Leona Heidern for the hero Karina, and Athena Asamiya for the hero Guinevere. The 2nd KOF series skins released were Kula Diamond for the hero Aurora, K' for the hero Gusion, and Orochi Chris for the hero Dyrroth.

Spin-off Game

Mobile Legends: Adventure

Main Article: Mobile Legends: Adventure

Moonton released a spin-off game entitled Mobile Legends: Adventure, a role-playing strategy game, on 31 July 2019.

Other

Mobile Legends: Pocket

Main Article: Mobile Legends: Pocket

Esports

Events

1.) 515 Unite

Main Article: 515 Unite

515 Unite is an annual global campaign launched in integrating online and offline Mobile Legends events such as cosplay competitions and roadshows. The theme song for Mobile Legends 515 Unite 2019 event was "Bang Bang" sang by Shorelle. In May 2020, Moonton released "Party Legends" on YouTube, Spotify, and other streaming services

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 515 campaign for 2020 was limited to online events and competitions.

Tournaments

Official tournaments

Main Article: World Of Tournaments

Official Mobile Legends tournaments have been held in the Southeast Asian region, including the annual Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Southeast Asian Competition (MSC) and having their own local leagues such as the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League (MPL).

The first Mobile Legends: Bang Bang World Championship, dubbed as M1, was held in Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 15 to 17 November 2019. The competition featured 16 teams across the world to battle it out for a prize pool of US$250,000.

Mobile Legends was among the first game titles to be included as a medal event for esports at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games.

Heroes

Main Article: All Heroes

A Hero is a legendary being or person who has been summoned to wage battle in Mobile Legends. They are the player-controlled characters in

Patch Notes

Main Article: Patch Notes

Patch Notes is a document that's displayed on the login screen every time a new update arrives on the Original Server or the Advanced Server. It lists all the changes, new additions, and fixes made on heroes, equipment, bugs, and more.

Controversies

In July 2018, Tencent, on behalf of Riot Games won a lawsuit in Shanghai against Moonton CEO Watson Xu Zhenhua for Mobile Legends' plagiarism of League of Legends and was awarded a settlement of $2.9 million.

Trivia

Formerly titled Mobile Legends: 5v5 MOBA

Gallery

Logo

Moonton Logo

Icon

Icon Season

Official Trailer

Videos

Official trailer

Mobile Legends Bang Bang 5v5 MOBA On Mobile, Classic 3-Lane Battle!

Mobile Legends Bang Bang - New Official Trailer

References

↑ en.wikipedia.org

[1] .wikipedia.org

[1]