All-Filipino Smart Omega Empress emerged as MWI 2024 champions after defeating Team Vitality with a clean 3-0 sweep in the grand finals.
The all-Cebuana roster writes history as the first Filipino team to win a tournament at the inaugural Esports World Cup (EWC) 2024, which featured the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Women's Invitational (MWI) as one of the events held in Saudi Arabia.
Omega Empress swept their Indonesian opponents in the Best-of-Five (BO5) Grand Finals, bringing a stop to their 24-match winning streak that began in 2021.
Along with the trophy, Omega Empress took home USD 180,000 (roughly PHP 10.5 million) of the USD 500,000 prize pool (~ PHP 29.2 million), the largest-ever prize in women's esports.
Sheen "Shinoa" Perez was named the Finals Most Valuable Player (FMVP), bagging USD 50,000 (~ PHP 2.9 million).
The MWI is the largest MLBB esports event for women athletes, and it strives to offer female players a platform to pursue their esports dreams. The MWI 2024 was held at the Amazon Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for the first time outside of Southeast Asia, as part of the first Esports World Cup. The competition featured 12 international teams from around the world.
Smart Omega Empress (OMGE) is bannered by Gold Laner Sheen "Shinoa" Perez, Jungler Kaye "Keishi" Alpuerto, EXP Laner Gwyneth "Ayanami" Diagon, Mid Laner Rica "Amoree" Amores, and Roamer Mery Christine "Meraaay" Vivero. The squad is led by Coach Salman "KingSalman" Macarambon.
OMGE Roamer Meraaay said in a post-match press conference:
We want to give honor to our country. I hope we made our kababayans (countrymen) 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. 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.
The third edition of the MWI broke the tournament's previous viewership record. The MWI 2024 Grand Finals had 265,117 Peak Concurrent Viewers (PCV), according to Esports Charts. Esports Charts reported that the previous high of 179,024 PCV was set at MWI 2023.
Image via MOONTON Games
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