China sees the release of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, and Invictus Gaming joins the esports community.
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Chinese esports organisation Invictus Gaming announced the establishment of its own Mobile Legends: Bang Bang division that will contest in the new Chinese League.
The announcement coincided with the launch of MLBB in China by game publisher MOONTON during the World Championship Challenge, a showmatch in Shanghai.
MOONTON also announced a strategic partnership with Chinese smartphone brand Realme, which will provide gaming gear for the tournament in China.
Invictus Gaming has joined the global Mobile Legends: Bang Bang esports ecosystem, with the new Chinese MLBB league being owned by franchises. This means that participating organisations will have access to revenue shares provided by the game publisher.
From the Chinese qualifier, the top-performing team will participate in Mobile Masters for its MLBB 2025 event in Jakarta, Indonesia, from April 11 to April 13.
MLBB has entered the Chinese market, where its biggest opponent, Honor of Kings, boasts more than 130 million players. In the meantime, MLBB has recorded more than 600 million downloads globally, mostly from Southeast Asian regions. The game was briefly banned in the United States alongside ByteDance’s TikTok, but it was lifted a short while later.
MLBB had been confirmed as an old game title in the Saudi Esports World Cup (EWC). Now it has yet to be clarified how the competition in China will be connected to the EWC.
And coming after a long couple of years of struggle, IG was working out a major restructuring of their work for 2025, with live streaming platform Huya and multi-channel network (MCN) company Young Sports becoming the new investors into the organisation.
Apart from MLBB, Invictus Gaming finds its place in the League of Legends Professional League (LPL) and boasts a very experienced roster, including having 2018 world champions Kang ‘TheShy’ Seung-lok and Song ‘Rookie’ Eui-jin.
