M5 World Championship: AP.Bren and Fire Flux Esports qualify for Playoffs while Team Flash and RRQ Akira go home
Three more spots in the Playoffs are still up for grabs in the final day of the M5 World Championship Group Stage.
Two more aspiring Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) teams have qualified for the M5 World Championship Playoffs after the penultimate day of the Group Stage on Wednesday (6 December).
The Philippines' AP.Bren punched their ticket to the Playoffs by locking up the top seed of Group C while Turkey's Fire Flux Esports became the second team from Group B to advance. They will be joining the Philippines' Blacklist International, Indonesia's ONIC Esports, and Cambodia's See You Soon, who were the first batch of teams to qualify for the Playoffs.
Meanwhile, Singapore's Team Flash and Brazil's RRQ Akira had their championship hopes snuffed out early.
Here's how things stand after day five of the M5 World Championship Group Stage:
AP.Bren earn Playoff spot, Team Flash eliminated
AP.Bren have locked up the top seed of Group C by virtue of sweeping their first two matches and all other teams in their group having a losing record.
After kicking off their Group Stage campaign with a 2-0 victory over Myanmar's Burmese Ghouls in day one, AP.Bren didn't let a two-day break slow them down as they swept Singapore's Team Flash in day five to earn a spot in the Playoffs.
That loss also knocked out Team Flash from M5, as they fell to a 3-5 game record after previously winning against Burmese Ghouls, 2-1, but losing to Mongolia's Team Lilgun, 2-1.
The final match of Group C between AP.Bren and Team Lilgun will determine the second team to advance to the Playoffs from the group.
Team Lilgun currently has a 1-1 series record off their win over Team Flash and a 2-0 loss to Burmese Ghouls. Meanwhile, Burmese Ghouls have a 1-2 record, having lost to AP.Bren and Team Flash.
Team Lilgun will need to avoid getting swept by AP.Bren to have a chance to qualify for the Playoffs. If they somehow win, then they will get that second spot. At worst, they can hope to lose 1-2 and force a tiebreaker with Burmese Ghouls.
Group B settled with Fire Flux Esports through to Playoffs, RRQ Akira out
The outcome for Group B has now largely been settled as Fire Flux Esports claimed the group's second Playoff spot while RRQ Akira was eliminated.
Despite previously losing to RRQ Akira, 2-0, Fire Flux Esports caught a lucky break after the already-eliminated Team SMG won their match against the Brazilian squad. This outcome meant that Fire Flux will finish with, at worst, a 3-4 record compared to the 3-5 records of both Team SMG and RRQ Akira.
Group B will close out with a match between Blacklist International and Fire Flux Esports to determine which team will take the top seed of Group B.
Group D Playoff spots still up for grabs
While all the other groups have largely been settled, chaos still reigns over in Group D.
With North America's TheOhioBrothers already eliminated, the group's two Playoff spots are being contested by Indonesia's Geek Fam ID, Russia's Deus Vult, and Malaysia's HomeBois.
Day five saw Deus Vult score a huge 2-1 win over HomeBois, which puts them behind Geek Fam ID in the standings.
The Indonesian team holds the top spot with a 4-3 game record, having previously swept TheOhioBrothers, winning 2-1 against Deus Vult, but getting swept themselves by HomeBois. Meanwhile, the Russian contingent has a 5-4 game record off of their win over HomeBois to go with another 2-1 victory over TheOhioBrothers against a 1-2 loss to Geek Fam ID.
Despite being already eliminated, TheOhioBrothers can determine how Group D shakes out as they play in the final match of the group against HomeBois.
A 2-0 sweep in favor of HomeBois gives them a final 5-2 record and should propel them to the top of the group, leapfrogging both Geek Fam ID and Deus Vult in the process.
A 2-1 win for HomeBois will still get them to the Playoffs, though this will likely lead to a chaotic tiebreaker scenario for the second Playoff spot between Geek Fam ID and Deus Vult.
Finally, any win scenario for TheOhioBrothers spells the end for HomeBois' Playoff hopes and hands the tickets over to Geek Fam ID and Deus Vult.
The M5 World Championship Group Stage will take place from 2 to 7 December at the EVM Convention Center in Metro Manila.
The Group Stage will see the 16 teams divided into four groups of four teams each, where they will compete in a single round robin with best-of-three matches. The Top 2 teams from each group will advance to the Playoffs while the bottom two teams will be eliminated.
The M5 World Championship Playoffs will follow a double elimination format with all matches being a best-of-five except for the Grand Finals, which will be a full best-of-seven series.
The Knockout Stage will also be held in two phases. The first phase will be held in the EMV Convention Center from 9 to 12 December and includes the upper bracket quarterfinals (9 to 10 December), the first round of the lower bracket (11 December), and the upper bracket semifinals (12 December).
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