The ONE Esports Mobile Legends Professional League Invitational 2022 (MPLI 2022) is right around the corner.
20 teams from Cambodia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore will duke it out from November 2 to 6 to determine which MPL team is the best in Southeast Asia.
With a myriad of creative strategies highlighting the previous MPL season, MPLI 2022 is shaping up to be a thrilling affair. From Blacklist International pulling off a Valentina jungle to ONIC Esports winning the grand final thanks to an off-meta Lesley pick, there’s a lot to be excited about when it comes to what these teams have in store for MPLI 2022.
Here are three strategies that will most likely determine the meta tomorrow.
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3 strategies that will dictate the MPLI 2022 meta
The UBE strategy is alive and kicking
The UBE strategy, an acronym for ultimate bonding experience, has been around for over a year now and is still considered one of the most effective strategies in competitive Mobile Legends: Bang Bang.
Pioneered by Blacklist International in Season 8, the strategy involves pairing either one or two support heroes with a fighter or tank jungler.
Whether the team is starting a team fight, retreating, or hunting down enemies, the UBE strategy dictates that they have to be close to each other no matter what happens.
With the strategy still being widely used in MPL ID and MPL PH in Season 10, there’s a big chance that teams at MPLI 2022 will continue to rely on this particular play.
Tank junglers are just too overpowered to ignore
Tank junglers became a thing when the Retribution battle spell was buffed to deal more damage based on the hero’s max HP in patch 1.6.08 last year.
A year later, the tank jungler meta remains dominant in competitive play, and the balance adjustments in patch 1.7.20 a week ago may have only further entrenched this particular meta. Cursed Helmet was buffed, the only item that was buffed in the patch.
A must-have item for all tank heroes in the jungle, the item’s passive has been improved and now deals more damage per level on minions and creeps. This change may pave way for more jungle players to try out the juggernauts of the Land of Dawn.
Whether we see new tank heroes aside from Akai, Balmond, and Karina at MPLI 2022 is up for debate, but one thing is for certain — tank junglers will definitely make an appearance.
The rise of the hyper carry marksmen heroes
Step aside Brody and Beatrix, new marksman heroes are about to emerge at MPLI.
Even after Lesley‘s massive rework in patch 1.7.20, she was still rarely picked in competitive play.
It was not until ONIC Esports’ Calvin “CW” Winata locked her in the grand final of MPL ID and pulled off a Maniac to secure the championship that everyone saw just how strong hyper carries can be in competitive play.
Hyper carries are heroes that have a weak early game but get stronger in the late game when they have completed their core items. Heroes such as Claude, Melissa, and Lesley are considered hyper carries as they are item dependent, coming into their own only when they have built one or two core items.
Expect most, if not all, of these heroes to get picked up at MPLI 2022.
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READ MORE: Full list of the MPL PH Season 10 Hall of Legends inductees
