{"id":192471,"date":"2024-02-27T11:54:55","date_gmt":"2024-02-27T21:54:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=192471"},"modified":"2024-02-27T14:47:35","modified_gmt":"2024-02-28T00:47:35","slug":"mlbb-offline-meetup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2024\/02\/27\/mlbb-offline-meetup\/","title":{"rendered":"Esports goes mobile: UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa trailblazers host first mobile gaming meetup"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

\"people<\/p>\n

Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB<\/abbr>) has become an increasingly popular mobile esports game worldwide designed to be played on mobile devices. The University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa esports program, led by director Nyle Sky Kauweloa, is using the platform to bring together players from Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> and across the Pacific region to increase the level of play, while bringing together the gaming community.<\/p>\n

\"people<\/p>\n

In preparation for a major MLBB<\/abbr> tournament Kauweloa is planning for April, he and the UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa esports program hosted an offline meetup session, February 25, at UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa\u2019s iLab. Nearly 100 attended to learn more about the game and meet directly with esports leaders.<\/p>\n

“With our MLBB<\/abbr> leadership at UHE<\/abbr>, we have worked with Moonton (the video game publisher for MLBB<\/abbr>) to actually get the UH<\/abbr> meetup featured in the pregame announcements within the actual game so that everyone who opens the game will see our event,” Kauweloa said. “This is definitely a first for UH<\/abbr> Esports. To put that into perspective, the game officially registered 1 billion downloads as of 2022.”<\/p>\n

Representatives from Moonton attended, as well as OneQode, a company responsible for creating the optimal networking connections for the April tournament. Kauweloa also reached out to the Filipino Chamber of Commerce of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>, Filipino Jaycees of Honolulu and the Filipino Community Center to spread the word about the meetup session and tournament.<\/p>\n

“The goal of leveraging Mobile Legends is to catalyze two conversations around esports in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>: 1) That mobile technologies address issues of the digital divide in ways that PC<\/abbr>s aren’t able to, and UH<\/abbr> Esports is here to be a pillar for that cause, and 2) this is a game that is heavily embedded in our local Filipino community, not only for competitive play but as a means of social inclusion and interactions,” Kauweloa said. “As the director of UH<\/abbr> Esports, I am seeking to position our program as a means of extending accessibility to underserved and underrecognized communities.”<\/p>\n

In MLBB<\/abbr>, players compete in teams of five to defeat the opposing team’s base while controlling their own hero character. Each hero has unique abilities and characteristics, and players can choose from a wide variety of heroes to suit their playstyle. MLBB<\/abbr> was the second and third most watched esports tournament in 2023 with a peak viewership count of more than five million.<\/p>\n

UH<\/abbr> Esports receives funding from the Academy for Creative Media System<\/a>. Visit the UH<\/abbr> Esports team\u2019s X<\/a> and Discord<\/a> pages. More stories on UH<\/abbr>\u2019s esports program<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The meetup session was in preparation for a major MLBB<\/abbr> tournament Nyle Sky Kauweloa is planning for April.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[1405,1466,9],"class_list":["post-192471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-esports","tag-manoa-enhancing-student-success","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t