16 Teams Compete in ‘Mobile Legends: Bang Bang’ Women's Tournament in Riyadh

This year’s edition is the largest in the tournament’s history, featuring 16 teams. (SPA)
This year’s edition is the largest in the tournament’s history, featuring 16 teams. (SPA)
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16 Teams Compete in ‘Mobile Legends: Bang Bang’ Women's Tournament in Riyadh

This year’s edition is the largest in the tournament’s history, featuring 16 teams. (SPA)
This year’s edition is the largest in the tournament’s history, featuring 16 teams. (SPA)

The second week of the Esports World Cup 2025 kicked off in Riyadh on Tuesday featuring the “Mobile Legends: Bang Bang” Women’s Invitational (MWI). The tournament is a key event on the competition’s calendar, bringing together top global mobile gaming stars for the second consecutive year, reported the Saudi Press Agency.

Since its release in 2016, “Mobile Legends: Bang Bang” has established itself as one of the world’s leading esports titles, thanks to its widely followed international and regional tournaments. With over 110 million monthly active users, it has become one of the most popular mobile multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games globally.

This year’s edition is the largest in the tournament’s history, featuring 16 teams compared to 12 last year, with qualifiers held across 57 regions worldwide, up from 46 regions in the previous edition.

The current edition features 16 teams representing 13 regions from around the world. The participating teams are Team Vitality, ONIC Pertiwi, Natus Vincere PH, Team Liquid, Natus Vincere MY, SFU Serendipity, Falcons Vega MENA, DreamMax Girls, Rising Rage, WAOW GG Esports, Virtus.pro FE, FUT Esports, Gaimin Gladiators, Twisted Minds Orchid, Tidal Legends Gaming, and Terror Queens.

The teams will compete for a total prize pool of $500,000, with an additional $50,000 awarded to the best player. The tournament also offers 3,350 points toward the Club Championship race in the Esports World Cup 2025.

Saudi Arabia and Egypt are prominently represented by Twisted Minds Orchid and Falcons Vega MENA, both aiming for their first title in the tournament and carrying the hopes of their supporters for a historic achievement.

Twisted Minds Orchid features Saudi players “Lyrx,” “Lunar,” and “Livin,” while Falcons Vega MENA competes with an all-Egyptian lineup of “Velvet,” “Sunlight,” “Yui,” “Names,” and “Fvvn.”



Hundreds of Firefighters Battling Wildfire in Southern France

An Airbus H125 helicopter drops water over a wildfire in Saint-Julien Les Martigues, northwest of Marseille in southern France on July 18, 2025. (Photo by Christophe SIMON / AFP)
An Airbus H125 helicopter drops water over a wildfire in Saint-Julien Les Martigues, northwest of Marseille in southern France on July 18, 2025. (Photo by Christophe SIMON / AFP)
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Hundreds of Firefighters Battling Wildfire in Southern France

An Airbus H125 helicopter drops water over a wildfire in Saint-Julien Les Martigues, northwest of Marseille in southern France on July 18, 2025. (Photo by Christophe SIMON / AFP)
An Airbus H125 helicopter drops water over a wildfire in Saint-Julien Les Martigues, northwest of Marseille in southern France on July 18, 2025. (Photo by Christophe SIMON / AFP)

Nearly 1,000 firefighters and helicopters battled a wildfire about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of France's second-largest city Marseille on Friday, but officials said lower temperatures and increased humidity had improved the situation.

The 240-hectare (593 acres) wildfire flared up a week after a separate conflagration reached the northwestern outskirts of Marseille, forcing people to evacuate or into lockdown and temporarily shuttering the area's airport.

Pierre Bepoix, the colonel of rescue operations and deputy director for the area's firefighters, said 150 people had been evacuated, but firefighters had managed to save 150 homes and portions of the area's forests.

"It was a fire that swept through relatively dense vegetation ... which made our work particularly complicated," Bepoix told Reuters. "Obviously, priority was given to the preservation and protection of these homes and the lives that could be in these buildings."

Local officials said in a statement that 120 homes had been threatened by the fire, adding that it was not possible yet to identify any possible damage to them, and that two firefighters had been injured.

Meanwhile in Spain, a wildfire that broke out on Thursday evening in the central Toledo province and could be seen from downtown Madrid, ravaged 3,200 hectares of woodland.

Regional emergency services said early on Friday firefighters had secured the perimeter, though there were concerns over strong winds and high temperatures forecast throughout the day.