Paul Delos Santos is a reporter based in Las Vegas. He covers the Vegas Golden Knights for NHL.com and also covers esports and general Las Vegas sports for The Sporting Tribune. He’s a gamer who never has time to play them, so he naturally opted to write and talk about them instead.
Olivia Richman is a seasoned esports journalist who has worked with Inven Global, Esports Illustrated, Esports.gg, and more. As an editor and writer at Esports Insider, she loves telling unique esports stories, especially within the FGC. When not working and gaming, Olivia loves collecting Kirby plush, eating sushi, and driving her cars at the track.
Image Credit: Esports World Cup The benefit of winning matches comes with the glory of playing more high-stakes matches and the opportunity to grow.
In 2025, Gaimin Gladiators became the first North American team to make it to the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang international final at the Esports World Cup Women’s Invitational.
The team featured four American players – Ashley “Ashlay” Ann, Cindy “Panda” Zhou, Jessica Qi-Yao “Sayori” Cao, and Nicole “Nicholette” Huang – making it a fantastic feat for a game that is underrepresented in the country.
Imagine waiting an entire year to compete at an international tournament for one spot in the Esports World Cup Women’s Invitational.
That’s what most of Ashlay’s current Gen.G and former Gaimin Gladiators teammates went through despite finishing second at the 2025 Esports World Cup MLBB: Women’s Invitational.
While Ashlay had the opportunity to play for Vendetta’s co-gendered roster during MCT Americas Split 1, her teammates weren’t competing on a publicly announced competitive stage for the better part of the year. The other members of Gaimin Gladiators have no other logged events on Liquipedia; for most, their last entries are either the EWC MWI or its qualifier.
Part of this is due to North America’s lack of interest in mobile gaming. It doesn’t carry the same cachet as its console or PC counterparts, and it doesn’t have the same cultural resonance in North America that it does in parts of the world like Southeast Asia.
So while MLBB remains one of the world’s most-viewed esports, according to Esports Charts, it’s relatively unknown in the West .
Ashlay’s solution is simple: more tournaments, more exposure. It’s a classic Catch-22 – more tournaments help find players and showcase stars, but without an audience, it’s difficult to host more events.
While Gen.G took a leap of faith in bringing on most of the team that finished second in 2025, it wasn’t enough to cause a seismic shift in interest for the game. In fact, it marked the third banner Ashlay, Panda, and Sayori had played under in three years at the EWC (Cloud9 Female in 2024, Gaimin Gladiators in 2025, Gen.G in 2026).
Most of that might be tied to the lucrative prize pool that comes with the EWC Club Championships, but winning regularly likely secures longer-term investments, like Team Vitality’s commitment to their women’s MLBB team through 2030.
Esports Foundation Deputy CEO and COO Mike McCabe said the EF found value in the MLBB women’s ecosystem and its overall strength in Southeast Asia, as well as its growing influence in East Asia and Western Europe.
But while the EF can offer a stage, he placed the emphasis on publishers like MOONTON to do their part in building gaming ecosystems in…