AFTER DAYS OF SPECULATION about what’s inside the mysterious giant box floating on the Pasig River, it was finally revealed to be a giant birthday cake surrounded by hundreds of plants, which were donated for the Pasig River. MOONTON Games, as it turns out, has partnered with the government to raise awareness on the need to conserve the Pasig River, the country’s most historic waterway. The plants will be sowed in strategic areas of the river where there is sufficient space. Water hyacinth, vetiver, areca palm, boston fern, and dracaena, some plants that improve water quality by eating toxins from the water.

The #MLBBAnn7versaya highlighted some of the country’s leading content creators. MOONTON evidently spent a fortune mounting the event, which included a 7-minute fireworks display, and huge in-game diamonds giveaways to at least 10 people, who won 10,000 diamonds each.
“Di ba sa atin, kapag nag-birthday ka ng seven years old, malaking bagay talaga na kailangan i-celebrate? Ganun din sa Mobile Legends: Bang Bang,” Chai Gutierrez, MOONTON Games Marketing Manager for Gaming, told SPIN.ph.
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It’s a commendable effort on the part of the popular MOBA game to raise awareness on the Pasig River’s depressing state: Its murky brown water is a brackish contrast to the pale blue sky over Binondo’s skyline. As the sunset fell where Manila Bay and the Pasig River met, the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang’s birthday party started.

But something else drew roused us in the big celebration.
Beyond giant cakes and fireworks, quite the unforeseen highlight of #MLBBAnn7versaya was the joy and innocent irreverence of children in attendance. Here, only children found purpose for a languishing monument to the Galleon Trade and a statue of a Mexican president.


At exactly 5:30, they started allowing the crowd in. "Bawal ang walang ligo, ha!" the bouncer shouted over the din of excited children racing each other at the entrance . I chuckled as some children, accused of not taking a shower, eventually squeezed their way into the venue. They had been waiting for hours to see which TikTok stars they could encounter.

Once inside, a brave little girl approached me and asked where all the TikTok stars will come out.
“Lalabas sila sa loob ng box doon sa ilog,” I said with a poker face. Of course, I was joking but I relished the look of her puzzled face as she schemed how to get a close shot of their entrance.
View from the bridge on Pasig River

When the content creators came out, the hundreds of children cried out nonstop, incessantly shouting to their TikTok idols asking for pictures, shoutouts, selfies, and fistbumps.
After the seven-minute fireworks display that capped the event, all the TikTok celebrities were making their exit when a little girl tapped my arm. She held out her cellphone with the camera on.
"Sir, paki sabi po kay Nics, picture," she said.
"Sino si Nics?" I said.
"Hayun ooh!" She pointed her lips to a lanky, dreamy twink in a sky blue button-down. He was with his girlfriend, who turned out to be Mark Bulambao, boyfriend of Nics Orense.
"Ah, okay. Ano gagawin niya, selfie sa phone mo?"
"Opo."
So I took her phone and walked a couple of meters into a sea of people. I looked back to see if she was worried I might disappear and steal her device but her eyes glimmered in disbelief at what was about to take place. I gave the phone to the young man and told him to take a selfie. CLICK. Brought the phone back to the girl.
"Thank you, siiir!"
She was in tears. And then about a dozen little hands raised their phones toward me, shouting, "Kuysssss ako rin!!"
I escaped to the VIP tent!
After we had dinner in the tent, we were given these little birthday cupcakes from Mobile Legends. On our way out, a little straggler caught up.
"Kuya, akin na lang yung cupcake mo?"
He beamed as if he was given something very precious.
Another kid ran and asked for the same, so I gave my last birthday cupcake from Mobile Legends. She carefully tucked it away, presumably to share her tiny prized treat with her family back home.
The birthday cupcake from Mobile Legends

The birthday party for Mobile Legends was a bang: there was a giant cake, a lot of people won ten thousand diamonds each, and the fireworks lasted seven minutes. But all of these were meaningless without the children, some of whom don’t even have phones to play Mobile Legends on, but MOONTON embraced them anyway.
As the event concluded, a surge of appreciation that had nothing to do with plants and fireworks swelled in me. I felt the kids’ happiness because of inclusivity, the same feeling I had when I installed the game five years ago. Whether it’s raising awareness on environmental issues or creating memories with folks at the MPL, Mobile Legends has always made everyone feel included.
You'd hear stories about a 74-year-old grandma who plays Mobile Legends, or how a bombing survivor found a second life because of the mobile game. Inclusivity is ingrained in the fabric of Mobile Legends, and that was what I saw in #MLBBAnn7versaya.
The only reason I installed the game on my phone was so that I would not feel out of place in the office where most of my colleagues played it. I’ve been playing Mobile Legends for more than five years, and I don’t think I will stop any time soon.
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