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| TV5 president and CEO Vincent "Chot" Reyes, Playbook eSports tournament organizer Richard Brojan and eSports National Association of the Philippines secretary general Ren Vitug at the Road To The Nationals media briefing (Image Source: Ungeek.ph) |
When I first learned about The Nationals on the World Wide Web, I was
delighted to see what many Filipinos can expect from the local professional
gaming scene in the coming months out of curiosity and doubts. Fortunately, our
answers are about to be addressed with the beginning of what is considered to
be a long and fruitful search for young and old gamers who have the potential
to become professional athletes and compete in front of a wider audience - The
Road To The Nationals.
Before I give you a first-hand briefing about the said search, I assume
that some of you who have visited my blog frequently were already familiar with
the first franchise model professional eSports league in the Philippines
considering that I have already written and published an article about it a few
months ago. Otherwise, you should know that The Nationals is a brainchild of eight
different organizations (Mediaquest, PLDT/Smart, TV5 Network Inc., TNC Pro Gaming,
Happyfeet Gaming, Bren eSports, Gariath Concepts, STI Education Systems) that
are committed for the development of eSports in the Philippines.
The Road To The Nationals is a grassroots program that aims to search,
develop and nurture aspiring pro gamers from different parts of the country who
have the passion, desire and potential to become professional athletes and eventually
represent the country in the international stage. Slated to begin in August,
the program will consist of various open qualifiers that would take place in
different parts of the country and feature a series of tournaments where local
players can compete in either DOTA 2, Mobile Legends, and a console game
(either NBA 2K18 or Tekken 7) that will be tentatively announced soon.
Within these tournaments, only eight teams or players who have conquered
their matches in the initial stages will move on to the next round. From there,
they will be given an opportunity to be drafted into the main stage of The
Nationals and even sign up as professional athletes that can make our country
proud in the near future. One intriguingly interesting thing about the program
is that these are all sanctioned by the eSports National Association of the
Philippines (ESNAP), a new National Sports Association (NSA) for professional
gaming.
The professional gaming scene in the Philippines has come a long way
since the release of Counter-Strike, Starcraft and Command and Conquer in the late
90s followed by the inception of online gaming in the early years of the new
millennium. As eSports continues to grow and evolve around the world, so are
the Filipino pro gamers. With such a fast-rising discipline set to make its
debut in the 2018 Asian Games as a demonstration sport and on the heels of becoming
an official sport in the upcoming Olympics, the Philippines has already seen
the perfect opportunity to search and discover future eSports stars and promote
professional gaming as not just a form of entertainment, but as one that
promotes the same set of values as the likes of basketball and volleyball.
Thus, the creation of ESNAP with a nod from no less than the Philippine Sports
Commission (PSC) and The Road To The Nationals mark the start of a new chapter
for Philippine eSports as well as for those who want to make their nation proud.
