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| (Image Source: Facebook/PCCL eSports) |
Serving as the program's major component is the National Intercollegiate Cyber League (NICL) featuring more than 1,000 teams comprising of about 800,000 players from over 200 schools, colleges and universities nationwide. Patterned after the National Collegiate Championship basketball tournament, the NICL will hold regional qualifiers starting in June culminating with a national tournament that will be held on December. School tours will be conducted to promote responsible gaming and a potential career pathway in the professional gaming industry which will soon begin at the First Asia Institute of Technology and Humanities (FAITH) in Tanauan City, Batangas. Also part of the program are scouting and developing athletes and coaches while providing state-of-the-art equipment and facilities.
PCCL president Reynaldo Gamboa assured that the newly established eSports program will not get in the way of the athletes' academic activities as there will be on-school engagements and interactions championing the idea that eSports is a valid sport where students can be involved as in the other disciplines. For former Gilas Pilipinas head coach and now PCCL eSports president Chot Reyes, he believes that the PCCL-Mineski partnership will be a very interesting one which can be delivered to the grassroots level in continuing efforts of further promoting eSports in the Philippines.
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In the 45th season, the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) will officially launch and introduce its own 3x3 league that seeks to further elevate the Philippines' standing in the FIBA 3x3 rankings considering that Philippine basketball has a bigger chance of qualifying for the Olympics through 3x3. The league will be independent from its five-on-five counterpart and open to everybody who is unfortunate in the mother league according to league commissioner Willie Marcial during the press conference for its season opening last February 25th.
All of the twelve PBA teams will field a four-man lineup with the addition of two new teams to the fray namely Mighty Bond and Mister Donut. According to PBA Board of Governors Vice Chairman Bobby Rosales, there will be no age limits for interested players and no draft process for all teams. However, the league stipulated that each squad must have two Fil-foreigners. In any case a PBA 3x3 player wants to join the mother league, then he has to go through the annual Rookie Draft. With the blessing of FIBA, the league will use the official 3x3 branding which includes the iconic "infinity" logo. It can also incur the maximum available points per tournament level by linking the SBP with the PBA.
Officially sanctioned by and following the rules and guidelines of FIBA, fourteen squads will be divided into two groups of seven and are set to play a total of 42 elimination games leading to the playoffs. Though the opening of the 3x3 league is yet to be finalized, the games will run every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Once the playoff picture is set, the playoffs will consist of 14 postseason games including a best-of-three semifinals and finals. Aside from the league's opening, the cash prizes for the top teams are also yet to be determined. The organization of the league's women's division is yet to be approved and finalized by the PBA Board of Governors.
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ONE eSports, the professional gaming arm of Asia's largest and most valuable sports media brand ONE Championship, officially announced on its press statement the inaugural ONE eSports Mobile Legends Bang Bang (MLBB) Invitational which will be held from May 2 to July 5, 2020. In partnership with mobile game developer Moonton, the event will bring top MLBB players and teams from around the world slated to compete with a prize pool of US$150,000 at stake.
The invitational will develop the best MLBB teams on the planet, share and celebrate the success of eSports heroes, and inspire MLBB gamers and enthusiasts around the world following the successful inclusion and staging of the world's most popular Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) game outside of China in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games held in the Philippines late last year. The event will kick off with a series of country online qualifiers taking place on May 2-3 in Indonesia and Singapore, May 9-10 in the Philippines and Indonesia, and May 16-17 in Thailand and Vietnam and leading to the invitational's Main Event stage on July 1-5.
Overall winners of the competition will take home the grand cash prize of US$50,000 followed by US$25,000 for second place, US$20,000 for third place and US$15,000 for fourth place. The fifth and sixth placers get US$8,000 each, while the seventh and eighth receive US$6,000 each. The 9th and 10th placers pocket themselves with US$4,000 each. Finally, the teams that finished 11th and 12th place take home US$2,000 each. For more information about the event, visit oneesports.gg/one-mli.
