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| (Image Source: Wazzup.ph/The Nationals) |
The Nationals, the first franchise-based professional gaming league in the Philippines, has officially kicked off its third season with huge but intriguing changes that benefit not only the local eSports scene, but also to aspiring professional gamers who want to showcase their prowess in hopes of an opportunity to compete in the national and international stages. Hardly enough, the season kicked off with a developmental approach that determines who has enough potential to enter the big leagues and jumpstart their career as professional gamers.
The said approach comprises of three different stages: the Academy Series which is an exclusive stand-alone weekend tournament geared specifically for student gamers where only teams and/or players currently enrolling in school can take part and compete; the Challenger Series featuring two stand-alone weekend tournaments open to everyone who aspires to jumpstart their eSports career; and the Draft Series, a combine-like tournament where the top teams and players from both the Challenger and Academy Series showcase their prowess for an opportunity to be scouted by the top professional gaming teams in the country.
The Nationals' development approach has eventually produced new faces in various new places that are trying to make their own mark not only in the country's most prestigious competition but also in the local professional gaming circuit as well. These include Daniel "Kunicat" De Leon for Cignal Ultra Warriors, Lance "Sidesteplance" Yulo for Bren ePro and Joachim "Gold_Standard" Fuentes for the STI eOlympians. Meanwhile, several familiar athletes have signed up for a different team this time around such as the number one draft pick Mark Daniel "Machinehead" Eking fielded by Smart Omega, Jassen "JS5N" Capuyan" joining Lars Playbook Auto eSports and Jim "Don Argus" Casimiro now with the Happy Feet Emperors.
Another big change in The Nationals for the third season is the restructured format of its conferences, the Pro League, which contains the Play-In, Group and Playoffs stages. The Play-In stage will be a single round-robin eliminator where the two least ranked players at the end of the stage shall be eliminated while the Group Stage will be another single round-robin eliminator where, as in the Play-In stage, the two least ranked players at the end of the stage will be eliminated. Then there is the Playoffs stage which is, fortunately enough, similar to the playoffs of previous seasons where the champion will be crowned in a proper Top 8 double elimination tournament. With all that said, the third season of The Nationals has literally delivered its premise of being more challenging than the previous seasons and those who have tuned in can expect more grit and action not only from some of the best professional gamers in the country, but also untapped talent from different parts of the country with the potential of making an impact in the local and international eSports scene.
Catch The Nationals every Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday live online on the official Facebook pages of GG Network, The Nationals and One Sports with delayed television broadcast on free TV via One Sports and pay TV via One Sports+ on Cignal. For more news, updates and developments on the first franchise-based professional gaming league in the Philippines, visit and follow The Nationals on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
