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| (Image Source: Philstar.com/Collegiate Center For eSports) |
A new dawn in the Philippine collegiate professional gaming scene has arrived with the birth of the Collegiate Center For eSports (CCE), aimed to create an avenue for the Filipino youth aspiring to find their niche in the booming and progressive online gaming industry. The newly-established institution serves as a home to an organized nationwide collegiate league as an adaptation to the ever-changing sports landscape in the middle of the continuing global COVID-19 pandemic.
With collegiate sports action still on hiatus due to the pandemic, CCE rises as the perfect platform for Filipino professional gaming athletes to strut their stuff in the discipline that has enjoyed a steady increase of users and audience in millions over the decade. From audience to distinctions, the Philippines has solely cemented its place among the mecca of eSports more particularly in Mobile Legends: Bang Bang as strongly evidenced by the performance of the country's top MLBB squads in the Mobile Legends Southeast Asia Cup and M2 MLBB World Championship as well as the national eSports team SIBOL in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games. “The esports scene, especially ML, has grown bigger and bigger in the Philippines and Asia over the years, paving the way for us in creating an organized league in the collegiate ranks. That’s basically the origin of CCE. Our goal is for this dream to be nationwide down the road,” said CCE organizer Ssein Meneses.
CCE was formally introduced to the local eSports scene and audience through a series of 1 vs 1 Exhibition Matches which runs every weekend until October featuring representatives from the ten member schools of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) including Season 95 men's basketball Finals MVP Fran Yu of the Colegio De San Juan De Letran Knights. Online entertainment channel CALM Network serves as the prelude CCE event's official broadcaster. Following the exhibition series, the league is planning to launch its first official event, the CCE MLBB Varsity Cup, on October with renouned college basketball and eSports athletes competing. After the MLBB Varsity Cup, the league envisions a calendar for its first regular season featuring regular eSports players from their respective schools for a shot at catering scholarship programs soon to be offered especially with more schools starting to offer eSports and game development courses such as the Lyceum of the Philippines University - Manila Campus (LPU-Manila).
