| Guardian's Hive was hailed as champions of the League of Legends Empyrean Cup during the last day of ESGS 2023, taking home the grand cash prize of Php500,000. (Image Source: PinoyGamer.ph/Riot Games Philippines) |
Riot Games conquers the Philippine gaming and eSports scene anew with the Empyrean Cup, the first official League of Legends (LoL) tournament in the country, after regaining publishing rights for both League and Teamfight Tactics (TFT) earlier this year. The Empyrean Cup, the competitive LoL eSports tournament, reignites the local LoL community’s enthusiasm as it saw eight teams play it out on stage at the 2023 Electronic Sports and Gaming Summit (ESGS) held last November 3-5, 2023 at the World Trade Center in Pasay City.
Riot’s inaugural Empyrean Cup was met with excitement by the local LoL community, drawing out more than 200 team registrations nationwide. As Gold Exhibitor and supporter of ESGS and the local gaming scene, Riot staged the grand finals of the tournament at the event pitting the top eight teams — Guardian’s Hive, We Dominate Botside, Looking for Sponsor, Surrender at 20, Nobles, Godsend eSports, Montalvan and Ninja Alpha — against each other. We Dominate Botside won over ESGS defending champions Looking for Sponsor, 2-1, with a reverse sweep in the semifinals that set them up against Guardian’s Hive. Guardian’s Hive dominated the tournament beating all the other teams and ultimately toppling fellow finalist We Dominate Botside in a 2-0 victory at the finals. The winning team, composed of Darwin “GH MIDKING” Santos, Michael Jay “GH Austerity” Gawala, Christian “GH Celest” Grecia, Marc Jazztine “GH Moopz” Barrion, Cruise June “GH Cruise” Tilos and Clarence Paul “GH Renascence” Layoso, emerged as the Empyrean Cup champion which earned the team Php500,000 prize from the Php1M prize pool.
Gawala or “GH Austerity", who previously played internationally for LoL eSports, made his winning moves as he fully displayed his esports combat skills at the finals. He credits his past experience with the achievement. “Less kaba lang. Mas alam ko kung ano yung tamang ‘shot-call,’ ibinibigay ko sa mga kakampi [ko] (I was less nervous. I was more familiar with giving the right ‘shot-call’ to my teammates)," said Gawala. Santos, also known as GH MIDKING, considers Guardian’s Hive’s victory as a major milestone in his gaming journey. “Personally, sobrang big deal sa akin ito kasi dapat tumigil na ako mag-LoL. Bumalik lang ako nung nag-announce ng Empyrean Cup. Nag-grind lang ako ng solo ulit then ‘yun. Good thing nagkaroon ng chance at opportunity na nakapasok (Personally, it’s quite a big deal for me because I stopped playing LoL. I went back to playing it when the Empyrean Cup was announced. I went on a solo grind. It’s a good thing there was a chance and an opportunity to enter [the cup]),” shared Santos. Guardian’s Hive initially joined the first leg of the Empyrean Cup qualifiers but failed to make it to the top four before making a roster change in the second leg that proved to be a gamechanger leading them to the grand finals at ESGS.
Riot Games sees the enthusiastic response and the excitement of Filipino gamers for the Empyrean Cup as a positive sign to continue engaging with and strengthening the local LoL community. Riot Games Philippines MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) Brand Manager Kimi Salazar says paying attention to the voices of the LoL community paid off. “Since Riot Games Philippines was established here last year, we’ve been constantly listening to what the community and what the players are saying. We want everyone to know that we hear you, we’re listening and this is why we’re doing this now. As we are scaling, building our team and all of our capacities here, the Empyrean Cup is only the first of what we’re going to do for the community. For us, it’s very important that our Filipino players see that the Philippines is a priority market for Asia Pacific (APAC) for League of Legends. We will continue investing, not just next year but also for the next couple of years, to elevate the competitive community and the gaming community again for League of Legends. This is but a first. Abangan ninyo (Stay tuned),” promised Salazar.
Riot Games was founded in 2006 with the goal to develop, publish, and support the most player-focused games in the world. The company debuted its first title, League of Legends (LoL), three years later. The title has gone on to be the most-played PC game in the world. Since then, Riot has developed other titles like Teamfight Tactics, VALORANT and LoL: Wild Rift. They’ve also expanded the world of Runeterra through multimedia projects like music, comic books, board games, and Netflix series Arcane.
