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| (Image Source: People's Television Network Inc.) |
People's Television Network Inc. (PTV) has officially launched the Unity League, a new grassroots professional gaming league that aims to bring the sport on a mainstream scale in the Philippines and produce potential national athletes under SIBOL, the country's official national eSports team. As announced by PTV Network General Manager Analisa Puod at the league's press conference held last February 12, 2024 at the Midas Hotel in Quezon City, the inaugural season of the Unity League will initially focus on Mobile Legends Bang Bang (MLBB), one of the most popular eSports titles in the country and across the globe today, where the Philippines is best known for in the world of eSports.
The Philippine eSports Organization (PeSO), the duly recognized National Sports Association (NSA) for eSports in the country, is tapped to handle the technical and operations aspects of the league to ensure international-caliber league operations, organization, and officiating while providing logistical support are the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) and the country's House of Representatives. On the other hand, PTV and the Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) will be involved in making gaming and eSports more accessible to the general public through games broadcasting live via free-to-air, pay TV, digital terrestrial television and online streaming through social media and Cignal Play. “The lifeblood of any sports is at its grassroots and PTV is proud to be a part of the Unity League which will become a training pool for eSports talent in the country,” said Puod. She adds that the Unity League is planned to be broadcast on primetime slots on weekdays with a recap show airing on weekends. Plans for the finals of the Unity League are also being drawn up including a potential live broadcast on primetime for the Grand Finals.
According to PeSO Executive Director Marlon Marcelo, up to 128 teams will be allowed to join from five different regions, namely: North Luzon, South Luzon, National Capital Region (NCR), Visayas, and Mindanao. These regions will hold their own qualifiers, and the top two teams from each region will advance to the national finals. The final ten teams will compete in the national event for cash prizes and a chance to join the national qualifiers for SIBOL’s MLBB team. There are also plans for an in-person (LAN) event for both regional and national qualifiers with the regional winners to be flown to Manila for the grand finals. Marcelo said that the league will be very strict for those who want to play in the league as it is open to Filipinos 18 years old and above who have not or are yet to be competed in both the MLBB Professional League (MPL) and the MLBB Development League (MDL). “The actual athlete that registers to the Unity League must not have any professional, I would say, inclusions or commitments. That includes the MDL and the MPL. We will be very strict and make sure that the actual athletes provide valid IDs so that you can actually register and its an even playing field,” said Marcelo. The latter, according to Marcelo, is a measure implemented to prevent ghosting, or the act of having one person use another player’s account.
Committed to support the development of eSports in the Philippines, House Speaker Martin Romualdez announced that the country’s Lower House will help boost the league's prize pool. From an initial Php1M offered by PTV, the cash prizes alone for the top three winners will now amount to a total of Php3.5M or US$62,400 – with the champion taking home the lion’s share of Php2M, Php1M for the runner-up, and Php500,000 for the third placer. The winning team will also have a direct invite to the SIBOL National Team Qualifiers and, should they win the latter, can have a spot in the national MLBB team. The speaker was accompanied to the press conference by House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hon. Rep. Zaldy Co and House Secretary-General Reginald Velasco. The Unity League officially kicks off with the ongoing registration for tryouts for players across NCR with registration for regional tryouts set for February 24 in North Luzon, March 16 in South Luzon, March 23 in Visayas and March 27 in Mindanao. More details on registration can be viewed on Unity League's official social media accounts as well as those of PTV, IBC-13 and PeSO.
The Philippines has been a dominating force in the world of professional gaming, more particularly in MLBB. Since 2020, various Filipino teams have dominated in prestigious MLBB eSports tournaments across the globe including two-time and reigning MLBB World Champions AP.Bren (M2 2020 & M5 2023), Blacklist International (M3 2022), and Echo (M4 2023). On the other hand, the national eSports team SIBOL won 3 straight Southeast Asian Games gold medals as MLBB Champions (2019 Philippines, 2022 Vietnam, and 2023 Cambodia). In recent years, eSports has mostly been broadcasted on social media in the Philippines while tournaments either air as reruns on smaller networks or on sister channels of major networks. Among them is The Nationals, a franchise-based eSports league with limited cable television coverage on major local broadcast player TV5 and its sister companies, One Sports and Cignal TV, which was launched in 2019. It had tournaments for MLBB, Tekken 7, and Call of Duty Mobile – the latter of which aired as early-afternoon and late-night reruns. Data from eSports Charts show that the 2023 M5 World Championship, held in the Philippines, saw over 5 million live viewers on its social media broadcast streams.
