BIG TIME E-SPORTS
by Pao Gonzales, Contributor
Team MSI of the Philippines (left) won over Thailand in the 1st eSports Asia Championship held in Cebu. (CDN PHOTO/ CHRISTIAN MANINGO)
Cebu played host this weekend to the best e-game players across Asia vying for a combined pool of P430,000 and a slot for the world championships.
With a 9 x 12 foot LED screen on stage for a dramatic view of the live competition, the games held at SM City Cebu pit teams from six countries across Asia and some 500 players from around the country for the Asian Championship of the International e-Sports Federation World Championships (IeSF) 2014.
“This is the first time that the Philippines is holding the Asian Championships. It’s a big opportunity to bring the industry closer to mainstream attention,” said Tryke Gutierrez, one of the main organizers and a former professional DotA player.
The choice of Cebu is a recognition of the growth of the competitive video game industry in the Philippines, he said.
E-sports events have had modest audience turnouts since their inception in the early 2000s, but growth in recent years has seen audience numbers balloon from the thousands to the millions of concurrent viewers tuned in to competitive events from the comfort of their own homes.
The giant LED Screen showed matches between Asian DotA 2 powerhouse teams such as MVP.Phoenix from Korea, Orange eSports from Malaysia, and MiTH.Trust from Thailand as they battle against homegrown teams Mineski and Click N’ Search among others.
Team Korea is the team to beat. (CDN PHOTO/ CHRISTIAN MANINGO)
YEAR 3
Now on its third year, the Asian Championships is hosted by the Philippine e-Sports Organization (PeSO) which groups stakeholders, team owners and organizers for e-Sports events in the country.
Cebuano Brian Lim, PeSO chairman and head organizer, earlier said the weekend would showcase the best of what the Philippines has to offer not only in terms of player-skill, but community and fan growth for the industry in the country. “This year will be more of a show; the event is meant to entertain the spectators who will come to witness the event live. We want to be able to showcase the best that e-Sports has to offer as a sporting medium,” said Lim.
HOSTING CHALLENGE
In an interview, PeSO executive director Tryke Gutierrez said that this year’s event is one of the biggest in terms of production and scale in the country. “We haven’t had a high-profile event in the country since the World Cyber Games tournaments in the late 2000’s,” he said. “And even then, those were only qualifiers; tournaments that fed into championship level events in other countries.” “It’s actually hard to win the bidding for an Asian Championship. The first requirement is that we have an organization like PeSO that is capable of running the event,” he said.
“Other considerations include fast Internet speed with over 300 mbps in the venue, cheaper cost for production and a huge gaming fan base.” Gutierrez explained that organizing e-Sports events have been historically difficult as sponsors have been reluctant to commit to their brand of events.
PHENOMENAL GROWTH
That is changing with the phenomenal growth of e-gaming.
Part of the industry’s widespread appeal can be attributed to video game streaming sites such as Twitch.tv. which was recently acquired by Amazon.com.
Launched in 2011, the popular streaming website caters to some 55 million users and gives them the platform to broadcast their games to an Internet audience. This in turn has allowed organizers to get wider coverage of their events, as well as giving game developers and publishers another market to spread their games virally.
With e-commerce giant Amazon.com reportedly acquiring Twitch for $970 million, exposure for the video game industry leaped from niche video game journalism sites and blogs to the mainstream media.
“A few years ago, none of this would have been possible,” said Gutierrez. “The idea of having an event being run like a full-fledged production was just not feasible.”
“I believe the organizers are the driving force of the whole scene. Although there’s a lot of advertising and marketing budget rolling around the country now, nobody would allocate that budget for gaming if e-sports organizers don’t exist. I will have to give the credit to Ronald Robins of Mineski Corp, the Father of Philippine e-Sports since he’s the one who started the fire,” he added.
With the recently concluded The International (TI) 4 – DotA 2’s largest and most prestigious tournament — offering a $10.9 million prize pool, gained largely through the donations of fans globally, other corporations outside of gaming manufacturers and publishers have steadily poured their attention into the industry.
“I believe time is the only thing that we need right now for the e-Sports scene in the country to succeed. With companies like Sun Cellular backing up the e-Sports scene, we are in a very good place. I guess it’s up to innovators in the scene like Mineski Events Team and us to raise the bar again for next year’s events so that things will get bigger and bigger each year,” he added.
Both Gutierrez and Lim said they envision PeSO to become the neutral entity to help lead the gaming community in the country. In contrast, e-sports teams in South Korea enjoy government support. Its association in 2000 was founded with the approval of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism which promoted e-sports as an official sporting event.
“With e-Sports attracting more attention from corporations, government and even media – all of these sectors looking into supporting the scene which in turn brings in more participants and spectators,” explains Lim.
“As with any new industry that starts out as fragmented, standardization and growth happens with a united and concerted effort across many players in the industry.”
The Asian Championships will pit competitors from four gaming titles – Defense of the Ancients 2 (DotA 2), Ultra Street Fighter 4, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, and gaming newcomer, Hearthstone — for a shot at the IeSF 2014 World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan on November 12-17 for a combined prize pool of $110,000.
Winners of this weekend’s events earn a slot with full accommodations for the world championships.
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