After a grueling match on LAN by these illustrious list of ESports teams, fans of DOTA 2 and Valorant were treated to a lovely finals at Robinsons Galleria in Cebu for the Predator League 2025 Philippine Finals. Despite the hectic schedule and some inexperience of some teams in a faster environment, they managed to play with high level teams and win 250,000 pesos as champions of the Asia Pacific Predator League 2025 Grand Finals. They've got a 1 Million peso pot to share after all.
DOTA 2 was quite exciting for teams Execration and Ivory, but in the end, the experience that Execration had made it an overwhelming affair on the map. Kill rates were at 7.5, and assists were at 10.5, so imagine how much time they spent in it. For Valorant, DLSU's Valorant Esports tried to take a jab at ZOL ESports, but they got swept 2 games. This means Execration, Ivory and ZOL Esports will fly for the championships in KL next year. Team Secret will also be there to play for the country, something like an honorary invite for a top tier team that plays on the world stage.
If you want more updates about these ESports teams, make sure you follow their social channels because they'll be posting more of these in the coming months. January will be very busy.
Popular PPOP Girl Group G22 took the stage to perform Predator League's "It Lies Within" theme at the finals in Cebu City. They are after all Acer ambassadors and from the looks of it, AJ, Alfea and Jaz were ecstatic in performing the single at Robinsons Galleria in Cebu. They did this in the Manila leg a couple months back, but this resonates with different regions because they did it in different languages too in different countries. Acer's Senior Marketing Manger Princess Laosantos was happy about the song as it captures what ESports players feel, like the rush to achieve greatness in the sport.
For those who don't know, the Predator League is a yearly competition that aims to find the best of the best in game titles here in the Asia Pacific region. It's a great avenue to start your ESports career, sort of a grassroots level discovery for this huge industry. The Grand Finals will happen in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, and they've got USD 400,000 prize for the winners. The Philippines will be represented by Execration, Ivory for DOTA 2, while ZOL Esports and Team Secret will be doing their skirmishes in Valorant. The single "It Lies Within" by G22 will be available on streaming platforms, go listen to it now. You can visit their social channels and acer.com if you want to know more about the tournament and its results.
Just got out of the cinema after the premiere night of GG (Good Game), the movie starring Donny Pangilinan. It's a film about eSports, but right off the bat they made the presence of drama felt in this movie by Director Prime Cruz. The film also stars his Mom Ms. Maricel Laxa, Baron Geisler, Johannes Isler, Igi Boy Flores, Gold Aceron and a throng of gaming and streaming personalities too.
To tell you honestly, I was looking forward to see this during the Metro Manila Film Festival but fate had other plans. Now that it's going to be released this January 24th, but something tells me it is going to be big because a LOT folks were at the rails of SM Megamall's Cinema 2 when I arrived, I was even early in fact. For me, that was the measure for how excited folks are (and hopefully translate to box office success) and I think with Star Cinema distributing this particular movie in the country, they'll be successful putting this in around 198 cinemas today (if I heard it right during Donny's interview).
The movie will start to get you to think about the dynamics of the family, and the pressures of studies, the expectations of some, and spending time for passion. The film has excellent production value, they got Metasports create "Requiem", a 5x5 FPS game for the PC.
The color grading, the stitching of the plot, and the reveal of the twists, was given a lot of time to mature before letting it all out. Can't say much, but one thing for sure happened during the screening... I felt the urge to say that the apple certainly doesn't fall far from the tree. This is certainly an acting challenge for Donny, and having Ms. Maricel Laxa as his Mom in the film must have certain expectations (for most people, to be on the level of his Mom). He didn't disappoint, because from where I was sitting in the balcony, there were several people already crying from simply understanding the trials they were going through. Boy had so much emotions bottled up especially towards the end of the film.
They made this for a whole year, so you could see how it wasn't rushed post prod. I've seen films joining festivals in the past that felt clumsy, unfinished, and had so much loose ends. They don't have that, and I hope you see how a LOT of people worked tirelessly to put these together despite being an indie film... and how they did production work personally to make sure you get your money's worth when it hits cinemas.
Here's a glimpse of the red carpet premiere, please enjoy!
I've played a lot of games, I'm sure some of you do too. You don't even have to be a gamer to understand the film, because yes, it breathes family, love and camaraderie. It's best to bring family, friends and peers to get your movie fix. Watch GG (Good Game) The Movie, out now on theaters!
We had a lot of fun watching teams battle it out at the RMC (realme Mobile Legends Cup) at the activity center of SM Megamall in Mandaluyong City. It's an annual event made to even further develop ESports gaming teams in the Philippines while showcasing the best mobile phones from realme, specifically the realme C53.
First up is the showmatch of SIBOL Team that won a SEA Games Gold Medal. Much talk about them being challenged by their foe the TNC Pro Team. During drafts much of their picks involved banning those who can pull and be tanky like Kaja, Franco, Kufra, Helcurt and others. TNC also chose a few fast fighters, marksmans, and a tank while Sibol had fast fighters and a mage to deal more damage. Sibol overwhelmed them in the map.
Filipino Rap Lord Gloc9 gave us a show!
In the second match, Sibol had to battle it out with Smart Omega. Omega chose to band the fast fighters and chose fighter tanks and a mage while Sibol chose fighter and armor type heroes. Sibol also chose characters that can take down towers quite fast, taking advantage of the new emblem system in the recent update. It was a pretty tough match, quite close, but in the end it was team Sibol that took the win. Best talent award for the season went to Chantelle, she was also given the MVP later on in the celebrity match wherein Team Santie won too. Smart Omega Empress by the way also won the championship for the Women's League before this game, that was a good run!
Then the RMC Season 7 Championship match started, well not really. The supposed match between Team Z4 Esports Pegaxy and Elite was done in just a few minutes because after several attempts of getting in touch with them, Elite didn't show up, therefore awarding the win to Z4 Esports Pegaxy. They won Php 400,000 cash and a 150K worth of realme products.
The folks at Smart Communications Inc. just inked a partnership with ESports Event Management and Production giant Dark League Studios in its aim to further grow ESports in the country. This is certainly the time to hone them from grassroots, to pros and eventually have them represent the country in international tourneys.
This means they'll be working together through the Smart GIGA Arena platform and have folks needed tournament experience in games like Mobile Legends, PubG, CODM, League of Legends Wild Rift and many more. This will grow Smart's capability to host more tournaments especially for the 2 million users it already amassed in previous years.
Smart President and CEO Al Panlilio says "Working with Dark League Studios means we will provide the best gaming experience for our customers including those in ESports. There are a lot of platforms for Filipinos to excel, it's something we could be proud of especially if they win in the local scene and globally. We offer technologies, bringing hosting locally and connectivity like no other, this is Smart's way of further developing the infrastructure and platforms."
Alfrancis Chua of DLS says "Smart and Dark League Studios share the same vision in the ESports industry. We will share our expertise especially in the gaming arena, in hopes to help Filipino ESports athletes to reach their dreams!"
Kelra and Ch4knu from Smart Omega
AC Valdenor, CEO and Co-Founder of Dark League Studios
This is just the start, if you want to know more about it, visit Smart's social channels and their site smart.com.ph.
Two leading ESports teams namely ONIC PH and Nexplay Esports will be going head to head in a Mobile Legends match that will be livestreamed this Friday on their respective Facebook pages at 7PM. They're not going to take it lightly as they're going to make sure they're armed with vivo Y31's all the way.
The ONIC PH team is comprised of Hate, Dlar, Kairi, Jay, Iy4nku and Markyyyy while Nexplay Esports will be flanked by Mage Dad Yuji, Kin Jacob, Yolo, Adam M and MB. Both teams are no stranger in the ESports industry and has garnered hundreds of millions of views each month. Pitting them together will be one epic match indeed!
vivo Y31 might be affordable, but that doesn't mean it can't handle gaming like these where pro teams prove it will still feel like flagship ones. The phone is equipped with an 8GB RAM+128GB ROM and a Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 662 octa-core processor which can handle this game and more. Now if you're afraid it might run out of juice fast, don't worry because it has a huge 5000mAh capacity which can last a while. If you're charging, it can do it fast since it's got 18W fast charging tech on it.
If you want to try it out yourself, you can get more information about it on their site https://www.vivoglobal.ph/phone/vivo-Y31/ or their social channels vivo Phillippines on IG, Facebook and Twitter. If you need it now, get it from Shopee or Lazada as they have official stores there!
SIBOL is making its debut in this year’s Southeast Asian Games to be held in Manila. For those who don’t know, they are our official ESports team who will be competing with other Southeast Asian countries as an official medal sport. They will need to champion Mobile Legends, Dota 2, StarCraft II, Hearthstone, Arena of Valor and Tekken 7. I’m a gamer myself and I know a LOT of pinoys do well in these titles especially MLBB and Tekken (which I have also played in arcades for years). Though this morning we got a nice preview of how we’ll fare in the tourney.
They presented the teams too composed of Dota 2 geniuses Carlo "Kuku" Palad, Timothy John "Tims" Randrup, Kim "Gabbi" Santos, Armel "Armel" Tabios, Nico "Eyyou" Barcelon, Djardel Jicko B. "DJ" Mampusti, Marc Polo Luis "Raven" Fausto, Abed Azel "Abed" Yusop, Michael "ninjaboogie" Ross Jr. and Ryan Jay "Bimbo" Qui. While on StarCraft II we have Caviar "Enderr" Acampado. In Arena of Valor we've got Kevin Kio "Gambit" Dizon, Jeremiah "1717" Camarillo, Jevan Lorenzo "Bents" Delos Santos, Lawrence Anthony "Rubixx" Gatmaitan, Miguel Klarenz "Miggie" Banaag. In Mobile Legends: Bang Bang we have Carlito "Ribo" Ribo, Erwin "Yakou" Magno, Jeniel "Haze" Bata-Anon, Marc Danielle "Dee" San Luis, Yuji "Yuji" Aizawa, Angelo Kyle "Pheww" Arcangel, Renz Carlo "Pein" Reyes, Lester "Tets" Santos, Ralph Mico "Coco" Sampang, Mark "Dysania" Cruz, Ephraim Jueinno "Ejhay" Sambrano, Gerardo "Eson" Mark Jayson, Jeff Franklin "Jeffqt4ever" Anaya, Allan Sancio "Lusty" Castromayor, Jason Rafael "Jay" Torculas, Ashleymarco "Killuash" Cruz and Kyle "Ryo" Berceño.
For Tekken 7 Andreij Hosea "Doujin" Albar, Alexandre Gabrielle "AK" Laverez and in Hearthstone we have Jacinta "Jia" Dee, Euneil "Staz" Javiñas playing the cards.
We got to talk to the lone femme gamer Jia Dee about how she became part of our official lineup, here she is to share her story:
The teams will also have the chance to win 2 Million pesos for every Gold Medal they win in the games. They are also supported heavily by Smart Communications and the MVP Group so if you’re here during the first week of December, might as well go support them during the Southeast Asian Games in Manila. Stay tuned for more of them soon!
The egames industry in the Philippines has done a lot as far as representing the country in ESports tournaments internationally. Games require hand eye coordination, teamwork, skill and is just about important as any sport there is, so during the Southeast Asian Games this coming November, we’re putting ourselves in contention with other Southeast Asian countries and developed our own national team for E Sports which we’ll properly call Sibol. (Growth in english)
The team will be managed by the Philippine Southeast Asian Games Esports Union (PSEU) which is a group under the Philippine Olympic Committee. They would have to be good in Dota2, StarCraft II, Hearthstone, Arena of Valor, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and Tekken 7 in order to beat other teams which makes this even difficult. The 30th Southeast Asian Games will also be held here in the country so that adds to the pressure these men or women will actually have to go through. Pro players will be invited and tryouts will also be done to complete the pool. This will happen on August 1-11, pretty close already. For more updates please check out sibolesports.ph and their social media pages (FB, IG, and Twitter) via the @SIBOLesports official account.
Go support your own team and make the country proud!
Your new 5 Plus VJ's Gino Quillamor, Bea Benedicto, Ariana Conechado, Jodie Tarasek, Kim Cruz and RJ Arroyo.
Looks like 5 Plus is amping up it’s roster of talents as your go to sports channel does more esports and gaming content this 2019. One of em is called The Nationals (esports franchise league) and consequently, it is being hosted by pro esports casters while you’re watching bringing blow by blow accounts when it happens in the network.
The DOTA 2 games will be done by Sam Nopueto, Aries Alejandro, Neil de Guzman, Jaz Comoda and Rain Manaig. The Tekken bouts will be done by Ron Muyot, Poch Estrada, Paul Fuentes and Pica Lozano. For those who still love Mobile Legends, you won’t be alone with Manjean Faldas, Shin Boo Ponferrada, Gian Bernardino, Em Dangla and Lhea Lei Pelaez.
During The Nationals, they will all be joined by regular casters Eileein Shi, Alyzza Taylor, Mika Fabella, Tonie Moreno and Dan Cabungay. They’ll also be telling their back stories, game highlights so you get to know the players, how they got there and their success stories.
6 new VJ’s will be joining 5 Plus this month as Gino Quillamor, Bea Benedicto, Kim Cruz, Jodie Tarasek, Ariana Conechado and RJ Arroyo (usual suspects in VJ work, modeling and other industries) will also be joining the 5 Plus frontline. They’re ready to rally the biggest events and gaming coverages so you get informed at the comforts of your home.
The Nationals will be aired Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 4pm to 7pm. It also airs Saturdays and Sundays 10am to 1pm. Catch them all on 5Plus!
