NATION-BUILDING THROUGH GAMING
ESports now on its way toward legitimization and professionalization
Back in June, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) hosted its first-ever Kalasag ESports Tournament, coinciding with the National ICT Month Kickoff Celebration for 2019.
DICT conducted the tournament as a launching pad for its review of support and policymaking avenues to further legitimize and professionalize esports and ensure that the Philippines can maximize and reap the benefits of this industry. In 2018, the eSports industry is anticipated to generate $905 billion or more than $1 billion over the next two years. The industry is now valued at $19 billion.
The said move by the Department was an indication of the Philippine government’s recognition of the eSports sector’s potential of becoming a key contributor to national development, especially in this disruptive age of digital transformation.
Eliseo Rio Jr., DICT’s Acting Secretary during the tournament, revealed that the Department has been working with various esports organizations. These
include those that are involved in the upcoming 30th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, happening from November to December of this year in our country.
Considerably a milestone event, the 2019 SEA Games will be the first one to include esports as a medal event, a year after it was done as a demonstration sports in the 18th Asian Games in Indonesia. The inclusion of eSports in these two athletic events manifests Southeast Asia’s positive response toward professional gaming, a region with an estimated esports audience of 31.9 million, according to market research firm Newzoo.
In recent years, the Philippines has been in the limelight of the thriving esports landscape. The country served as a host in some regional and global esports events organized by big brands, while esports teams sent to tournaments overseas continue to bag major prizes.
NVIDIA had the Southeast Asian GeForce eSports Xtreme Tournament (GEXT) in 2017. ASUS also staged in the same year the ROG Masters Asia-Pacific Finals, boasting a prize pool of $500,000.
FallOut Gaming welcomed 2018 with the Galaxy Battles II: Emerging Worlds Dota 2 Tournament, an ambitious event originally meant to gather some of the best esports teams from different parts of the globe to compete for $1-million prize pool.
Unfortunately, due to the stipulations imposed by the Games and Amusement Boards of the Philippines, Valve Corporation withdrew its support and several teams backed out as they cannot comply with the government requirements.
This 2019, the country’s first Taiwan Excellence Esports Cup concluded recently, involving various brands related to gaming. Their presence manifests their confidence in investing in the growing and thriving esports ecosystem in the country. The Esports Cup was organized by TAITRA, Taiwan’s Bureau of Foreign Trade (BOFT), and Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA)
Philippines’ Country Manager George Su of ASUS, one of the gaming brands that participated in the event, expressed his rosy outlook of esports in the country: “Five years from now, we can see that the gaming market will continue to grow to a new level not only in PC gaming but also in gaming console and mobile gaming. All areas surrounding esports will continue to shine.”
Likewise, Acer, the company behind the Predator gaming brand, shares with DICT the same belief in legitimizing and professionalizing esports. Andrew Hou, President of Acer’s Pan Asia Pacific Regional Operations, sees esports as an ecosystem where people, particularly today’s youth, can find a career:
“As you can see in eSports events, there are esports athletes, coaches, managers, livestreamers, YouTubers, and judges. So there’s an ecosystem where people can find their long-term career plan,” said Hou.
In line with achieving this vision, Acer has started talking with educational institutions. Manuel Wong, Managing Director of Acer Philippines, shared that the company is already in talks with local universities.
“Universities are more active in looking for possibilities now unlike before. Gaming has really become a new talent creation source for some of them. In addition to gamers, we hope that in the future that we’ll have more game designers, considering that we have lots of talents in graphics creation and other related disciplines. We also encourage the universities to include esports as a sporting event in UAAP and NCAA,” Wong explained.
With all of these positive developments happening on various fronts, from the public to private sectors, we are confident that the future is bright for the esports scene in the Philippines.