Fire Base: CrossFire Philippines Unveils P3 Million League
Gameclub Philippines, the local publishers for CrossFire, have announced on February 27, 2016 that they will have the Philippine Cup 2016 as their main offering for this year’s season.
Three cups. Three million pesos.
The main idea here is that they will use a league-based point system where the teams with the most number of points at the end of the three cups will go to the CrossFire Stars (CFS) National Finals at the end of this year.
Why does it have a place in the history of Philippine eSports?
Filipino teams have been sitting among the best teams in the world when it comes to CrossFire. Here is a list of achievements that the Philippines attained since 2010:
World Esports Masters (WEM) 2010 (FGW, CF 3rd place)
World Cyber Games (WCG) 2012 (MSI-EvoGT, 3rd place)
World Cyber Games 2013 (WCG) (MSI-EvoGT, 2nd place)
CrossFire Stars 2013 (CFS) (Pacific.Wara, 4th place)
CrossFire Stars 2014 (CFS) (Pacific.Macta, 3rd place)
CrossFire Stars Invitational 2015 (CFSI) (Pacific.Macta, 2nd place)
CrossFire Stars 2015 (CFS) (Pacific.Macta, 3rd place)
These results against top-tier international teams show the level of talent and skill that exists among the upper echelons of CrossFire here in the Philippines. In addition, it is the only title where Filipinos have reliably earned medals on the international tour, with the exception of Counter-Strike in which Horsemen of the Apocalypse reached the WCG semi-finals back in 2005, as well as 3rd and 4th places in Starcraft 2 and Hearthstone at the 2015 edition of the International eSports Federation (IeSF World Championships.)
READ: The Mind of a FPS Player
In a quick chat by the author with Pacific.Macta’s Aldrin Borabon back in January 2015, Aldrin said the following regarding their plans for 2016:
We have almost achieved it. The trophy is just a few steps away…We will never give up until we start to decline in-game. Until then, we will continue to gun to become the number one team in the world!
Then and now
In the previous season, there were three major third-party tournaments (Razer NeXT, Mineski CF Rivals and TnC Esports Cup – CrossFire Division) running parallel along the National Qualifiers for the CFS National Finals.
New format? More opportunities!
Teams had only one (or two chances, depending on whether one wants to travel) to qualify for the CFS National Finals. Sure, it is an effective way to determine the strongest team at the moment; however, it does not give an incentive for teams to keep their rosters and play consistently throughout the year.
This time around, the new format offers teams more perks for having a stable lineup and spending time practicing the game. In turn, this keeps the scene vibrant throughout the year as teams meet throughout the year at different locations in the Philippines.
In addition, the new format increases the quality of the competition as teams have now to think of ways on how to play at a certain level throughout the year instead of relying on hot form and pocket strategies to win them the day.
This is not to say that form and counter-strating do not have their place this year: In fact, these two things are needed if a mid-tier team wants to take a map off teams such as Pacific.Macta, Pacific.Wara, Execration and Hasleft, among others.
Teams will surely have to step up their play and prove that they can compete with the best in this new format.
Why is it significant?
READ: 2015 Season: A New Leap for Philippine Crossfire
Last year, the combined prize pool for the three major third-party tournaments and both the qualifier and final stages of CrossFire Stars Philippines was at P1.63 million. This time around, with the money pool distributed into three cups located around the country, it allows more teams to be exposed to different playstyles, which, in turn, will improve their gameplay.
In addition, more teams will be able to get a good amount of money from the prize pool as well as points from the different tournament legs (provided that they finish in decent spots as well). This increases sustainability for the teams who do not have a sponsor or who just rely on local sources in order to participate in tournaments.
To look things into context, the first two editions of the Mineski CS:GO Shootout have featured a prize pool of P50,000 each, despite the fact that CS:GO has just started to become popular locally. Thus, the increase in prize pool and the standardization of the tournament format can be seen as a move not just to help aspiring players get more exposure to the eSports scene, but also to allow CrossFire to retain its position as the number one FPS title here in the Philippines.
Parting words
The changes are positive overall. It gives teams more motivation to compete throughout the year through having an active scene, increase in prize money and exposure to different teams.
To end it all, will this changes be enough to make a Filipino team grab the premier award on the CrossFire international circuit this year?
2016 might be the biggest year for CrossFire in this country: With 12 million unique users and a concurrent population of 40,000 players on any given day, it is the biggest FPS title here in the country for many years now.
Things are just going to be better.
All images taken from GameClub Philippines.
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