[Flame Break] 888 and Philippine E-Sports

I still remember the day very vividly: It was four days ago, on October 13, 2014. We were just talking about certain site issues and some routine stuff when the news on the match-fixing scandal started to circulate in the community. My first reaction was something like “meh, 322, just another Pinoy-themed meme”; after all, the “322” thing was notoriously used as a joke on the Internet by those who knew about it.

I immediately went to Reddit, and when I saw the thread I knew that something big is up. In the meantime, while I went out to take my lunch at the school cafeteria, the news has spread like wildfire —  by evening, Philippine time, a lot of people had gotten wind of it.

Being the curious person that I am, I posted the link on the PESO forums and not much later, Pao – our editor – told us to collect whatever we can from the Internet regarding this issue for an article the next day (Tuesday, 14^th October) and collate it on the forums for the meantime. With the help of Beegee and Michael, we were able to collect quite a good amount of data; even though it seemed that the match-fixing was for real, we decided not to pass judgment and to remain as neutral as possible.

Of course, the article was published the following day and updates were coming in by the truckload every hour; however, we were waiting for a video that will supposedly verify the veracity of the leaks that have been furnished so far to the general public. Later that evening, the video did appear, and everyone knew from that point that nothing will be the same again.

The executive director of PESO, Irymarc “Tryke” Gutierrez, has mentioned several facts in a statement which he gave on Facebook yesterday evening: The industry is still very young, there’s no umbrella organization yet to coordinate the actions of the electronic sports sector, whether it be in the form of an organization like the Korean Electronic Sports Association (KeSPA) or a government organization similar to China’s General Administration of Sport, and that the right culture and mindset has not been inculcated yet into the local community at large.

I would like to touch on these three points here today, because I believe that one of the best ways to improve the sector is to create a certain set of standards that will allow everyone to play on a level field while at the same time ensuring the growth of electronic sports here in the Philippines.

Firstly, it has been mentioned that the industry is young; not just figuratively, but literally as well. There are a lot of players as young as ten years old (or even younger) who play a lot of games and, to be really honest, it’s a fact that almost nobody orients them on the ethics of gaming (i.e. they do not know exactly what are the consequences of match-fixing, for instance). Of course, I am not saying that games should not be fun (computer gaming is classified as “entertainment” in the first place), but I’m saying that as in real sports, there should be a sense of sportsmanship and ethics that they should follow when games are involved. Passion is not everything; professionalism and a strong system of values is also a vital component of self-improvement as well.

Secondly, in the light of these events, it is essential that a higher organization that will cover all the aspects that are related to electronic sports (i.e. tournament distribution, financial backing, educational orientation, etc.) should be created so that there will be adequate oversight over the activities of the professional gaming organizations in our country. If needed, that organization can be given the right to push criminal charges in court against possible offenders (as what KeSPA did during a match-fixing scandal back in their country in April 2010), and to totally sanction involved parties from electronic sports, here and abroad.

Finally, in relation to the two things stated above, people and organizations should educate and orient everyone towards the culture that we need for electronic sports to grow sustainably in this country. As far as I know, certain organizations have been doing this for quite a while, and if we raise awareness amongst the general public about the gaming culture and what they can do to help improve it (given that almost everyone from Generations Y and Z play computer games nowadays), then not only the E-sports sector will improve by leaps and bounds, but it will earn legitimacy faster. I know personally that it will take a very long time for the culture to be inculcated but it is worth the pains and the sweat endured to implement it.

Improvement is never easy. However, everything starts with a small step, and if that step is done consistently, then the leaps will surely follow.

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