Editor’s Note: The following information from TNC’s owner and CEO Eric Redulfin comes from an interview conducted by Juan Carlo “Jucasa” Saquin. More details about TNC’s future plans will be made available to the public following a press conference to be held sometime this February.

In an exclusive interview with our Graphics Editor, Juan Carlo Saquin, TNC’s owner Eric Redulfin dropped a pretty heavy bomb out of nowhere: TNC will be sending two full teams to Korea to train and compete in League of Legends and Dota 2 within the year.

According to Redulfin, TNC is in the process of finalizing plans to send one Dota 2 team and a League of Legends team. While the details haven’t been fully disclosed to us here at eSports Inquirer, Redulfin mentioned that the recent success of their professional gaming teams has prompted them to seek fortune by sending their best talent to the land of eSports: Korea.

In their conversation, Redulfin outlined plans that, to me, honestly felt exciting. Eric Redulfin is the owner and CEO of the TheNet.com — the largest internet cafe chain in the Philippines. Redulfin is a self-made man; from janitor to successful entrepreneur, Redulfin has found success investing in technology and eSports. His interest in fielding a team to the Korea seemed to me like a turning point in perceptions toward both industries.

He said that aside from sending two teams to train and compete in Korea, TNC will be sending a full-support staff, including coaches to make sure that the players are completely dialed into getting better and competing at the top of their game.

Asked whether TNC’s pro teams will be competing in the Korean leagues (of which the Korean League of Legends circuit is considered the most intense in the world), Redulfin said that they are raring to go toe-to-toe against some of the best talent in Korea.

“The teams will compete in Korean leagues,” Redulfin told eSports Inquirer. “We believe that this will help them a lot especially in having an experience in the international scene.”

When Juan gave me the details to their conversation, I couldn’t help but reflect on the experiences of the first group of people who decided to try their hand at leaving the Philippines just to eat, sleep and breath professional video games. Rave Dota’s recent successes as the first Overseas Filipino Gamers truly earned the admiration of their fans back here in the Philippines.

While I certainly cannot create a direct link between Rave’s story in Korea with Redulfin’s plans, it does beg an interesting question: Is there a future for aspiring eSports professionals here in the Philippines?

RAVE REVIEWS. Within a year of moving to Korea to pursue Dota 2 full-time, Rave has quickly made a name for themselves in the local and international scenes. (Photo: DAC coverage team/eSports Inquirer) .

Rave Dota’s exemplary performance at the Dota 2 Asian Championships (DAC) has forced gamers in the country to rethink the state of Philippine eSports.

While fans back here at home cheered as they took down big name teams on the show match stage, many began to wonder: Why is Rave Dota, a team comprised of Filipino players, based in Korea?

In November last year, I was fortunate enough to talk to Rave Dota’s captain, Mark “Cast” Pilar. In his words, the team’s decision to move to Korea was a combination of “opportunity and sacrifice”.

“Pyung (Rave’s owner) and I were friends from before,” Cast told me at the sidelines of the Mineski Pro Gaming League Season 6 Grand Finals. “He’s our owner and manager now, but he used to be a player. He had a full team of Korean players before but they kept losing. Since we were friends, he asked me to go to Korea and play in their team. Soon all the other Koreans dropped out and then their sponsor dropped out. We replaced the players with Filipinos, then Pyung began to manage our team full-time — that’s how Rave was born.”

I remember asking Cast at the time: “Why move all the way to Korea though? Couldn’t you have told Pyung that you’d only help him by playing online?”

As the captain, Cast was noticeably careful before he gave me an answer. I could tell that he wanted to be truthful, but at the same time remain positive.

“To be honest, we wanted to move to Korea because we think it will give us a bigger opportunity to improve. There’s more to gain here and we can focus on becoming better. We can’t do that in the Philippines.”

Fast forward to Feb. 7, 2015: Rave Dota, the Cinderella team of the DAC and the team most analysts wrote off at the beginning of the event, ended their tournament run at 5th place. For their efforts, they won P6.8 million in prize money, instantly making history as the highest paid Philippine eSports team of all time.

The Sacrifice

Korea is known to many, even to people who aren’t into video games, as the Mecca of eSports. Back in the early to mid 2000s, stories of thousands of screaming fans packed into football stadiums cheering for Lim “SlayerS_`BoxeR`” Yo-Hwan made their way to the venerable pages of TIME.

As a child, I was personally amazed that professional matches of WarCraft 3 and StarCraft were broadcasted over national television in Korea. I remember watching Jang “MooN” Jae-ho lead his signature Night Elf armies to victory on the Arirang channel, igniting in me a love for the eSports industry at a young age.

Indeed, to many people of my generation and to those that have come since, Korea is the promised land; a place where gamers can truly let loose and attain their potential.

But it isn’t always fun and games. Michael “Nb” Ross, Rave’s support player, said that living the eSports dream is work, work and lots of it.

“Playing in Korea is really a job for us and we do take it very seriously,” Nb told me back in November. “It’s especially hard for us because Rave doesn’t have a sponsor so everything we win in tournaments gets thrown back into bills, equipment and groceries.”

Living in a team house and practicing for 10 to 12 hours daily is par for the course for most eSports teams. However, where other teams have the luxury of having a full-support staff attending to their whims (or at the very least, taking care of all non-game related busywork so that the players can focus on winning), the players of Rave juggle multiple roles to keep things afloat.

“We have a pretty tight schedule and everyone has to contribute to the house,” Nb told me. “For example, we have a schedule on the wall that says whose turn it is to clean the bathroom, cook for the day or do the dishes.”

“Pyung actually gets most of the hard work because none of us can actually speak Korean so he has to pay all our bills. All of the legwork like talking to potential sponsors, the Korean Dota League or even just going to the bank has to be taken cared of by our manager because of the language barrier.”

“At the very least, we can sometimes hang out with the other teams in the Korean Dota League,” Nb added. “Most of the time, we don’t have social lives because all we do is stay indoors and play, but it’s nice to make friends with some of the teams.”

INQUIRY. Despite Senate-led inquiries on internet speeds, connectivity in the Philippines remains as the slowest and most expensive in the region. (Photo: Inquirer).

Making the move

It’s not hard to see Korea’s appeal to aspiring pro gamers. The Philippines has the dubious honor of having the slowest internet connections (not to mention, most expensive) in the Southeast Asian region. Internet speed is the gamer’s life-blood; large-scale events come by scarcely to the region so in order to break into the big leagues, stable internet is a must to enter the highest levels of competitive play.

As of October, 2014, South Korea tops the rest of the world with average internet speeds of 24.6 Mbps. At peak levels, the Philippines only manages to reach 21.6 Mbps. We ended 2014 as 103rd in the world for average net connection speed despite multiple Senate inquiries on our lagging internet.

The difference in net infrastructure can make or break a country’s ability to field players to the big leagues. It becomes infinitely unlikely to see a Filipino, living within the Philippines, to reach the stages of The International or the League of Legends Worlds finals where games can be decided by a split-second of delay.

But more than attractive infrastructure, what Korea really holds for gamers is something unquantifiable: acceptance and support.

It would be easy to attribute Rave’s success to excellent connectivity allowing their skills to really shine when they go up against some of the best in the world. Similarly, it would be easy for a casual observer to conclude that Redulfin and TNC are looking to find success where they are given the technological edge.

At the end of the day however, what really makes Korea desirable is the fact that gaming is an acceptable career choice there.

Nothing can encapsulate this better than MVP.Phoenix’s Taewon “March” Park’s own words. When MVP.Phoenix visited Cebu in September of last year, March told me that professional gamers back in Korea are actual celebrities.

“I have a friend who I’m close with who plays League of Legends,” March shared. “I was in the airport on my way here to the Philippines when I saw his face on an ad on TV. He was endorsing a Samsung monitor.”

“I sent him a message that I saw him on TV. I’ve seen him on other ads before that one. People really recognize him on the streets. Even pop stars hang out with him to get his autograph.”

STARDOM. In Korea, professional gamers achieve true fame and adulation.

In my conversations with Cast and Nb, what really stuck with me was how adamant they were about moving to a foreign country; to a place where they’re away from friends, family and loved and where they can’t even speak the language, just because it allows them to pursue their dreams.

It’s hard to stay thousands of miles away from family, friends and loved ones. It’s hard to stay motivated when you have to worry about rent, sponsors and house chores while still having to practice and hone your skills well enough to get invited to the most prestigious events in eSports.

But the guys in Rave continue to chase their dream and now Mr. Redulfin and TNC are thinking about joining them. While it’s painful to admit, gaming as a profession just isn’t feasible in the Philippines. At least, not yet.

Looking to the future

For most people, the subject of video games and eSports is a loaded topic. Mainstream media has portrayed video games and the video games culture of the youth as a distraction at best and a source of violence at worst.

Soon, the Philippines may miss the boat on a growing global industry that won’t be running out of steam any time soon.

Figures and projections tell us that the video games industry has surpassed the music industry in net revenues in 2014.

For 2015, it is expected that more companies will be pouring in advertising dollars into large-scale video game events such as the Worlds finals and the International. Being a $71 billion global spectator sport industry attracts that kind of attention.

But as long as the infrastructure, and more importantly the attitude, towards games remain unchanged in the country, it wouldn’t be a stretch of the imagination to think that we may lose our best and brightest talents to countries where they can do what they do best.

Our glimmer of hope is that through the efforts of Rave and Redulfin — men and women willing to put themselves out there and show how well we can succeed in this new arena — we can finally achieve the recognition, acceptance and respect that a generation has been clamoring for.

Featured Image Background Photo (c) Pius Lee (aka Travel Guy) www.dailytravelphotos.com

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