Video Game Tournament to be Held at Ninoy Aquino Stadium in 2015

For the first time in eSport’s young history in the Philippines, a major tournament series will be held in the Ninoy Aquino sports stadium.

TheNet.com (TNC), the country’s largest internet cafe chain recently announced the launch of its 9-month long tournament series. The  grand finale of the TNC eSports Cup 2015 will be held at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium on Nov. 28-29 — the first time that a video game tournament will be held in the venue.

Four major gaming titles will be featured in the tournament, namely: Dota 2, LoL, Dragon Nest, and CrossFire (CF).

The TNC eSports Cup 2015 will be divided into three phases: Free for All Qualification (FFA) that will run from March to July, wherein anyone can join to qualify for the next stage of the tournament. The top 16 teams during the FFA stage will advance to the playoffs stage on August to October, with the top eight teams eligible to enter the grand finale.

However Eric Redulfin, owner of TNC, has yet to disclose the prize pool for the said tournament as it will “depend” on their sponsors.

“What we are encouraging here is pride and passion and not the amount or prize money,” Redulfin answered when asked about the prize money of TNC eSports Cup. “Players must be passionate with what they do so that we can avoid those who just want to join tournaments for the sake of money. ”

 

Age issues

“Currently most of our players in the country are minors. Maybe we will not allow minors to participate in the tournament if it’ll be agreed upon by the concerned parties,” said Redulfin.

Redulfin added that the Philippine rules on eSports tournament are patterned after the rules in the international competitive gaming scene.

“We are currently following one of the international rules in competitive gaming which is having no age restriction on participants,” Redulfin said.

Redulfin also emphasized the existence of a city ordinance which prohibits students from entering computer shops during class or school hours.

“We have a city ordinance that doesn’t allow students to play during school hours and TNC strictly implements this rule in all of our branches.”

TNC currently has 66 branches in the Philippines, all of which are based in Luzon.

 

‘ESAP’

Redulfin also bared plans to form the a governing body and association that will oversee the Philippine eSports industry.

According to Redulfin, to goal of such a body will be to “regulate and promote responsible gaming in the country.”

“It is an organization of all internet shop owners and all e-gamers. The objective of this organization is primarily to promote, protect and enhance the welfare of eSports,” Atty. Arthur Corpuz, legal adviser to TNC, told eSports Inquirer at the sidelines of the press conference. “One of the goals of eSAP is to seek recognition of the eSports industry in the Philippines.”

eSports has been recognized as a legitimate sport in neighboring Southeast Asian (SEA) countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia. In America, League of Legends (LoL) — an eSports gaming title — professional players can apply for a P1 visa, the same travel document that traditional sports athletes receive when competing abroad.

“[This is the] trend right now. Malaysia, USA, Indonesia and China have recognized eSports [as a legitimate sport]. We believe that eSports is already unstoppable and whether we like it or not, we have to face it. I think this is really the future,” Corpuz said.

Esports or competitive gaming refers to the play of mind sports & video games competitively. Common eSports genres include: Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA), games that pit two opposing teams with the goal of destroying the enemys central structures like Dota 2 and LoL; and First Person Shooting (FPS), games that involve firing and combative skills such as Counter Strike (CS).

 

Photo banner from TNC

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