E-Frag CS:GO World Championship Asia Groups Drawn, Philippines to Group D

While the Philippine national Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS: GO) team prepares intensively for the E-Frag CS:GO World Championship, the groups for the Asian leg of the tournament have been revealed.

The Philippines is paired up with Indonesia and Nepal in Group D, with both of their matches to be held on Tuesday, September 1 at 7:00 and 8:00 p.m. PHT, respectively.

Each group will feature three teams who will play in a best-of-one round robin bracket. Then, the winner of each group will go on to the “Winners Group” where they will face each other in a best-of-three group stage bracket. Finally, the top three teams of the Winners Group will go to the offline finals to be held on October 8-11 this year at the Sava Centar in Belgrade, Serbia.

In a quick interview with Esports by INQUIRER.net, Marvin “whome?” Roque, one of the core members of the national team, he mentions that “Indonesia is considered to be a top-tier nation in the SEA scene, just next to Vietnam, so we are really wary of this matchup.”

He adds that “we should never underestimate Nepal because we do not know their players and their capabilities.”

Asked on their preparations for the upcoming tournament, whome? says the following:

“We are trying our best to brainstorm for additional plays, since we have two more weeks to do it. Watching ESL One Cologne would be very good for us in order to have more ideas on how to approach the game.”

He ends up by leaving a message for the Filipino gamers and supporters out there:

“Wish us luck. Hopingly, if we get through the groups, the CS:GO scene here in the country will grow larger.”

The offline finals will feature a $100,000 base prize pool and will include 16 national teams from all over the world.

Canada, USA, Australia, Brazil and Tunisia have qualified for the offline finals after getting through their respective regional qualifiers.

Here are the rest of the groups:

Group A: China, Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka
Group B: Vietnam, Singapore, South Korea, Japan
Group C: India, Kyrgyzstan, Palestine

Here is the lineup for the Philippine team:

Shane “z3r02” Wong (Captain)
Michael “43” Opulencia
Marvin “whome?” Roque
Juren “Neruj” Aniero
Kevin “Dispenser” Te

Reserves:

Isaiah “Colo” Tongco
Mathew “KaelGenesis” Mercado
Richmund “Death” Balitian

Featured image taken from the E-Frag official website.

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