By Michael Angelo S. Murillo
Senior Reporter
ESPORTS debuted in the Southeast Asian Games this year and was warmly received by proponents and fans alike.
In numbers shared by Razer, the official SEA Games esports sponsor, on the first day alone of the event on Dec. 5, its streaming platforms recorded over one million views with approximately 70,000 concurrent viewers.
At its peak, the FilOil Flying V Centre in San Juan City, where the esports event was held, was filled to maximum capacity, and Razer’s streaming platforms registered 20 million impressions with 90,000 concurrent viewers throughout the duration of the competition, which ended on Dec. 10.
Razer also said that audiences spent over 200,000 hours watching the streams on YouTube, making it one of the top 10 trending gaming videos worldwide on the platform.
For Razer officials, such numbers speak a lot of how far esports has come in being accepted and considered legitimate in this part of the world.
“The esports event was a resounding success and the games are a testament of our esports talent in the region,” said David Tse, Global Esports Director at Razer, in a statement.
“While we may have achieved success in the SEA Games, this journey to legitimizing esports is not over. We will continue to strive for esports’ inclusion in the Olympics and we look forward to the next SEA Games in 2021,” added the Razer official, whose group has worked its way to becoming a leading lifestyle brand for gamers with its high-performance gaming hardware, software and systems since setting up shop in 2005.
The same numbers were welcomed by Alvin Juban, Philippine SEA Games Esports Union and national team manager, saying while staging the esports event was not easy, the reception it got made it all worth it and encouraging for the whole esports community moving forward.
“We’ve seen some pretty exciting gameplay and a superb level of competition among the SEA Games esports athletes. A formidable force, these youths have shown grit, resilience and a tremendous respect for their craft and supporters. We’re proud to host them and we hope to see them celebrating again in the next SEA Games,” said Mr. Juban.
“Appreciation also came not only from the players but also the entire delegations, sponsors and partners. We worked as one,” he added.
PHILIPPINE ESPORTS IN SEAG
In the just-concluded SEA Games, Team Sibol, the country’s esports team, did well, producing three gold medals, a silver and a bronze in the six games featured.
Golds came from Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, DOTA 2 and StarCraft II with silver and bronze coming care of Tekken 7.
The other events were Arena of Valor and Hearthstone.
The Philippine Mobile Legends team was bannered by Kenneth Jiane “Kenji” Villa, Karl Gabriel “KarlTzy” Nepomuceno, Carlito “Ribo” Ribo, Jeniel “Haze” Bata-anon, Angelo Kyle “Pheww” Arcangel, Allan Sancio “Lusty” Castromayor, and Jason Rafael “Jay” Torculas.
It was the first to hand the country a gold in the Games on Dec. 8, coming from behind to beat the Indonesian team, 3-2.
Following suit was the DOTA 2 squad of Mc Nicholson “Mc” Villanueva, John Anthony “Natsumi” Vargas, Jun “Bok” Kanehara, Marvin Salvador “Boomy” Rushton, Bryle Jacob “CML” Alvizo, Van Jerico “Van” Manalaysay and James Erice “Erice” Guerra held tough to win, 3-2, over Thailand.
The final gold was handed by Caviar “Enderr” Acampado after he beat his Singaporean opponent in the finals to win the first-ever StarCraft II gold medal in the esports event.
Enderr defeated Thomas “Blysk” Kopankiewicz, winning, 4-1.
“I’m really happy and at the same time relieved that I didn’t disappoint our countrymen and all of our fans and supporters. My opponents were really tough but fortunately my preparation along with the program we had prior to the SEA Games helped me a lot. This is for all who believed in us,” Enderr said after his historic win.
Silver was by Alexandre Gabrielle “AK” Laverez while bronze was from Andreij Hosea “Doujin” Albar, both for Tekken 7 and came on the final day of esports competitions on Dec. 10.
