Team Philippines to rake in medals in esports

MANILA, Philippines — Alan Chou, CEO and co-founder of meta.us, the gaming network that provided the platform for the Philippine national qualifiers, expressed belief the Sibol Phl team will be a major force when esports makes its debut in the coming Southeast Asian Games.

“I think the Philippines is a very, very strong team; you guys are going to win a bunch of medals,” said Chou, who’s in the country to encourage Filipino brands to invest in the space and support amateur players through meta.us’ online platform.

Esports will play as a medal event for the first time in next month’s SEAG with competitions set in Dota 2, Starcraft II, Tekken 7, Heartstone, Arena of Valor and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang.

“You have good chance in DOTA 2, Tekken and Starcraft,” said Chou, whose company helped in powered registration, bracketing and player support for more than 1,300 aspirants during the three-week national qualifiers for the Sibol team.

In a round-table with select Filipino mediamen, Chou stressed the need to give young people passionate about esports an opportunity to be discovered. Toward this end, he said they plan to build meta.us amateur leagues in every Southeast Asian country, recruit hundreds of brands of all sizes to fund amateur competitions and create a draft of amateurs to join pro esports.