Campus esports standouts feted in AcadArena awards rites

MANILA, Philippines — It was an afternoon of celebration as AcadArena, in celebrating their second anniversary, broadcasted via Facebook and Twitch the first-ever AcadArena Awards, which recognized campus esports achievers the past year.

In partnership with Globe, the awards show is a homage to the hard work and dedication that AcadArena's partnered schools have put in to build campus esports within the Philippines.

“The awards and the scholarship is our way of giving back to the passionate student gaming community in the Philippines,” said AcadArena CEO Ariane Lim. “Good work should always be recognized, especially if it’s by the students who will be the industry leaders of tomorrow.”

Holy Angel University was the big winner of the day as their esports organization, Valiant Esports Club, won Overall Best Alliance Organization. The squad was also the overall Champion of the 2020 Autumn Season of AcadArena Tournaments and notched the School Spirit Award.

Jan Robert Alvarez, president of Valiant Esports Club, was named the Student Leader of the Year, while members Carlo Sibal and Jason Sicat were awarded with the Family Good Game Grant.

The Breakout Organization of the Year award went to Far Eastern-University Manila’s Tamaraws FX. The Team Spirit Award, celebrating the best competitive spirit in AcadArena tournaments, went to De La Salle University’s Viridis Arcus.

University of Santo Tomas' Teletigers won Project of the Year for UST Minecraft and were also awarded the overall champions of 2020 Summer Season of AcadArena Tournaments.

The Student Esports Athlete of the Year was awarded to Jonathan Madelo of Malayan Colleges Laguna's Malayan Warlocks for his great achievement and contribution in campus esports for the year 2020.

During the event, AcadArena also announced the first batch of recipients of their Merit Scholarship program.

They also announced a number of new partnerships with RiotGames for the University Alliance Cup, Twitch for the Twitch Student Scholarship, Rumble Royal’s Affiliation Program for Student Streamers and Pearson Education for Esports Curriculum via Pearson’s BTEC courses.

More information about all these programs will be released throughout the year as AcadArena gears up for an eventful 2021 for Campus Esports.

AcadArena also outlined their modified league plan for campus esports.

The National Campus Open starting this 2021 will be divided into a regional conference system, Luzon, Metro and VisMid to accommodate more teams and fuel regional rivalry.

The University Alliance Cup will also be expanding this 2021 with two divisions and implementing a promotions and relegations system.

Registration for the National Campus Open [League of Legends] is ongoing. Deadline for registration is on March 4. For more details, visit AcadArena’s Facebook page.