Sibol to field different roster for 33rd SEA Games

MANILA, Philippines — The country's national esports team, Sibol, is featuring a different roster of esports athletes for the upcoming season 33rd Southeast Asian Games happening in Thailand later this year.

Currently, Sibol will be participating in three esports events in the biennial multi-sport event in December, namely: Arena of Valor and Mobile Legends Bang Bang (MLBB) men and women events.

Arena of Valor will field players Jovani Ejercito, John Fernand Marino, Argie Odtuhan, Michael Gonzaga and Harold Cabaguing; while the men and women rosters of MLBB will field the champion squads of the most recent MPL Philippines and Athena League, Team Liquid Philippines and NAVI PH under coaches Rodel "Arsy" Cruz and Salman "KingSalman" Macarambon.

Completing the rosters are subs John Carlo “Caloy” Roma from MDL Philippines Season 5 champions, ONIC x Nine Lives and Team Liquid Philippines' women's roster Clarisse "CLA" Cordova.

Unlike previous years wherein the Sibol roster would be participating in all esports events, given the freer esports calendar this 2025, the national team did multiple qualifiers, notably for the the International Esports Federation's (IESF) World Esports Championship and the upcoming SEA Games.

Back when Sibol's IESF roster was unveiled, Sibol's General Manager Jab Escutin clarified that Sibol has always made it a goal to give every Filipino esports athlete the opportunity to try out for the national team.

"Our goal as Sibol is to provide opportunities for anybody that wants to represent the Philippines. That's why we hold the qualifiers. The only hindrance to actually doing the qualifiers is the deadlines of the submission and registration for the specific event. [If] we have enough time to do another qualifier. We will definitely do another qualifier. The intent is to always create a qualifier if a new event would come up. As long as we have enough time for that. Because we want to provide every Filipino that wants to represent the Philippines the opportunity to do so through the qualifiers,” said Escutin.

Sibol coach Ralph Andrei "Leathergoods" Llabres also sees the different rosters as Sibol's means of adapting to esports' different patch updates.

He explains, "You have to look at esports differently from traditional sports. Sa atin, we have what we called [game] patches. Unlike in traditional sports, they've been playing for hundreds of years and it takes them decades just to change one thing.  Sa atin kasi, the updates come, depending on the game, every six months or every three months. So that's why sa atin, iba yung approach, which is very new versus lahat ng national teams of the Philippines. Wherein tayo, every iteration, if it's a three-month update, we tend to look for the next top team. So ano tayo, I'd say mas nag-update din tayo ng roster natin kasabay ng pag-update yung mga games na finifield natin."

Logistically, having different rosters for each event can be a problem, especially given the schedule of both national and professional tournaments.

"I think the only [issue] I can think of is just logistics because these guys have different schedules, these guys have different competitions. When you're competing at this high level, you're constantly busy with competing. I think that's one of the things that we try to be mindful of in terms of planning and how we provide support,” said Escutin.

But as a whole Sibol sees the move as an advantage for the national team.

He adds, "In terms of, let's say, fielding different teams for different events, I think it's more of a pro for us. As we progress and try to support all Filipino athletes, having different teams represent the Philippines on different events, just says that we have overflowing talents. Not only do we have different teams representing us in different games, we expect all of those teams to bring home medals. It's not because we're only expecting one team to be successful, we are expecting all of the teams that we field out, no matter who they are, we are expecting them to be successful. So I think it's more of a pro for us Filipinos."