FOUR teams, four historic title triumphs.
When all the dust settled at the Ayala Malls Circuit in Makati, La Salle, Our Lady of Fatima University, Faith Colleges, and City College of Angeles emerged as inaugural champions of four different disciplines in the Dark League Studios’ Estudyante Esports National Championships over the weekend.
The Green Aces blanked the Southwestern University-PHINMA Cobras in the Valorant finals 2-0 while the OLFU Phoenix shutout the University of San Agustin Eagles in the League of Legends (LOL) Big Dance 2-0.
Ditto with Faith Colleges’ Novus Bravehearts who essayed a scintillating 2-1 win over the University of Cebu Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue in the nail-biting centerpiece Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) event capped by a 26-8 demolition in Game 3 to complete the champions of the three-team events.
City College of Angeles, represented by Zaskieee with a main Zafina hero, ruled the Tekken 8 over finalists Far Eastern, Central Philippine University and University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines.
“Palakpakan po natin lahat ng champions. Estudyante Esports is for the academe. It’s built to be a platform for students. It’s all about the students. The vision is to enable different schools in accepting esports into the industry,” Dark League Studios co-founder and CEO AC Valdenor, who was joined by co-founder and chairman Bobby Rosales in the awarding ceremony, said. “It’s our honor and pride to see that there’s a lot of teams in this new program by Dark League Studios to empower our students.
“I’m happy and proud of every school and we hope to have more affiliate schools in Season 2,” he added.
Xavier Juan (Xavi8K) showed the way for La Salle in Valorant, bagging the MVP plum with solid coverage from teammates Lance Elmo Gacayan (Banunu), Aaro Francis Sablay (Fission), Fernando Miguel Dy (Guelson), Luis Corpus (Schnappi) and Lucas Gruenberg (Secre).
In LOL, Michael Jay (Austerity) showed how it’s done for OLFU to win MVP honors. Also making their marks were Aiman Guro (SCP 001), Karl Emmanuel Aviles (Nezu), John Joseph Paracale (SWOOF), Van Michael Gestiada (UC VAN) and Joshua Mendoza (Mid Owa).
Not to be outdone, Zywin Angelo Pedutem (Zywin God) was named MVP in MLBB for Faith Colleges with support from CJ Santos (Seajay), Rojan Macasaet (Shazz), Kirt Brainer Trinidad (Kirttt) and Ace King Toledo (ALASSSS).
La Salle, OLFU and Faith Colleges took home P500,000 each as City College of Angeles pocketed P100,000 for a whopping total of P1.6-million prize pool of Estudyante Esports, backed by the PBA, PLDT, Honda and Pocky, as part of the new program of Dark League Studious, which also organized the maiden UAAP esports joust last year.
Over 500 schools and 3,000 students joined in the Estudyante Sports National Championships, mirroring the national finals in basketball and volleyball from different leagues, as they clashed in the tough regional qualifiers in the NCR, Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
But more than the bragging rights of school pride and hefty cash prizes, the tourney marked a new horizon in the booming Philippine Esports scene with a bridge, at last, to connect the esports discipline and the academe—all for the future of youth in the digital world.
