The league president of The Nationals, the first franchise-based esports league in South East Asia, told reporters at a media launch that all is set to commence its inaugural season at the Gariath Concepts Studio, Eastwood City, in Quezon City last Mar 8.
“The stage is set, the competitions are ready, game faces on,” League President, Kevin Chung announced.
There are currently six teams in the league namely Bren Epro, Cignal Ultra Warriors, Happy Feet Emperors, PLDT-Smart Omega, Suha-XCTN Punishers, and STI.
The league will begin on March 24 and focus on three of the Philippines’ most popular games namely Dota 2, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, and Tekken 7.
Each of the games will have two conferences in the first season, which will have a double, round-robin group stage and a single-elimination playoffs.
The top teams in their respective conferences will advance in the season finale that is expected in late 2019.
“All different industries participating for one true undertaking—to build the right infrastructure to showcase the Filipino esport athlete,” Chung added
The league aims to address the needs of esports athletes, such as decent gaming infrastructure, healthy schedule, and right coaching.
“The problem is that there is usually no infrastructure to support the gamer. Training schedules are unhealthy, coaching is nonexistent,” The Nationals’ Commissioner Ren Vitug said.
“I have witnessed many athletes gleaming with skill and potential (but) drop out of the scene because infrastructure was not there to support them,” Vitug added.
The league will also provide other benefits such as personal managers, coaches, fitness trainers, nutritionists and counselors to keep the esports athletes in optimal shape.
“A lot of people think that being an esports athlete is easy, but athletes train long and hard as athletes would in traditional sports,” Vitug emphasized.
The league’s first official partner, Paymaya is the Official Digital Payments Partner.
The league will be available for streaming solely on its official TV broadcast partners: ESPN5 through 5Plus on Free TV, Cignal TV through eGG Network, and One Sports on Pay TV.
