MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Collegiate Champions League (PCCL) is going beyond basketball as it will house the first and biggest esports tournament nationwide in partnership with Mineski Global.
Dubbed as the PCCL-Mineski Youth Esports Program, the partnership will serve as a follow-up to the SEA Games success. It’s a giant leap to the esports world seen as “the future of sports” as announced yesterday at the Santolan Town Plaza in San Juan.
The long-term program includes advocating esports as a responsible gaming with harmony in academic duties of students, talent management and career opportunity just like any other traditional sports in the industry boasting a projected worldwide revenue of up to $148.1 billion this year.
Major highlight of the PCCL-Mineski YEP is the establishment of breakthrough National Interschool Cyber League (NICL) – patterned with the Collegiate Champions League featuring the nation’s top basketball teams from 35 leagues – set to be participated by over 1,000 teams from over 200 schools involving around 800,000 students.
The NICL regional qualifier is projected to start this summer, in consideration of the students’ school break, until June with December being eyed as the tentative date for the National Championships.
This massive and unprecedented move by the PCCL and Mineski Global came to fruition after an eye-opener brought by the SEA Games, where esports was recognized as a legitimate medal event.
“It has opened the eyes of many. From just ‘larong pambata,’ esports has transformed drastically to a sport where gold medal and honors can be won by Filipinos. We feel it’s the right time to push the grassroots program on how esports should be tackled,” said Mineski Global CEO and founder Ronald Robins.