Passion fuels Pokemon Unite tilt newcomers

MANILA, Philippines – In the recently concluded Pokemon Unite World Championship, two all-Filipino teams reached the top 16 — seasoned veterans Talon and a fairly new organization, Issen Aumento.

Issen Aumento is just a year or so old, being formed back in May 2023 and brought together by the members' passion and love for Pokemon Unite.

“It’s a passion work for us and my fellow managers. There’s three of us managing the team. It started [out of] passion and we never expected it to become this big. Nabuo lang naman ito dahil sa friendship. We wanted to support players that we know as much as we can. Ganun siya nag start,” team manager Jj “jnamakulit” Zerna told PhilStar.com after returning from their world championship campaign in Hawaii.

The team, composed of Jan Tristan “Jeyti” Corral, Andrei Luis "Dreamt" Mendoza, Charles “Cent” Ontiveros, Dandimar “Dan” Bravo, and Luke Lewis “MXI” Labajo, had been the first to secure their travel documents among other Filipino teams that had qualified for the world stage even though most of the players were first-time travelers abroad.

“Medyo overwhelming sa una kasi first time to travel for most of us [and] Pokemon Unite pa yung dahilan. Inaasam na po namin ito for the past three years, not just the whole team, pero every Pokemon Unite player. Nung nagkaroon po kami ng opportunity to travel this year, sobrang saya kasi after three years, nagkaroon kami ng chance to represent yung Pilipinas tapos napunta pa kami sa ibang bansa, which is a very good experience overall,” said player Mendoza.

With Issen Aumento being a young organization and with an even younger roster that was formed just a month before the local qualifiers, international observers had shrugged off the last-chance qualifier from Asia Pacific East and were not betting on the Filipinos to reach the playoffs. This especially after the team was drawn with last year’s champion, Luminosity Gaming.

But Issen Aumento silenced doubters when it finishing second after sweeping Luminosity Gaming, 2-0, to make it to the playoffs.

Team captain Corral was confident they could get through the group stages as the former champion team had gone through a re-roster, while teammate Labajo felt happy after the group draws.

He added, “Nafeel ko na magkakaroon ng bagong champion yung Pokemon Unite.”

And though the team members were confident they could face most of the teams in the top 16, their luck ran out as their first opponent in the single-elimination playoffs just happened to be the eventual winners of the tournament — Japan’s Fennel.

“’Di na namin hawak yung naging bracket at nakaharap namin Fennel agad. Thankful kami na nakapunta kami doon and to represent the Philippines and hindi kami kulelat, not just in the local scene pero pati sa international scene. Kaya namin mag place higher than what many influencers from [North America] were saying. Na kami yung pinaka kulelat nung nagrarank sila ng teams. Like furthest from the top tapos biglang dark horse pala kami and nakarating kami sa playoffs. Kaya good run pa rin,” Mendoza recalled.

The team eventually ended its campaign at shared 13th-16th place — a best for the five-month-old squad.

“It is quite refreshing making it to the worlds. It’s not an easy achievement. We defeated a lot of teams to reach the worlds. Everything na napagdaanan nung team was worth it. Sobrang saya sa pakiramdam na nagkaroon kami ng run sa world championship and we made a name for ourselves and natalo namin yung last year’s champion. Syempre nadisappoint sa nagging final ranking pero it is what it is,” added Mendoza.

Though Filipino teams weren’t able to make the podium in this year’s World Championship Series, Issen Aumento assures that this isn’t its last appearance.

“We will come back stronger kasi di pa namin napakita yung full potential namin as a team since we had a rough journey towards this 2024 WCS. Adapt to this meta than Japan made and tweak it for our team and come back stronger,” said Mendoza.