Team Falcons hopes to expand local operations
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MANILA, Philippines — Team Falcons was recently announced as one of the new teams entering the local scene of the Mobile Legends Professional League (MPL) and although MLBB is the reason for their arrival, the team is also looking at the future of their operations in the country and in Southeast Asia as a whole.
"MLBB is our reason and the reason why we're here now. But we've spoken about how we want to build our staffing and operational set up [here and eventually] to build something in Southeast Asia as a whole,” Team Falcons Global Director of Esports Grant Rousseau told Philstar.com.
Having bought the franchise slot of Blacklist International, Rousseau admits that their predecessor is a tough act to follow, with the former having a big fanbase and multiple trophies in the league.
"We have a lot of history to follow. Great relationships with the people we bought from. We worked with Blacklist [International] on that. Absolutely amazing organization, lots of fans. I remembered having long chats with Tryke about what we can do and how we can work. Big [act] to follow but with Falcons' history, hopefully we can follow that and become champions as well,” shared Rousseau.
For their first year in the country, Rousseau sees the organization focusing on MLBB, building up their staff, and establishing their roots while making sure they have an operational facility with a full team in place.
"But I think after Year One, then you'll really get to see us scout new games, scout new titles, see what's aligned with Southeast Asia. It'll all be through the Philippines. The reason we like the Philippines is not just because they produce the best players, but we do feel that there's capability of actually building [a] sustainable business through the fandom here. The fans here are absolutely brilliant and really follow the teams and [we] can create the right connection. So we know that there's a real opportunity to build a successful business here with the Filipino staffing, with the operations, everything,” he added.
With an organization known for talent across different esports titles, establishing a local entity in the Philippines, which was recently named by the Esports Awards as an emerging region in esports, is a step in the right direction.
"I think it's incredibly important to tell the world, like, this is where you need to look out for next-generation talent for whatever games. If you're in the business of winning, you need to be in the business of finding talent and scouting in Esports is never the easiest thing, because every single game is its own entire ecosystem with its own rules and its own setups. So how do you go and find talent in different games? If you can find countries where, in general, people are just very good at video games, very dedicated across numerous video games, it just gives you a base to go and look at, is this a country that can produce talent? The Philippines is clearly one of those that can, because the games they're in, you are competing on the highest level. So we [as Team Falcons also] want to be a part of that, and it's a big reason [why] we've come here,” said Rousseau.
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