CEBU, Philippines – More than 800 video-gamers from different parts of the country converged at the Cebu Trade Hall of SM City Cebu over the weekend, August 21 to 23, for the "eSports Festival 2015" (eSF15) spearheaded by the Philippine eSports Organization (PeSO).
Now on its fourth year, this year's holding of the three-day festival was top-billed by the "Hearthstone" and "Starcraft 2" Philippine National Qualifiers for the 2015 World Series of Video Games World Championships, the "League of Legends" Visayas Qualifier for the International eSports Federation (IeSF) World Championships, this year's "Defense of the Ancients 2" (DoTA2) National Championships, "Tekken Tag Tournament 2," "Ultra Street Fighter 4" and "Crossfire" tourneys, and more.
The Visayas leg of the Smart Communications' "Philippine Clash 2015" tournament was also part of eSF15's three-day itinerary. Held on August 23, the tourney was a lead-up to the "Philippine Clash 2015" national finals on September 26 at the SM Mall of Asia.
Like last year, this year's eSF also had side-events and highlights which included a cosplay competition, a PC rig competition, a photo contest, other games, raffles and more.
Prior to the festival's formal closing on August 23, PeSO's Brian Lim and Tryke Gutierrez - together with internationally-famed cosplay icon and gamer Alodia Gosiengfiao, dubbed by therichest.com as the most popular cosplayer in the world - made an announcement that PeSO will be bringing eSF to Manila in 2016. Promising a bigger and grander eSF, PeSO will handle the technical aspects of the event in Manila next year - with Alodia lending her support by spearheading the festival's cosplay component.
eSF holds a distinction in being the home of the country's national qualifiers for the International eSports Festival World Championships. It began in Cebu in 2012, and has since grown into becoming the biggest and most popular gaming event in the Visayas and Mindanao regions to date.