Tom OKs e-games, cosplay for youth

CEBU, Philippines — Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña has allowed Cebu Esports United and ARCHcon Cebu to execute their anti-drug program for the youth dubbed as “Anti-Drug Program for the Cebuano Youth through the integration of Esports and Cosplay in Education.”

Osmeña has publicly announced this on his Facebook account last Saturday afternoon.

As of this writing, it earned around 1,000 various reactions from the netizens and the post has been shared 350 times already.

“Cebu eSports United, I am happy to announce your program with the Cebu City Government is hereby approved,” his post reads supported by several documents about the program.

It was the initiative of Cebu Esports United and ARCHcon Cebu to have a government-partnered program for the youth which aims to gather them who are interested in playing electronic games and who are into cosplay which will prevent the young generation from using illegal drugs.

Other than that, they will educate the youth to discipline themselves and manage their time wisely and will support talents of the Cebuano hobbyist community.

Esports and ARCHcon want to form first Cebu-based hobbyist organization and to increase the awareness of social welfare, and others.

In Cebu, Esports has numerous sponsors from technological industries which have competed and hosted tournaments such as Mineski, Voyager, Gols, International Pharmaceutical Inc., Globe, Smart, among others.

It was in 2010 that the local companies observed how Esports has attracted the youth because of the trend electronic games.

As defined by the Esports United, Esports are a form of competition using video games wherein it take the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players.

On the other hand, cosplay is a contraction of words costume role play.  It is an amateur hobby in which participants called cosplayers wear self-made costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character.

Cosplayers copied the looks of the characters of anime, cartoons, live-actions films, television series, and video games, among others.

With the development, the organizers have set various activities which will end in December 2018.

Among the activities are Esports Intercollegiate Program at Rizal Public Library in September and ARCHON Cebu, a talk for cosplay, arts and hobbies at Rizal Public Library from October 27 to 28.

There will also be Ex Cebu, a talk for cosplay and games in Rizal Public Library from November 24 to 25 and Mayor’s Cup Cebu Gaming Tournament from December 15 to 16.

For the gaming tournament, there will be a match on Dota 2, LoL, PubG, CS:GO, Cosplay School, and Cosplay Open Category.

A budget of P300,000 is set aside for the prizes of the various competition which will be charged under City Sponsored Activities. (FREEMAN)