Esports a rousing success anew in Palarong Pambansa

MANILA, Philippines – Esports was once again part of last month's Palarong Pambansa held in Cebu, and the Philippine Esports Organization (PESO) has reported that esports was well-received in its second year as part of the nationwide youth sports conference.

As Sibol — the Philippines’ national esports team — head coach Ralph Andrei "Leathergoods" Llabres explained, Palarong Pambansa has three distinctions for their sporting events: exhibition, demo and medal. Currently, esports is in the exhibition stage, with a promotion to demo status being eyed next year.

"We're still doing the process to go the next stage. One of the targets now is to partner with DepEd para maintroduce ang esports to all regions in the Philippines at the grade school level. Kailangan natin ng mas maraming preparation for it kasi syempre sa ganitong stage medyo nililimit yung screen time. marami pa kaming inaaral para mas ma-introduce yung esports but we're making strides forward," said Llabres.

PESO members were present in Cebu as Palarong Pambansa happened and were able to discuss esports with members of the Department of Education (DepEd).

"Of course we're in the second year as part of Palarong Pambansa. We went there to explain to the educators paano nangyayari yung esports. Before you become a medal sport, you have to go through the process and based on the guidelines, we at least need three years before we can appeal to the board [for esports] to become a medal sport. PESO's goal is to start with the grassroots and we have always wanted to involve the youth," said PESO executive director Marlon Marcelo.

Palarong Pambansa welcomed around 15,000 athletes in last month's games across all 17 regions in the country as well as athletes from the National Academy of Sports and the Philippines School Overseas. When esports becomes an official event for Palarong Pambansa, it would see 18 teams competing, a large pool of players that could be the next national athlete.

"Imagine maybe in two or three years magkakaroon na ng official Palarong Pambansa esports, with 17 teams from the different regions nationwide, plus the team from the overseas schools. That's where we can scout future national team players. Historically, Palaro is the first step in becoming recruits for university sports teams, even the national team," said Marcelo.

As the second year of esports in the Palarong Pambansa concluded, PESO has gained important pointers from DepEd on how to move forward in officially preparing esports as a medal event.

"The SecretariatTeam for Palaro gave us pointers on how we can tackle the introduction of esports better which by next year we will be applying. That's very important for us kasi we're used to people around us already knowing what esports is. It's nice to have a fresh perspective, especially from those who are new to esports and from those who have only experienced traditional sports, so we can better promote esports to the entire country," said Llabres.