Support group for Cebu’s eSports launched

TECHNOPRENEUR Mike Cubos is throwing support to the growing eSports scene in Cebu by launching Monarch, a management firm that will train and promote Cebu’s e-athletes to help them win coveted tournaments in the country and abroad.

“Monarch will pave the way for a formal and structural support for eSports in Cebu. It will act as a springboard for the eSports community to continue flourishing within the Visayas and Mindanao,” said Cubos, during the launching on Tuesday, July 6, 2021.

According to Cubos, players in this field must be recognized and supported because just like any other sport they bring with them the pride of their hometowns or country when they join tournaments.

He said in other countries, e-athletes are provided well not only in terms of gadgets, internet connection and other equipment but they are also actively supported in maintaining their physical wellbeing.

“This is what we intend to do with Monarch on board,” said Monarch founder Cubos, who also owns Performance360 Global Services, a call center firm, among his many other tech ventures.

Cubos said Monarch aims to bring more Cebuanos to win big in the national and international eSports scene by making players highly competitive.

“We aim to produce champions from Cebu,” he said.

Monarch is setting up an eSports academy to mold new bloods to join this growing sport. Cubos said this will become the training ground for e-athletes and budding eSport players to learn about discipline and other strategies to win. At the academy, e-athletes will graduate from being a junior player to becoming a professional player, prepared enough to join tournaments.

Monarch, he added, also has a retirement program wherein retirees will be given options to teach at the academy, become a coach, strategist or analyst or venture into full time streaming.

Monarch is managing teams playing for Mobile Legends, League of Legends Wild Rift, Call of Duty Mobile and PUBG Mobile.

Support, prizes

Marbles Paralisan, head of Cebu ESport United, confirmed that the eSports community in Cebu has long been waiting for a sustainable and solid backer that would look after the talents and welfare of the e-athletes. She said eSport has already captured the interest of the local government units with some of them sponsoring tournaments. Internet café owners and other business establishments are also mounting competitions for the community.

Tournament prizes in the local level range from P15,000 to P20,000 while multi-city tournaments have cash prizes from P50,000 to P100,000. Prizes in national tournaments are pegged from P100,000 and up, while international competitions have cash prizes from at least P200,000 to a million.

Esports as part of the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games made its debut in 2019 during the country’s hosting of 30th SEA Games, making the game more attractive, especially to the younger generation.

Over the years, eSports has become a multimillion-dollar business.

According to Newzoo’s 2021 Global eSports and Live Streaming Market Report, global eSports will grow to US$1,084 million in 2021, a year-on-year growth of 14.5 percent, up from $947.1 million in 2020. The global games live-streaming audience will hit 728.8 million in 2021, growing 10 percent from 2020. (KOC)