The best and the finest e-sports team in South East Asia will be competing for over Php1 million (US$22,200) in prize money during the sixth season of the Mineski Pro-Gaming League (MPGL) SEA Grand Finals set on November 29-30, 2014 at the SM City North EDSA Sky Dome and Cyberzone.
Organized by Mineski Corporation, through its Mineski-Events Team, the grand finals will feature DOTA 2 as the official game. The qualified teams from the Philippines and around SEA have fought all-year round through the league’s monthly tournament system.
For the first time in the Philippines, an electronic sports (eSports) league or the popularly known Mineski Pro Gaming League, has reached out to gamers nationwide and in Southeast Asian countries to participate and win PH1 million (USS22,200), the biggest grand finals’ prize so far in the Philippine eSports league and in DOTA 2 history.
The league, whose mission is to uplift the local electronic sports and to promote competitive and responsible gaming, gets its prizes through community contributions such as in-game purchases, Mineski infinity cybercafe promos, online donations, and revenues from the Secretshop.ph online store.
“The Mineski Pro-Gaming League SEA Grand Finals will let us all show the world that Filipinos can also produce an international electronic sports event. Historically, the region of Southeast Asia has been lagging behind their American and European counterparts especially in terms of cash prize. But here in the Philippines, we make that up with competition, pride, and entertainment and highlight the fact that it is not all about the money,” said Ronald Robins, Mineski’s CEO and Founder.
Different professional gaming teams from around the world will be participating in the grand finals, and these include the following: Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Open Qualifier (Australia, India, Japan, Korea, etc.), Philippines, Rest of SEA (Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Laos, Vietnam), Singapore, and Thailand.
The sponsors for this year’s MPGL SEA Grand Finals are Gigabyte, SteelSeries and Viewsonic.
According to Marlon Marcelo, VP for Marketing and Events at Mineski, MPGL started as a Metro Manila league. When support poured in, the league was able to add more games and expanded its reach to include other regions in the country, the Visayas and Mindanao. It became the exclusive league for WC3 DOTA back in 2010 and it is now open to South East Asia.
Being the largest SEA’s eSports league, MPGL’s success is also recognized on the international scene as a qualifying stage for various eSports tournament such as the Asian Cyber Games for DOTA 2, Dragon Nest World Championship, MSIBeat-It! and the Assault Fire Pro-Tour. The MPGL has also produced representatives for the League of Legends World Championship Series and DOTA 2’s The International.
According to the company, gaming is a $60-billion industry participated by 75-million hardcore gamers. In the Philippines, 25% or 25-million is into eSports.
