The Philippine government, through the Games and Amusement board (GAB), announced last year in July that it would be recognizing esports players and professionals as bona fide athletes under Philippine law.
The GAB has since expanded their scope with the regulatory board spending the latter half of 2017 connecting with team owners, managers and tournament organizers to make this legislation an actionable reality. So how did esports look in the Philippines in 2017?
High-profile events saturate the esports market
The country saw more high-profile events in 2017, such as ESL One Manila and the Manila Major -- two of the biggest Dota 2 tournaments to date -- play out on home turf.
The success of the two events proved the Philippines were a viable location for premiers. This drove local organizers to up the ante. Take Mineski Events Team (MET) for example, the organizer behind the Manila Masters.
"Pulling this off at such a large scale means it bring the right kind of exposure to an industry we're trying to develop," said MET Business Development Manager Benson Te.
"I think the challenge is how we can continue to grow the pie without over-saturating the market, but at the same time helping as many groups look to enter the industry in the best way possible," he added.
Playbook, the leading fighting games tournament organizer, had a stellar year with the REV Major and Rage Art tournaments seeing praise from pros who normally struggle with travel during the international circuit.
Richard Brojan, owner of Playbook, said, "2017 saw many great things for the Philippine fighting game community. It enabled us to showcase to the world the talents that we have and our capacity in creating such events. Bigger and better opportunities were thrown our way and granted us a grander scale to perform."
With a rise in Major events, there were also concerns that they would drown out the independent and grassroots leagues that laid the foundation for esports in the Philippines. The Mineski Pro Gaming League (MPGL), a local pillar of the competitive Dota 2 tradition, took a back seat in the face the newly introduced Majors and Minors system.
"We really had to take a look at the local leagues we used to run -- to make sure they remained relevant both for the players and the viewers, especially in the face of possible oversaturation of the market," Te said.
The emergence of talent, new and old
With a rise in competition, players have seen the fruits of their labor pay off. The International 7, the culmination of every Dota 2 major event, saw the return of Execration and TNC Pro Team, two Filipino teams considered long shots. One player of note? Abed "ABED" Yusop. Once regarded as a low-profile player with minimal upside, his reign of terror became a force to reckon with as he qualified for the International 7.
Talent has also emerged with the rise of domestic competition. In Tekken 7, Andreij "Doujin" Albar saw a second place finish at Rage Art tournament, where he handed the defending world championship Choi "SAINT" Jin Woo a loss.
Where do we go from here?
GAB's initial involvement has not gone smoothly with some stakeholders -- particularly those outside Metro Manila -- expressing confusion with how they should participate in a new world where players, teams and orgs are required licenses under the law.
As such, the GAB has put forward a plan to begin a dialogue with the local esports industry leaders, beginning with a stakeholder's convention planned in the first quarter of 2018.
The meeting includes different industry participants and aims to bring awareness of the government's involvement on key matters such as licensing of players and teams, the scope and limitations of regulation and the insistence that a clear demarcation between government supervision and industry self-regulation be drawn. With the successes that esports saw in 2017, the meeting is long overdue.