CEBUANO athletes have surely made an impact in the 30th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games with more than 10 contributing gold medals. The recent one came from a nontraditional event—the eSports.
Sibol, the monicker for the Philippine eSports team, defeated Thailand, 3-2 to, win the gold medal in the Dota II event on Monday night, Dec. 9, 2019,
The Philippines was mostly comprised of Team Adroit, an all-Cebuano squad that has competed at local and Asian levels. The members of the team are Bryle Jacob “CML Alvizo, Van Jerico “Van” Manalaysay, James Erice Guerra, Jun “Bok” Kanehara, Marvin Salvador “Boomy” Rushton, MC Nicholson Villanueva and John Anthony “Natsumi” Vargas.
The team’s coach is Pao “Sandata” Bago who’s also from Cebu.
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang gave the country its first gold medal in eSports on Sunday night before Dota II bagged the second gold medal on Monday. The Filipino gamers continued to dominate as it snagged the third gold medal in StarCraft 2 with a 4-1 victory over Singapore on Tuesday.
Esports was first added in the 30th SEA Games joining the 56 sports and more than 500 events that were contested.
With one day left in the competition, the Philippines has racked up a total of 346 medals—137 golds, 102 silvers and 107 bronzes. (RSC)