Limpag: Radical idea

THE region’s best athletes are currently in Dumaguete, competing for spots in the Palarong Pambansa. But I think there’s a certain sector that has been left out when it comes to school sports, one that is active in holding events for its players--esports.

Esports--computer gaming if you will--may be a growing community in Cebu but it’s already established worldwide. In fact, esports was one of the new events added to the Asian Games last year and is also being eyed to be in the Olympics.

Now, here’s a radical idea. Why not include esports in the Palaro calendar? Or even in the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. I think esports will face the same apprehension as billiards, which was scoffed at because it was a sport that promotes absenteeism. But I think that shouldn’t be the case. Putting it under a school setting may even improve its image, as school sports require athletes to maintain a certain grade, which of course you couldn’t keep if you kept on skipping classes to play your favorite computer game.

Why include esports in the Palaro and in other school-based meets? Because it’s the future and the interest is high. Mind you, there are already a lot of tournaments organized independently and I’ve seen some; they attract a huge following.

One drawback of including this, of course, is finding the right people to run it. I could be wrong, but I don’t see anyone in the DepEd or in Cesafi who could be familiar with the way esports is run.

Though I’ve played Star Craft in the past—which was one of the events in the Asian Games—I played it at a time when having a dial-up connection was only for the rich folks and a smart phone was the best student in class with the latest Nokia.

Aside from Star Craft, the other games during the Asian Games were Arena of Valor, Clash Royale, Hearthstone, League of Legends and Pro Evolution Soccer. It was a demo event, but it will be a regular medal event in the 2022 Asian Games in Busan.

For the Southeast Asian Games this year, the esports events are Dota 2 and Star Craft II for PC and Arena of Valor and Mobile Legends for mobile and Tekken 7 for console. For those not familiar, Dota 2 and Star Craft for computer games, Arena and Mobile Legends for smart phones, and Tekken 7 for Xbox and the like.

I may have experience in computer games, but how the latest versions for tournaments are run or played, I have no idea. But if there’s one thing that DepEd or the Cesafi is good at, it’s finding the right people to run things for them. They can just easily tap into the local esports community for help in running their tournament, of course, under their own rules and eligibility guidelines. Another advantage of adding esports to the school calendar is that our current equipment and know-how is already at par with the rest of the world. There’s no learning curve (at least for the players) to overcome.

So I hope, the DepEd and the other school-based organizations will look at adding esports in the event. Not only will it tap into a huge market that is underutilized in terms of school sports, it will gain a new following that could help their own league grow.

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