The Philippine Electronic Sports Organization (PeSO) is looking to beat its previous medal haul when the Sibol national team takes on the best players in the 31st Southeast Asian Game in Hanoi, Vietnam from May 12 to 23.
Overall head coach Ralph Andrei “Leathergoods” Llabres believes that the national team, composed of 55 athletes and nine coaches, can surpass its harvest of three golds, one silver and one bronze from the 2019 edition especially that the country is sending athletes in all of the 10 esports events in Hanoi.
“From 50 percent last year, I put my name on the line, realistically speaking I’m expecting a little higher around 70 percent at least, we’ll perform better though unfortunately some of the game kasi aren’t as big here sa Philippines so our exposure is a little low but we are still expecting the best from our athletes,” said Llabres during the “Lakad Matatag” Sibol SEA Games Campaign kickoff at the TV5 Media Center on Thursday, March 17.
The Sibol national team is expected to at least bring home a medal, if not the gold mint, in esports titles Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and League of Legends: Wild Rift Men’s and Women’s.
The M3 World Champion Blacklist International will be bannering the Mobile Legends team while Grinsky Eris, which ruled the SEA Esports Championship in Women’s Wild Rift last January, will don the PH colors in Wild Rift Women’s. On the other hand, Oasis Gaming, Sibol’s Wild Rift Men’s team, is one of the top PH teams currently vying for a spot in the Wildrift Champions SEA playoffs.
Sibol is also fielding competitive crews in Crossfire, Player’s Unknown Battleground Mobile, League of Legends, FIFA Online 4, Arena of Valor and Garena Free Fire.
The first batch of the 64-strong Sibol team is expected to fly to Hanoi on May 9.
Vietnam is expected to be the closest competitor of the country as Sibol hopes to keep the overall title in the second time that esports is included in the SEA Games. Being the host country, Vietnam had the liberty to choose the esports title to include in the biennial meet but Llabres is nonetheless optimistic that the country will still come out on top in the end.
“It would be Vietnam since they were the ones who chose the games specifically the games they know they are strong at so sila yung main competitor natin and also other country would be Thailand and Indonesia,” said Llabres.