Team Secret Chief Executive John Yao explained the organization’s decision to not participate in the Sibol National Team Selection which determined the country’s representative to the 31st Southeast Asian Games in Vietnam in May.
In a video published on Team Secret’s official YouTube channel on Monday, Feb. 7 , the Team Secret’s top honcho bared that the decision to not participate was mainly due to the scheduling and the team’s priorities.
The squad is in the middle of its preparation for the upcoming Wild Rift Champions SEA – PH which also came in conflict with the Sibol qualifiers last week.
“It’s scheduling and priority question, if SEA games doesn’t clash to the official tournament circuit, then we would play it but if it clashes in any way and then interferes with the training for the normal tournament circuit for the actual SEA championship and for Worlds, essentially for all these games that takes priority over SEA games,” said Yao.
Team Secret is also not putting much of an importance in the SEA Games, saying that winning in the tournaments sanctioned by game publishers bear more weight and prestige in the community.
“If you’re a DOTA team and you win SEA games, are you the Southeast Asian champions? No. It’s whoever wins the SEA DPC, that’s the Southeast Asian champion, right? So, to us, those tournaments, those circuits, those leagues are the most important thing, everything else is secondary so SEA games is secondary,” he explained
“Our perspective and point of view on SEA games is that at best is like a tier 2, tier 3 tournament. SEA games is a nice tournament but if you wins SEA games, what are you actually are you the SEA champion, you’re not the SEA champion,” he added.
For Yao, they’ll play the tournaments that is deemed important to the viewers, the fan base and the Wild Rift community.
“We’ll play whatever tournament is like important to the community, important to our fan base and important to the viewers, and it’s the tournaments that are sanctioned and sponsored by the publishers, those are the most important.”