ADVERTISEMENT
Manila Bulletin devider Sports devider Esports devider PBA Esports empowers grassroots with new season of all-amateur Dota 2 tilt

PBA Esports empowers grassroots with new season of all-amateur Dota 2 tilt

Published Oct 3, 2024 01:54 pm

At A Glance

  • Following a successful first season, PBA and Dark League Studios continue to push for the growth of the esports scene in the country with what promises to be a bigger and better Season 2 of the PBA Esports Bakbakan Dota 2 tournament set to fire off on Oct. 22.

Following a successful first season, PBA and Dark League Studios continue to push for the growth of the esports scene in the country with what promises to be a bigger and better Season 2 of the PBA Esports Bakbakan Dota 2 tournament set to fire off on Oct. 22.

PBA Images10 (65).jpg

With the focus now on discovering aspiring and future esports athletes from the grassroots level, the Dota 2 tournament is now solely for amateur teams which will go through an open qualifier to determine the 12 best teams for the lion’s share of the P500,000 prize pool.

The qualified squads will then get the chance to pick the PBA team they want to represent with its own players, including eight-time MVP and Dota 2 enthusiast June Mar Fajardo, also joining as part of the official roster.

“This program of the PBA creates an opportunity for the grassroots that we have for them to potentially be seen, known and potentially represent one of the professional teams that we have,” said Dark League Studios co-founder and CEO AC Valdenor during the press conference at their headquarters on Thursday, Oct. 3.

Teams will be divided into two groups and will play three rounds of swiss with the top two teams from each advancing to the Final Four. The playoffs will be played in an offline setup on Nov. 22.

For the PBA, the venture to the esports scene has been successful especially in terms of closing the gaps between the fans of esports and mainstream sports like basketball.

“Magkaibang kultura, magkaibang sports pero napagsama natin ang basketball at esports. Malaking bagay sa amin sa PBA itong esports. Win-win situation for both,” said PBA commissioner Willie Marcial who was joined by marketing Jo Francisco and the player representatives of the 12 teams. 

Last season, Converge, represented by 747 Dota 2 team bannered by pro players Marvin "Boomy" Rushton, Muhammad "InYourdreaM" Anugrah, Daud "Db-" Budiawan, Karl "Karl" Baldovino and Jaunuel "Jaunuel" Arcilla, came out victorious to bag the top prize of P150,000.

The second season of Dota 2 is now the fifth title under the PBA Esports Bakbakan with Mobile Legends Bang Bang, Player’s Unknown Battlegrounds, Call of Duty and Streetballers tilts also played last year.

"With the branding of the PBA on top of this program, we're going to attract more users and fans from Season 1 where we had 351 teams. That's how famous the PBA is and it's very good to our vision of bridging the gap between physical sports and Esports,” added Valdenor.

ADVERTISEMENT
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1561_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1562_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1563_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}

{{ articles_filter_1564_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.mb-article-details { position: relative; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview, .mb-article-details .article-body-summary{ font-size: 17px; line-height: 30px; font-family: "Libre Caslon Text", serif; color: #000; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview iframe , .mb-article-details .article-body-summary iframe{ width: 100%; margin: auto; } .read-more-background { background: linear-gradient(180deg, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0) 13.75%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0.8) 30.79%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000) 72.5%); position: absolute; height: 200px; width: 100%; bottom: 0; display: flex; justify-content: center; align-items: center; padding: 0; } .read-more-background a{ color: #000; } .read-more-btn { padding: 17px 45px; font-family: Inter; font-weight: 700; font-size: 18px; line-height: 16px; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; border: 1px solid black; background-color: white; } .hidden { display: none; }
function initializeAllSwipers() { // Get all hidden inputs with cms_article_id document.querySelectorAll('[id^="cms_article_id_"]').forEach(function (input) { const cmsArticleId = input.value; const articleSelector = '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .body_images'; const swiperElement = document.querySelector(articleSelector); if (swiperElement && !swiperElement.classList.contains('swiper-initialized')) { new Swiper(articleSelector, { loop: true, pagination: false, navigation: { nextEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-next', prevEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-prev', }, }); } }); } setTimeout(initializeAllSwipers, 3000); const intersectionObserver = new IntersectionObserver( (entries) => { entries.forEach((entry) => { if (entry.isIntersecting) { const newUrl = entry.target.getAttribute("data-url"); if (newUrl) { history.pushState(null, null, newUrl); let article = entry.target; // Extract metadata const author = article.querySelector('.author-section').textContent.replace('By', '').trim(); const section = article.querySelector('.section-info ').textContent.replace(' ', ' '); const title = article.querySelector('.article-title h1').textContent; // Parse URL for Chartbeat path format const parsedUrl = new URL(newUrl, window.location.origin); const cleanUrl = parsedUrl.host + parsedUrl.pathname; // Update Chartbeat configuration if (typeof window._sf_async_config !== 'undefined') { window._sf_async_config.path = cleanUrl; window._sf_async_config.sections = section; window._sf_async_config.authors = author; } // Track virtual page view with Chartbeat if (typeof pSUPERFLY !== 'undefined' && typeof pSUPERFLY.virtualPage === 'function') { try { pSUPERFLY.virtualPage({ path: cleanUrl, title: title, sections: section, authors: author }); } catch (error) { console.error('ping error', error); } } // Optional: Update document title if (title && title !== document.title) { document.title = title; } } } }); }, { threshold: 0.1 } ); function showArticleBody(button) { const article = button.closest("article"); const summary = article.querySelector(".article-body-summary"); const body = article.querySelector(".article-body-preview"); const readMoreSection = article.querySelector(".read-more-background"); // Hide summary and read-more section summary.style.display = "none"; readMoreSection.style.display = "none"; // Show the full article body body.classList.remove("hidden"); } document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", () => { let loadCount = 0; // Track how many times articles are loaded const offset = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]; // Offset values const currentUrl = window.location.pathname.substring(1); let isLoading = false; // Prevent multiple calls if (!currentUrl) { console.log("Current URL is invalid."); return; } const sentinel = document.getElementById("load-more-sentinel"); if (!sentinel) { console.log("Sentinel element not found."); return; } function isSentinelVisible() { const rect = sentinel.getBoundingClientRect(); return ( rect.top < window.innerHeight && rect.bottom >= 0 ); } function onScroll() { if (isLoading) return; if (isSentinelVisible()) { if (loadCount >= offset.length) { console.log("Maximum load attempts reached."); window.removeEventListener("scroll", onScroll); return; } isLoading = true; const currentOffset = offset[loadCount]; window.loadMoreItems().then(() => { let article = document.querySelector('#widget_1690 > div:nth-last-of-type(2) article'); intersectionObserver.observe(article) loadCount++; }).catch(error => { console.error("Error loading more items:", error); }).finally(() => { isLoading = false; }); } } window.addEventListener("scroll", onScroll); });
Join Our Newsletters

Sign up by email to receive news.

© 2025 Manila Bulletin The Nation's Leading Newspaper. All Rights Reserved.