For those unfamiliar, some background about PUBG Global Invitationals (PGI). It's the first major tournament for Player Unknown's Battlegrounds. Teams across the world (North America, South America, Europe, CIS, China, Korea, Japan, South East Asia) have to go through a series of qualifiers to make it to the final event in Berlin, Germany; where the 20 best teams around the world will compete for a prize pool of $2 million USD. Since our organization is based in the Philippines we took the SEA route to qualify. First step was the regional qualifiers within the Philippines. Qualifiers were held in Luzon, Mindanao, Visayas as well as 2 online qualifiers. Only the top 4 from each qualifier would advance to the PGI National Qualifiers where the 20 best teams in the country would compete. From the PGI National Qualifiers only the top 4 teams will move on to the PGI SEA Championship which was held in Bangkok, Thailand. The SEA Championship was somehow complicated, 20 of the best teams in SEA would compete for a prize pool of $100,000 USD and the winner would get the final spot for the PGI Finals in Berlin. Now this is where it gets complicated, since Thailand was given its own slot for the PGI Finals there are some technicalities in terms of who gets the final slot. Thailand had its own set of qualifiers much like the Philippines did, except whoever won overall in Thailand secured a spot in Berlin directly but was still eligible to play in the PGI SEA Championship. Basically if the winner of the Thailand qualifiers won the PGI SEA Championship then the final slot would go to the 2nd place team.
Before I talk about my experience during the Nationals I want to talk about the month leading to this. About a month before the event I couldn't practice at all with the team. Mainly it was my work schedule causing me to miss practice, I was scheduled for afternoon shifts. Heading to the biggest gaming event of my life (at that time) I had no practice at all. I was extremely anxious but couldn't show any sign of anxiety or talk to my teammates about my worries since I am the captain and I'm supposed be the one they look up to. Imagine seeing your leader having an anxiety attack before a big event; not good at all for the team. To make things worse, I was arriving in the Philippines just a day before the event, so I had to fight through jet lag during the games. I would tell myself to rely on my experience and countless hours spent practicing in the past.
This was my first major LAN experience. Being in an arena with a live audience...I loved every bit of the experience. After all, this is every gamer's dream...this is what I've been working towards. It was amazing seeing all the things that happen behind-the-scenes. All the production work for a big event like this. Game 1 of the Philippines Nationals...winner winner chicken dinner. What a way to start the tournament but I knew it was only game 1 out of 8. True enough, game 3 and game 4 we placed 18th out of 20. We finished the first day 2nd place, just 100 points behind the first placed team. I called an emergency team meeting as soon as we got back to the hotel. Among the other things discussed during the meeting, I remember telling my teammates we're back to 0 tomorrow, don't think of the lead and the current standings.
Day 2, the most memorable play of the tournament. Against all odds, my teammate Yves (k1lla-) wins a 1 v 4 to get us another win for the first game of day 2. The hype and excitement at the arena when that happened...I will never forget that. That paved the way for a solid day 2 from us and we won the tournament because of our day 2 performance. Personally, I felt I performed well below my standards throughout the event. I'm not taking any credit away from the other Filipino teams, the top teams were solid as expected and gave us a hard time. Luckily my teammates played really well and I'm glad I was still able to make good contributions to help us win
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| ArkAngel family celebrating the win |
PGI South East Asia Championship
Thus far the biggest gaming event I've participated in. Unfortunately my phone broke during a recent trip, so I don't have photos of the venue to share. It was cool (understatement) seeing an LED ArkAngel logo in our booth. At this point I regained some of my form, was able to play and practice a bit before the event. Even though this was the biggest event I played in thus far, I was not nervous at all. Like I said earlier this is what I've been working for, this is what I wanted from the start. For the past few years whenever I watch eSports events I can't help but wish I was the one playing. Then in a blink of an eye, there you have it, performing in front of a live audience, playing in front of over 20,000 viewers from Twitch alone. I don't know the numbers from the Facebook stream but I would assume it is in the thousands as well. All the hard work and dedication from our team finally bearing fruit. The spotlight was finally here for 12 games.
Day 1 was terrible for us. It's not that we played terribly, PUBG is somewhat a luck reliant game but the best teams find a way to consistently finish within the top 10. There's only so much you can do if the next playzone shifts away from you, especially at the professional level. I'm actually proud of our performance during day 1. Despite terrible luck with the playzone, we managed to finish day 1 within the top 10 overall and even snatch a win in the very last game.
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| ArkAngel PUBG discussing adjustments |
We went into day 2 focused and believing we can win it all despite being almost 1000 points behind the 1st placed team. There was still 6 games to play, it's not over yet. After 5 solid games in day two we found ourselves 2nd place overall, 100 points behind the first placed team and 400 points ahead of the 3rd placed team. The current team at 1st also won the Thailand qualifier so we only needed 2nd place to make it to Berlin. Qualification to Berlin was already at the palm of our hands. We just needed to make it to the top 10 in the final game, that or the currently 3rd placed team doesn't make it far in the final game. The two things we wanted to avoid happened. We placed 19th in the final game and the 3rd placed team won the last game. I have no words to describe how I felt.
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| Team huddle and prayer before game 1 |
It was a test of character for me as a leader; how would I react, what do I say to my teammates. I remember telling my teammates "We played our best game today, I'm proud of you guys." Of course I'm disappointed we didn't qualify for Berlin, but looking back at the experience; our team grew a lot, personally I grew as a leader throughout the events. We held each other accountable with mistakes but still had each other's backs throughout the tournament. Something I will never forget is someone telling me: "Dex, that was 2 extremes that just happened, what are the chances of that happening? In God's time you will taste success, this is just a preview of things to come." That being said I'm really grateful for the support we received from ArkAngel; who treated us like family. As much as they were devastated by the ending, they were there for us and cheered us up.
My favorite part of the tournament, aside from playing and the environment, was spending time with people from ArkAngel and the camaraderie enjoyed by the Filipino teams in Thailand. What used to be teams literally fighting with each other, got together and became a close group of friends. Being able to represent the Philippines was an amazing experience, even better was making Filipino fans proud of its own with our performance. We promise to stay dedicated and keep working hard, we want to give our fans a reason to be proud.
Securing our First Major Sponsor
After 2 months of rumors, it's official. ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) agreed to be ArkAngel's first major sponsor. We were told our recent performance in PUBG was a big factor, which makes me proud of our team. To those unfamiliar with the eSports / gaming scene, Asus ROG is one of the biggest brands out there. Comparable to Nike, Adidas and Under Armour in the sports world. This is definitely a big win for ArkAngel, I may be wrong but as far as I know; we are the first Philippines based eSports team they are sponsoring.
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| Asus Republic of Gamers logo |
What's new with ArkAngel
I know this has been a long one, bear with me! One last exciting announcement I want to share. We're getting our jersey redesigned! Here's a mock-up of our new gaming jersey. Note, that's just a mock-up, so far our official sponsors are Asus ROG and ViscoCity, please disregard the other logos. Hopefully more sponsors come and support ArkAngel.
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| ArkAngel Jersey rev.2 |
Thank you for taking time out of your day to read. I greatly appreciate it! If there's a topic you want me to talk about in my next blog please leave a comment. As much as possible, keep it related to ArkAngel, eSports or PUBG.
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