Six games to be played in inaugural SEA Games eSports

The top officials of Razer and the SEA Games ad hoc committee, as well as ESPN 5 president Chot Reyes, formally welcomed eSports as an official SEA Games event. Ivan Saldajeno

By Ivan Saldajeno

PASAY--Six titles will be played when the Philippines will host the first ever Southeast Asian Games eSports competition next year.

"That's what they're working on now," SEA Games ad hoc committee member Alvin Juban said during the press launch of the said event at the Marriott Hotel Grand Ballroom on Wednesday about the development on the games to be played.

While Juban and Joebert Yu did not mention the games to be played next year, Yu assured, "There will be two PC (personal computer) games, two mobile games, and two console games."

However, it was revealed also in the press launch that Moonton, the developer of Mobile Legends, is the first game developer to express its full support in the event, making ML, a mobile game very popular among Filipinos with a similar style to PC game League of Legends, a cinch to make the "Final 6".

Like Moonton, Razer, one of the top-selling gaming computer brands in the world, expressed its full support too in the SEA Games eSports event.

In a chat with Dugout Philippines later Wednesday, on the other hand, Juban essentially ruled out battle royale games PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Rules of Survival, and the first-person shooting game Counter Strike: Global Offensive among the PC games to be played.

"Violent kasi ang content nila," Juban said, pertaining to the fact that virtual versions of real guns are being used in the said games.

However, he added that Defense of the Ancients is a cinch for the PC game considering its popularity in many Southeast Asian nations.

The final list of the eSports tournaments to be played in the SEA Games will be unveiled on Dec. 15.

Follow him on Twitter: @IvanSaldajeno