Esports at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games

It was held at the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan, Metro Manila from 5 to 10

December 2019.

Game selection
Three Categories
- PC
- Console
- Mobile
List of Games
- Mobile Legends: Bang Bang 
- Arena of Valor, Dota 2
- Starcraft II
- Tekken 7
- NBA2k
- Hearthstone
- Dota 2

Review
-  million views on its streaming platform on the first day of the esport
event 
- with about 70,000 concurrent viewers
- the venue was at full capacity 

Medal Summary
Dota 2 - 7 Gold
Starcraft II - 1 Gold
Tekken 7 - 1 Silver
- 1 Bronze
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang  - 7 Gold
Schools Offer Esports Curriculum

The University of The Visayas New School (UVNS) is currently

offering esports and game development through their Senior High Arts and
Design track.

The Lyceum of the Philippines University (LPU) and esports and gaming
agency Tier One Entertainment collaborated to develop the curriculum of the
four-year degree on Bachelor of Science in ESports. It will be offered this coming
school year once approved by the Commission on Higher Education.

Game Development Degree Program

Asia Pacific College
CIIT College of Arts and Technology,
Colegio de San Juan de Letran (Laguna)
De La Salle- College of Saint Benilde
De La Salle University Laguna campus
FEU Institute of Technology
iAcademy
Mapua University Makati campus
University of the East- Manila
Globe, AcadArena Launches First Ever Esports Merit Scholarship for
College Students in the Philippines

You can now be a scholar for playing video games! 

Globe Telecom and Esports AcadArena, the Philippines’ premiere campus
esports program, officially releases their guidelines on the country’s first esports
scholarship.

“The education sector is hard-hit by the pandemic. With students, teachers

and families shaken to adjust to the digital norm,” Dennis Christian Dominguez,
Head of Games and Esports at Globe Telecom weighs in. “Many schools are
turning to esports to supplement the lack of extracurricular activities. This is
Globe’s way to make that transition smoother and more holistic.”
Globe has worked with AcadArena for just a little more than a year but its
growing community and synergies paved the way for this milestone for both
video games and education.
“There was a lot to balance. We wanted to find a system that aligned with
our ‘not just play’ core value,” Ariane Lim, Co-Founder and Director of Student
Programs at AcadArena revealed. “We didn’t want to attach the scholarship to a
singular game title. We also wanted to be more relevant to a student’s lifestyle.”
The scholarships are attached to AcadArena’s Alliance Program which is a
student org support system. 
Interested student organizations from anywhere in the country can apply for
accreditation in order to access monthly tournament support, exclusive
league access, industry support, scholarships and more.

The following are the universities and the student organizations currently
accredited by the Alliance program:

 Teletigers (University of Sto. Tomas)

 Viridis Arcus (De La Salle University)
 Loyola Gaming Esports (Ateneo de Manila University)
 Oblation Esports (University of the Philippines-Diliman)
 Valiant Esports (Holy Angel University)
 Malayan Esports Club (Malayan Colleges Laguna)
 Mapua Gaming Society (Mapua University)
 TUP Gear (Technological University of the Philippines)
 FIT iTamaraws (Far Eastern University-Institute of Technology)
 Haribons (Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila)
 San Agustin Golden Eagles (University of San Agustin)
 Golden Lions (Central Philippine University)
 Warriors’ Arena (University of San Carlos)
Possible Facilities
Studios

Leisure space

Rooms with space for all the computers

Players Lounge

Rooms for Game Developers

Rooms for VR Games/Players

Rooms for Console Games/Players

Posible Site Location

Pasay City

Pampanga

Marilao
Muntinlupa City

Cebu
Benefits

1. Health
Lower Stress
- Gaming can be a great way to deal with unwanted stress.
- Getting away from stress and spending time engaging in an activity
you enjoy can do wonders for your health and peace of mind.
- We are not saying that gaming is a way to “escape all of our
problems”.
- Gaming is almost the same to any other hobby, whether it’s gardening,
reading or golfing.
- If someone enjoy gaming and it brings them pleasure then they should
feel no shame.
Brain Health
- There was a study done on older adults who played Super
Mario 64 for 30 minutes a day, five days a week, for six months. The
researchers found increases in three of the major areas of the brain:
the prefrontal cortex, the right hippocampus, and the cerebellum.
Eyesight
- Gaming has also been found to improve eyesight. A study found that
people who gamed, especial FPS, had a better perception of colour
contrast.  Gaming helps players become more responsive to different
shades of colour.

2. Hand-Eye Coordination
Gaming is unique in its requirements for hand-eye coordination. Almost
every sport requires it and the ones that come to mind for being the most
“similar” to esports are sports that use some sort of racquet like table tennis,
tennis and badminton. What makes gaming and esports unique is the
requirement for asymmetrical hand-eye coordination.
 This means that gamers need to be able to do different actions with each
hand simultaneously. Think about how you play LoL or CS:GO, the mouse and
the keyboard require two very different actions but must be coordinated perfectly.
Even in console gaming, each hand is performing different actions.
In fact, Professor Ingo Froböse’s research on esports athletes found that
the needed hand-eye coordination went far beyond that required for table tennis.
Most competitive gamers started gaming at a young age and have
perfected the required hand-eye coordination, reaction timing and muscle
memory over many years.

3. CRITICAL THINKING
Gaming, especially competitive gaming and esports, requires players to
take in mass amounts of information, process and analyze it, then make split-
second decisions, over and over.
Competitive gaming is like chess on steroids (even that speed style of
chess that uses the clock).
Gaming requires you to think about what your opponent is thinking about,
and even to think about what you think your opponent is thinking
that you’re thinking about (I hope that made sense).
Once you’ve taken in the presented information, processed and analyzed it,
you need to then react with what you think the most logical next step should be.
”Having played counter-strike since the early 00s, I’ve noticed that I’ve carried
over certain habits or skills to my driving. When I drive, I am constantly surveying
my environment.”
“I’m checking mirrors, I’m checking beside and behind me, I’m looking at what’s
ahead. When I see other cars around me, I am anticipating what they’re going to
be doing, especially if I suspect someone is going to do something really stupid.”
Lots of people take in large amounts of information and think about it, but
what can separate gamers, is that they take action.
4. PROBLEM-SOLVING
Problem-solving of defines esports and gaming in a way. It mean, at the
most fundamental level, gaming starts off with a problem that needs to be
solved.
In esports, once the match starts, there’s a problem, and you need
to solve it. It suppose this defines many things in life, even life itself…
Anyways, gaming improves your problem-solving abilities because you are
constantly solving problems at an incredibly fast rate. 
In LoL, you can be going along with a plan only to have an enemy
champion get the drop on you. You don’t get to sit back and think about your
next steps for a few minutes, you need to problem-solve immediately.
Ever heard the saying “practice makes perfect”? Well practicing solving
problems will make you better at solving problems, and gaming is a great, fast-
paced way to solve many problems.
Another aspect of solving problems is thinking ahead. Thinking ahead
allows you to prevent encountering a problem, and this is sort of like solving a
future potential problem.
In CS:GO, this is evident in the way teams manage their economy,
and in Starcraft, it’s evident in building and managing resources.
Esports and competitive gaming take problem-solving to a much bigger
level as you do so with the added stress of being watched and competing for a
title.

5. INCREASED MEMORY CAPACITY

This point is really directed towards older gamers, but It figured I’d include it
so you can feel even better about your choice to game.
As we age, we start to see a decline in our:

 cognitive flexibility
 attention
 working memory
 abstract reasoning
 Experiments were done with elderly patients, such as this one and this one,
and they showed that gaming resulted in improvements to all of the above.
One study found that on top of the above benefits, enhanced life qualities
such as a better self-concept were experienced by the participants.
”I don’t know about you, but when I clutch around to win a game, with my
team watching me, I feel great for the next few days. Even when I was younger
and playing offline games, finally succeeding in something challenging was a
huge boost for myself.”
“Regarding memory, this is pretty self-explanatory. I have a mental image
for every competitive counter-strike map, even for different versions that have
existed over the years”
“Now that I think of it, I have a lot of photographic memories from way back
to SNES games. In competitive gaming, you need to know the game inside and
out to get an edge on your opponent.”
It’s not enough to know your own character in Overwatch or champion in
LoL, you need to know it all. 
“I remember watching pros play PUBG (on a massive map) and some of
them would even know when rocks were coming up ahead in some random field
while driving”
Having to exercise and use your memory as you do with competitive
gaming is again like “practice makes perfect”; the more you commit things to
memory, the better you’ll get at it.

6. COLLEGE ESPORTS SCHOLARSHIPS

That’s right, esports scholarships exist. They come in varying amounts
financially, but they often mean you are an athlete on a college varsity sports
team.
That’s right, esports scholarships exist. They come in varying amounts
financially, but they often mean you are an athlete on a college varsity sports
team
“When I was 15, pro gaming and esports was an extremely underground
niche that most people had never even heard of. As it grew over the last couple
of decades, people kept saying it was a fad or that it’s not a real sport.”
“Well, I’m not sure what’s left to argue when there are varsity esports teams
offering full-ride scholarships”
 Sure, esports may never be as big as some of the more traditional sports,
but there aren’t many colleges offering scholarships for darts or billiards.

7. SCHOOLS BENEFIT
Esports is an untapped market that schools could potentially cash in on.
High schools that support esports have the opportunity to receive positive media
exposure.
Any school in a city that does something first is going to get an article in
their local paper, and potentially bigger media outlets will pick up on the story.
This sort of exposure helps separate schools and shows to the public which
ones are actually innovating, and not just talking about it.
There is also the potential for additional revenue. You don’t think that the
top high school esports teams are going to get attention from big gaming
sponsors?

8. PATHWAY FOR INDUSTRY JOBS

Having a passion for esports and competitive gaming doesn’t mean you
have to work toward the goal of becoming a professional gamer.
Esports is an industry, and industries require many hands behind the
scenes. Here’s a list of potential employment opportunities in esports:

 Social media manager

 Event manager
 Agent
 Sponsor
 Streamer
 Host
 Coach
 Journalist
 Sales and marketing specialist
 Referee
 Organization owner
 Having the experience of competitive gaming under your belt will help give
you an edge when exploring other opportunities in esports.

You will have not only networked with other people in the industry, but you’ll
have gained a fundamental understanding of what it means to be inside esports,
as opposed to outside looking in, and employers will appreciate this perspective.

9.REAL-LIFE JOB SKILLS

Critical thinking & problem solving: every single job requires you to think
critically and solve problems.
The better and faster you can do this, the more you’ll stand out in the
workplace as a valuable employee, and gaming is an excellent practice for this.
Gaming improves a players ability to engage in multiple tasks
simultaneously. In this study, it was found that 50 hours of action-based video
gaming significantly improved test scores that measured the participants’ ability
to multi-task.
Let’s not forget communication. Communication is imperative for
competitive team-based games (sorry solo gamers).
The ability to effectively communicate under high pressure and when things
feel like they’re falling apart is a skill that will carry forward into any job.