PH takes home Mobile Legends gold at 2019 SEA Games

Sibol Pilipinas, number one! The Philippines secured its first esports gold at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games. The country’s Sibol squad defeated a heavily favored Indonesian team in Mobile Legends: Bang Bang.

The match went the distance, with the Filipinos racking up 3 wins in the best-of-5 finals series. Sibol stole the first match after storming the top lane en route to their opponent’s home base and jumped out to a 1-0 lead, but the Indonesian team rallied to dominate the next two matches. With their backs against the wall, Sibol went full-in on comfort picks for their damage dealers and took the final two games.

Mobile Legends: Bang Bang gold-medal match. Catch the action here again

Sibol’s Mobile Legends squad is composed of Jeniel “Haze” Bata-Anon, Karl Gabriel “KarlTzy” Nepomuceno, Angelo Kyle “Pheww” Arcangel, Allan Sancio “Lusty” Castromayor, Kenneth Jiane “Kenji” Villa, Carlito “Ribo” Ribo Jr., and Jason Rafael “Jay” Torculas. The 7-man group is coached by Brian “Panda” Lim and Michelle “Mits” Liwanag.

Players from Indonesia’s top two teams make up the nationals. Indonesia won the first world championship in Mobile Legends, which was held in Malaysia in November.

Mobile Legends is among the historic first batch of esports included in an international sporting event. The 2019 SEA Games also features the following games as medaled disciplines: Arena of Valor, Dota 2, Starcraft II, Tekken 7, and Hearthstone. Sibol’s Dota 2 and Starcraft II teams have punched their tickets to the gold-medal rounds.

Razer, which is the official esports partner for the SEA Games, has been streaming all the esports matches via Facebook, YouTube, and Twitch. The gaming hardware firm said it observed close to two million views on the first day of the games. This includes around 70,000 concurrent views. Razer predicts an overall viewership of more than 100 million once the event closes.

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Ramon Lopez

Reviews editor: Ramon "Monch" Lopez has 16 years of professional experience creating and editing content for print and digital publications such as Yahoo. He headed the gadgets-merchandising division of one of the Philippines’ largest retail operators somewhere in between.