MANILA, PHILIPPINES — The recently concluded DotA tourney in the Philippines, Galaxy Battles 2018, was a successful gaming event that only proved the Philippines can host e-sports and other future e-sports tournaments. Overall, it was the local DotA fans themselves who carried this favorable outcome with their overwhelming support for the love of the game.
Galaxy Battles II: Emerging Worlds is the second annual DoTA 2 tournament from Fallout Gaming and Purpose Win Entertainment Limited (PWEL), a marketing and organizing group dedicated in developing e-sports in the country. The group also pushes recognition to legitimate e-sport as a sport in Southeast Asia.
The first ever Galaxy Battles was in Shenzhen, China in June 2017. This year’s three-day tournament was held at the Philippine Arena in the province of Bulacan on January 19 to 21, 2018.
The Galaxy Battles tournament at the arena featured broadcast talents such as host Eri Neeman, panel host Danelie Purdue, and commentators David “GoDZ” Parker, David “Luminous” Zhang, Gabriel “Lyrical” Cruz, Dominik “Lacoste” Stipic, Benjamin “Bkop” Kopilow, Neal “tsunami” Khandheria, and Cameron “Basskip” Scott — all of whom have respectively gained their expertise in analyzing gameplays in major DoTA tournaments.
The participating teams were OG, Evil Geniuses, TNC Pro Team, Team Spirit, Pain Gaming, Team Infamous, and VGJ.Thunder. Results of the tournament are charted below:
The first day of Galaxy Battles II saw wins from Team Spirit, VGJ.Thunder, Evil Geniuses, and Red Bull OG in the Upper Bracket. TNC Pro Team and paiN Gaming, meanwhile, won against the South American Team Infamous and wild-card winner PG. While Barracx, eliminated the two teams from the rest of the tournament.
On day two of the event, VGJ.Thunder and Evil Geniuses defeated Team Spirit and Red Bull OG in a best of three battle in the Upper Semi-Finals. The second day of Galaxy Battles ended with a victory from the Evil Geniuses against VGJ.Thunder, which earned them the first slot in the best of five Grand Finals.
The last day of Galaxy Battles II highlighted the Lower Bracket teams who squared off against each other in four best of one matches. Red Bull OG and Team Spirit gained their respective victories against TNC Pro Team and paiN Gaming in the Semi-Finals. But it was Team Spirit who got the chance to advance to the Lower Finals and faced VGJ.Thunder, with the latter winning in the Grand Finals.
Galaxy Battles II ended with VGJ.Thunder emerging victorious. China’s VGJ.Thunder, with members Sylar (Jia Jun Liu), Ayo (Tianyou Fan), Fade (Pan Yi), Yang.Cn (Zhou Haiyang), and Kamma (Liu Chang), ranked 16th in the world ranking and 6th in their China ranking. They have been competing in DoTA tournaments since their establishment in 2016 and had won various tournaments, including H-Cup Seasons 8 and 9 as well as the 2017 China Top DoTA 2.
So what’s next for the E-sports scene here in the Philippines? According to our sources, Fall Out Gaming will take a break for a few months after this tourney in order to regroup and assess how they can improve future events, but no mention if they will come back to the Philippines anytime soon.