The Nationals will be the first franchised esports league in the Philippines, featuring four separate game titles.

Founding members of the league includes Philippine companies TheNet.Com, BrenPro Inc., Cignal TV Inc., PLDT Inc., and STI Education Holdings.

League will launch with a grassroots tournament, and will be used to recruit esports athletes for future multi-sport events, such as the Asian Games.

It has been announced that a franchised esports league will launch in the Philippines, with six corporate partners from the country’s telecommunication and TV industries. The Nationals will launch in Q1 of 2019, with teams in four game titles—one for PC, mobile, console, and a “wildcard” game.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]The competitions will be broadcasted on ESPN5, the sports division of Filipino media company TV5.[/perfectpullquote]

The competitions will be broadcasted on ESPN5, the sports division of Filipino media company TV5—which operates in partnership with U.S. network ESPN. One of the intended purposes of the league is to identify national esports athletes to compete in future international esports events, including potential esports programs at the SEA Games, Asian Games, and the Olympics.

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The six founding corporate partners for The Nationals are:

TheNet.Com, a Philippine net cafe that runs its own multi-game esports organization, TNC Pro Team.

HappyFeet Esports, a Filipino Dota 2 team. team.

BrenPro Inc., an esports competition organizer.

Cignal TV Inc., a subscription-based satellite television service.

PLDT Inc., a telecommunications company, and its wireless services subsidiary, Smart Communications, Inc.

STI Education Systems Holdings, Inc., an education and investments corporation.



The Nationals’ teams will begin searching for talent with a grassroots tournament, The Road to The Nationals, hosted by PLDT Home and Smart Communications. The competition will be played across ten locations across the Philippines, culminating at the Electronic Sports and Gaming Summit (ESGS), one of the largest gaming events in Southeast Asia.

[perfectpullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]The Philippines’ Games and Amusement Board recognizes esports as one of its supported disciplines.[/perfectpullquote]

This is the latest push by a non-endemic company (or several, in this case) to develop esports in the Philippines.

In April of this year, Globe Telecom announced the launch of its own gaming and esports initiatives. These include partnerships with Riot Games and Garena to build sanctioned League of Legends and Arena of Valor events in the region, and with the Mineski Events Team for the return of the Manila Masters tournament in 2019.

The Philippines’ Games and Amusement Board (GAB) recognizes esports as one of its supported disciplines, ensuring that professional activities in the space are regulated and supervised. Last year, the GAB licensed several Dota 2 players from TNC Pro Gaming to travel to the U.S. for The International 7.