Gamers’ time to rise: Esports now a regular event in SEAG

There was a time when parents would scold their kids for spending too much time on video games.

The worth of a Southeast Asian Games gold medal might change that.

Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee (Phisgoc) chair Alan Peter Cayetano on Wednesday announced that esports would be a regular event in the SEA Games that the country would host next year.

“In this modern world, those who play esports are athletes like everyone else in the delegation,” said Cayetano at Marriot Hotel at Resorts World Manila. “It’s a regular sport and officially we want esport players to be treated like any other athlete in the SEA Games.

That means gold medalists would be eligible for a P300,000 bonus from the government as mandated by law, outside of bonuses from the private sector.

The Phisgoc has formed a SEA Games ad hoc committee for esports in partnership with lifestyle brand Razer, who will lend its expertise and experience in esports as well as its ecosystem of hardware, software to the tournament in the biennial meet next year.

Alvin Juban, tapped as member of the ad hoc committee with veteran gamer Joebert Yu, said there would be six gold medals at stake for the discipline: two personal computer games, a pair of mobile events and two console games.