EnDerr’s path to victory secures a bright Esports future
After five days of intense action, a silence falls over the San Juan FilOil Flying V Arena—but the esports drum keeps beating in the hearts of its athletes, who have paved the way for its inevitable rise.
In the individual esports disciplines of the 30th Southeast Asian Games, all our delegates played their hearts out but only one secured the win. StarCraft II champion Caviar “EnDerr” Acampado lived up to his handle after ending Singapore delegate Thomas “Blysk” Kopankiewicz’s title bid, by winning 4–1 in the title match.
“I’m really happy and at the same time relieved that I didn’t disappoint our countrymen and all of our fans and supporters,” Acampado said after his historic win. “My opponents were really tough but fortunately my preparation along with the program we had prior to the SEA Games helped me a lot. This is for all who believed in us.”
And what a training regimen it was. One month before the SEA Games, Acampado honed his skills by climbing the StarCraft II ranked ladder. In the week leading up to the event, he even started contacting his old friends from other regions to scrim on a nightly basis, developing the optimal strategies to take against specific playstyles. All this on top of Team Liyab’s training schedule: a minimum of 8 hours a day doing match studies, game practice, physical workouts, and mental coaching. Liyab is the professional esports team of Globe in partnership with Mineski, from where EnDerr hails.
As full as EnDerr’s day sounds, Liyab actually takes steps to prevent their players from overexerting themselves during training and burning out. “We want Liyab athletes to treat esports as their careers and jobs,” explains Gerald Sobrepeña, Marketing & Player Development Manager for Liyab Esports. “That’s why we regulate their training hours. They receive monthly salaries depending on their skill set and what they can contribute in their specific discipline. They also receive raises just like regular employees, depending on how they performed for that specific tournament calendar.”
During the SEA Games itself, Acampado’s road to victory was consistently stellar. EnDerr reigned over Group B in the eliminations—including a victory over Kopankiewicz—and advanced to the knockout round with a perfect record.
In the semis, Acampado had to dig deep against a very familiar opponent and tormentor in the winners’ bracket. Against Vietnam’s Trần “MeomaikA” Hồng Phúc, EnDerr proved steadier in the clutch to eke out a thrilling win over his rival to enter the gold medal match. EnDerr won the match in a heart-stopping base race to assure himself at least the silver medal.
Kopankiewicz, on the other hand, bounced back from his earlier loss to Acampado by beating local bet Derick “Nuks” Santos and compatriot Toh “Lobo” Wei Liang Alvin in four games to clinch the other ticket to the finals.
As if EnDerr’s story wasn’t impressive enough, it should be noted that his opponents, Blysk and MeomaikA, are highly decorated StarCraft II competitors themselves. They hold ranks #105 and #53 respectively in the StarCraft II World Championship Series at the time of this publication. EnDerr himself is #72 in said rankings. The StarCraft II WCS is a professional tournament series organized and sanctioned by the game’s developer and publisher, Blizzard Entertainment.
With this achievement, Acampado became the first Filipino individual esports champion in the Southeast Asian Games. And while he and indeed all the esports athletes are certainly walking away feeling fulfilled for having made their respective countries proud, their participation and accomplishments at these biennial games speak to an ideal much bigger than themselves.
“EnDerr’s hard work, perseverance and faith finally gets rewarded. And it couldn’t come at any better place than the biggest sporting event in the region,” says Ernest Cu, Globe President and CEO. “Hopefully, his win will solidify further the acceptance and recognition of esports as a legitimate discipline in the country and solid source of gold medals in future Southeast Asian Games.”
What Cu, the PhilSGOC, Razer Inc., Blizzard, and everyone else who supported bringing esports to the 2019 SEA Games realize is that the advent of esports carries with it an opportunity to thrive in real life outside of video games. The spotlight will always shine brightest on the esports athletes, but their success is shared among all those who support the industry: shoutcasters, observers, coaches, technicians, marketers, educators, and more. Esports’s rising tidal wave will lift all these ships and bring careers, education, and purpose to hundreds, if not thousands of Filipinos.
“This augurs well for the further development of esports in the Philippines,” Cu predicts. We will welcome that future with open arms, should it come to be. For now, we celebrate the victories that Acampado and the rest of our esports athletes have brought home, as we all win as one. /JP Esteban
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