ACG Philippine Qualifiers
Posted by polar on April 25th, 2008 | Visited 1444 times, 32 so far todayMost serious DotA Teams in the Philippines have been looking forward to the Philippine Qualifiers of the Asian Cyber Games (ACG). The goal of most, if not all, competitive teams, is of course represent the country in the ACG. And to do this, one must of course be the champion of the Philippine Qualifiers.
This year, the finals of the Philippine Qualifiers will be held on July, at the Mall of Asia. Only eight teams will be able to join the finals. Six slots are allotted to Metro Manila teams, while two slots are allotted to provincial teams including those from Luzon (outside Metro Manila), the entire of Visayas, and the entire of Mindanao. The eliminations for these two slots (for the “provincial” teams) will be held on May 31 and June 1, still in Metro Manila. Participating teams will shoulder all their expenses for their Manila trip, both for the eliminations and the finals.
Now what is wrong with this picture? First, the tournament ASSUMES that majority or at least 75% of the top DotA Teams in the country come from Metro Manila. As per recent GG-Games Tournaments, the Philippine DotA Improvement Project results, and local LAN tournaments (within and outside Metro Manila), the top teams in the country are as follows (listed alphabetically):
Anytime - Marbel
Chance - Davao City
ChiLL - Davao City
CORPO - Davao City
Flow - Metro Manila
Mineski - Metro Manila
Ninja PD - Metro Manila
Team Conscious - Cebu
TNS - Cebu
Topia X - Cebu
Seven out of ten are provincial teams.
The current ACG Philippine Qualifiers are unfair to provincial teams. Provincial teams have to exert more effort financially in order to be able to represent the country. Provincial teams have to fight tougher battles in order to represent the country. Provincial teams, in other words, do not only have to be better and more competitive, but also more financially capable, dedicated, and willing sacrifice their schoolwork, or office in order to be Team Philippines. While I am not saying that provincial teams are better than Metro Manila teams, this format is totally biased against provincial teams. Do we really want to have the country, the flag, our gaming industry represented by the team who won it all because it was convenient for them to join the qualifiers? Or do we want to be represented by the best, who fought on equal ground.
I do not want to state the obvious, but it has to be said… the organizers MUST DO SOMETHING TO RECTIFY THIS SITUATION. Not next year, but this year.
As a representative of a provincial team willing to sacrifice and spend for the chance to be Team Philippines, here are my suggestions in order to at least lessen the burden on deserving provincial teams:
- increase the number of allotted slots to provincial teams;
- have provincial elimination rounds and grounds (I’m sure provincial tournament organizers are willing to help out with this one); and
- lump together the provincial eliminations and the finals on consecutive dates so the provincial teams don’t have to go back and forth spending money, time, and energy.
I am hoping against hope, that the ACG Philippine Qualifiers organizers will at least be open to a discussion on this matter, before it’s too late.
GLHF! 
{To clarify: I am not against any Metro Manila team(s). I am not claiming that provincial teams are definitely better than Metro Manila teams. Comments that are meant to flame or divert the issues at hand, WILL BE DELETED.}
April 25th, 2008 at 10:30 am
kalokohan…gawin na lang na parang palarong pambansa..every province may elims..d ung slot slot…duh bat kakaunti lang ung slot pra sa iba?sobrang galing ba talaga ng mga taga manila?kaya ba nila lahat ng outside MM? d naman sa ngmamayabang..pero may ibubuga rin naman kaming mga tga viz at min…go ria! ipaglaban mo! makibaka! bakang baka! XD
April 25th, 2008 at 10:30 am
it looks rather biased… -_- we get to spend it all, but the chances of winning is still the same… not like manila teams though…. they only need money for their fare…. X_X
oh well… may God have mercy on us all…
April 25th, 2008 at 10:38 am
It IS biased. Why don’t they just play for the provincial slots via GG client? I think it’s pretty unfair for the provincial teams because they need to spend more money to go to Manila to play for the TWO available slots allotted to them, without any guarantee that they will win.
April 25th, 2008 at 10:41 am
It is true that there are as many good teams from Visayas, indanao and other parts of Luzon as there are in the Metro Manila area.
On a standpoint to get the best representative for Phil, we should definitely need to open up more slots for these regions. On the other hand, the organizer may not have enough resources (time and budget) to pull such a wide scale system.
But yeah, it would be great to see this happen as this will truly help us determine who is the right team to carry the white blue and red flag in the big stage.
April 25th, 2008 at 10:42 am
This is totally unfair and biased against the provincial teams; not only would they be competing for only one(one each for visayas and mindanao respectively) out of a total of eight spots, but they’ll be spending a LOT more time, effort and moolah compared to the Metro Manila based teams.
This is not fair play, people!
Not cool, not cool at all.
Anyway, my support will go to Mineski and CORPO.
April 25th, 2008 at 11:13 am
Yep, it’s unfair to the teams outside Metro Manila. Hope they will do something about it. Maybe if we can play it on GG then it will be feasible. Going to Manila 2 times isn’t right, w/ our own money? Its suicide! Thinking of the capacity of the gamers here in the Philippines especially in the provinces.. We don’t have enough resources to compete. Why not bring the ACG Provincial Eliminations here in our own backyard? To lessen our burden. It will encourage more Teams and make ACG Phils exciting.
April 25th, 2008 at 11:21 am
yeah i agree with jobo,.. its better to play in gg client rather than playing in metro manila wasting money going there…playing for the slots and isnt sure win… it is actually BIASEd coz team in every province is going to spend money, time(but if u like going other city its ok T_T)putting effort by going metro manila playing and while team in metro manila staying at their hometown waiting to play for their match….
well it would be ok if some sponsors will sponsor the teams that triumphed in every province in going to metro manila….
April 25th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
At this point in time, Teams from the Visayas and Mindanao needs to really prove its worth competitively that they can play @ par or higher to the teams from Manila. It is the only plausible way to change the way the organizers treat the Visayas and Mindanao gamers. We cannot really blame the organizers for doing such scenario since marketwise..and considering the cost on behalf on the organizing committee they would profit more if it would be held in Manila areas.
So better yet find sponsors who could shoulder the expenses or solicit from good hearted people to cover up the much needed money.
Go Visayas nd Mindanao Teams
April 25th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
nde naman pwde sa gg client eh.. kc lan tournament ang acg.. so dapat lan din ang elimination.. pero kawawa tlga min and vis..T_T mahirap tlga yan d2 sa pilipinas.. wala naman din kc tlgang supporta ang bansa natin sa mga laro2 lang eh.. ang dami pang problema ng bansang ito kaysa problemahin 2ng laro na 2.. kaya mahihirapan din ang mga organizers.. sa tingin ko lang ha.. pero dapat tlga may provicial elims sa vis and min para naman nde magastos.. ahhh ewan… nvmind.. just ChiLL.. go team MYG!!!
April 25th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
WOah¬ Traveling to manila is nOt simple..U nid MONEY , nid Place to stay And the assurance of winning the elims. As like evrybody said, y not use gg client… Kakaawa naman kaming mga taga province T_T.. hAVE a little mercy nman… We should fight for our right as mamamayang pilipinO… LOL
GUsSsWoOo¬
April 25th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
You’ve got it all wrong. If Wcg Philippines holds out a provincial elims it means that they will pay for the expenses of the provincial representative. If you want to increase slots for provincial teams then start by actually winning not by whining because in the past years of wcg (except for 1 sc player byron the wcg ph champ) no provincial team/players have actually proven anything in the wcg(In any game). Be thankful for the 2 slots you are given and maybe if 2 of your “best” provincial team can actually dominate ACG then some day Wcg just might increase the slots. O and ria please dont base top teams on the ggc tournament lol. Not trying to say manila is better or anything but we do have atleast 10 contenders. It has been the same every year provincial players always whine about their slots and yet they have made no improvement to even make Wcg officials think about increasing their slots.
April 25th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
isa lng msasabi ko… sniFF! ;’(
April 25th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
Ganun pala banana ha..
GGHAN na to!!
April 25th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
Tskk.. Bakit walang kalahok sa Baguio?? Nu ba yan?! Dpat per region or province muna ang laro.. Para lahat aman makasali.. hahayz.. Biased?!, -_-,
April 26th, 2008 at 7:51 am
We all know they will pay for the expenses but at least they can lessen our burden. It’s EQUAL OPPORTUNITY that we want and WE, FILIPINOS deserve that! It’s not who’s the best that should be favored, it’s for the betterment of the PINOY GAMERS. If you organize a tournament that’s only in MANILA then DON’T label it PHILIPPINES, MANILA ain’t PHILIPPINES and PHILIPPINES ain’t MANILA! GoT iT d0rK?!
April 26th, 2008 at 11:54 am
d namn kc kau mala2kas kya d kau pinapsali kc syang lang ang time… kung ganun dehn ang mangyayare.. metro manila lang talaga…
April 26th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
alam mo ano mali d2?? 6 teams for manila slot 2 teams for provincial slot..
oo na nandito na tayo sa “market wise” sa expenses and everything.. d naman sa nag sasabi ako kung sino magaling mag laro ha.. gawin na lng nila 8 SLOTS!! OPEN!! provincial kaba or taga MANILA mismo.. shoulder pa namin expense namin pa punta or kung sino man disidido..
@banana.. in d past wala nanalo noh.. ano ba nasa past at d ka maka move on.. nasa present kc kami now eh..
@magi.. tama ka tol.. PHILIPPINES aint MANILA!!
@all.. sana ma2lad to sa palarong pambansa.. like may city tournament.. den regionals.. may mga ganun.. bago ma laman sino top.. ndi ung deretcho MANILA lng.. no flames.. just my 2 cents
April 26th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
magi idol !
April 27th, 2008 at 11:14 am
Isn’t it peculiar that those bashing the provincial teams are not the top teams in Metro Manila?
I have already vouched this idea to the top Manila teams, among which are Mineski, Flow, Ninja/PD, Papi, and Pag-ibig. I don’t see any one of them complaining about what I wrote or what I am suggesting. I even saw some of them today and NOT ONE OF THEM questioned or harshly criticized what I wrote.
So until you beat the provincial teams at anything, I really don’t see the point in bashing us.
@Banana Man, I’m whining? Look at yourself. If you really are credible in this thing, why don’t you reveal who you are instead of hiding behind some username? And why the hell should I not base my rankings on GG Tournaments? Even the most competitive DotA Teams join these tournaments. The purpose of the ranking is to show that provincial teams can compete with Metro Manila teams. And while there is truth to your claim regarding past WCG qualifiers, a lot of changed since then. If you are really aware of what has been going on in the DotA. I suggest you do some research first before you make loaded statements.
April 28th, 2008 at 3:54 am
@ria
very well said ate..
@Banana Man
e anu nman kung dadagdagan ung slot? kanya kanya din nman ng expenses sa mga gustong sumali for that ADDED SLOT e..
@magi
your damn right!
and BTW, d lahat tau may pera pra mka pnta ng manila for ACG qualifiers elims/finals so ACG organizers should really consider these two things:
“ADDING OF SLOTS” and or the
“LUMPING TOGETHER OF THE ELIMS/FINALS ON CONSECUTIVE DATES”.
pra tipid dba..
April 28th, 2008 at 4:14 am
wow feel na feel ko na kasama tlaga kme sa “top” teams.. XD
April 28th, 2008 at 4:45 am
pagnatapos na yung ACG…
jan malalaman kung cno tlg yung panglaban ng phil…
sana bigyan nyo kami ng mgandang lban…
all pilipino gamers will be happy kapag kayo nanalo sa WCG…
goodluck
April 28th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
It isn’t biased. FOR THIS REASON = THEY JUST DON’T HAVE THE FUND (that simple it can end here). The organizers of WCG-ph are hardworking (I may be wrong), but THEY ARE NOT INCHARGE OF EVERYTHING.
Somebody should try to convince the major sponsors (Samsung perhaps?).
I’m not arguing here or anything. I’m just pointing out (in bold letters too =D), that
IT’S JUST SAD.
I’m just saying we may be complaining to the wrong group of people.
peace out
April 28th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
banana man…hahaha..provincial teams whining?? kelan b nbgyan chance ang lahat?? malay mo may mga mas malayo caliber jan hindi lng makaafford pmunta sa manila mo!!
April 28th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
For me dapat may hiwalay na representative ang Visayas at mindanao. 1 for visayas, 1 for Mindanao, 1 for Provincial and sa NCR na lahat.
Tama lang siguro na masmarami ang NCR team. Is because masmakakatipid WCG para dun, marami namn malalakas sa Visayas at Mindanao ang problema namn d2 ay budget alam naman natin, tanga na lang at hindi na kakalaman na hindi tau suportado ng gobyerno.
May rason ang admin kung bkt masmarami ang teams from NCR. Bka isa na dun ang dami ng teams NCR. If you will use PDIP as references. Makikita mo na halos fair naman. Pero masmaganda ata kung gagamitin mo references yun mas official na tourny. Like GGC Regional WAr. In Regional War ang turn out ng mga team na from luzon (Majority NCR + some provincial) masmarami kumpara sa Visayas at Mindanao. Host city ang NCR kaya siguro isa yun sa factor.
Di rin ako pabor na gamitin ang GGC para sa ACG kung GGC lang rin gagamitin wak na pumuntang singapore makakatipid pa. 1 a year lang ang ACG tapos GGC pa gagamitin wow ha.
April 29th, 2008 at 1:10 am
Banana Man has a point as well as Polar and the others, but ang talagang kailangan is that the southern teams must win this upcoming ACG Philippine Qualifiers and not only that but also to other upcoming national tourneys wether its held via GGC or others. The rankings or in between last years ACG up to this point i agree that there has been alot of improvements..and as Polar have said that 7 out of the 10 top teams of the country are from the provincial areas…so ang kulang na lng is the exclamation mark that indeed the provincial teams do also have the right to represent the Philippines sa mga international Dota competitions or other egames.
thats my 2 cents worth na thought…Win ACG before tau maka request sa susunod…ganyan naman talaga..slow process…di pwedeng ipilit…
April 29th, 2008 at 6:33 am
As much as it is biased, it’s all they can do I suppose. Our country is facing so much financial problems and more that they rarely have time to think about some game. Plus, having a tournament held in many provincial areas would cost them too much money, and that is what they lack. However, I agree that they shouldn’t have a fixed number of qualifiers. They should make it eight slots to any team from any place in the Philippines. Whether they’re all from Manila, or all from provincial cities, it doesn’t matter, as long as we collected the top eight.
April 29th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
sinasadya nila yan pra mas malaki chance nila na manalo… ok lang yan!
2 vs 6
April 29th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
I share your opinon as well. Personally, I think WCG is not doing enough to get more gamers to play. Not a lot of people know that there is such a thing as WCG. Marketing this tournament has been restricted to the official website and word of mouth only. Not enough is being made for awareness. I understand the difficulties for provincial players as well. It’s not cheap to go to Manila and stay there for a period of time.
I think WCG should partner up with PLDT or some telco bring about online tournaments so gamers from all over the country can join. A telco is needed to assure that the gamers will be given the optimal connection. But the problem of lag will always be there and to some extent the match will be unfair to the one suffering the lag. If ever that happens, the provincial players will have to know that there are disadvantages for playing online.
But in fairness, we shouldn’t expect much from WCG organizers. They cannot orchestrate an event like Palarong Pambansa…a lot of money is needed for that which I think they don’t have. But I think they should be more open to the suggestions of the gamers joining their tournament, start planning early and not at the last minute.
April 29th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
@Bananaman: Please step out of your cave of stupidity and see the bigger picture. Because it seems to me that you and the organizers are under the false assumption that Manila accurately represents the whole Philippines. Dota players from Mindanao and Visayas have been winning tournaments left and right, and even beat the top players in Manila. If you’re bashing tournaments held on GG, well, again, if you get out of your cave, that is where the real action happens because our teams get to compete against the best Dota players in the world, as opposed to limiting themselves to shop tournaments here. Next time you comment, please make yourself known, that is if you stop being such a pansy.
April 30th, 2008 at 3:10 am
Immediately, there would be no doubt that this would be the case and all I could say is that it definitely sucks being located right now in the south. It’s quite a predicment that we got here, wanting to represent our country, voicing out our right to be recognized and be given a chance to compete in this prestigious competition which is definitely highly biased with the slots given to us. I guess the reason why “things are the way they are right now” is due to how we have performed lately in this national tournaments. I remember being in davao last 2002 and WCG provincial tourneys were still hot, til I guess our competitors that reached the semi-finals for provincial eliminations came out not so promisiing, or barely made it. The bias definitely comes from our record from a very few national tournaments that have occured in the past. On the flipside, the machines are turning looking at the present situation with Davao, Gen San, etc. making a name for themselves in the Garena and whatnot. The thing is this hype and steady competitiveness has just escalated for more or less about a year from now highlighted by Nomets participation in Manila along with team Iligan’s presence in the TSEI 150k tourney. During that time, we sure made heads turn and got their attention. Unfortunately, whoever is organizing ADC still believes or is slow to realize that right now, there is a budding talent growing here in cebu and davao and definitely our country’s creme dela creme isn’t all harvested from Manila anymore. We can qualify, we can fight and hell yeah we can represent.
Now there’s the possibility that they won’t budge for this year. Sucks for us huh, what we can do is shame them off their friggin egos. Throw it in their face that we can dominate any national competition to prove to them that we deserve equal slots with the manila teams. This isn’t a campaign to diss the manila teams, this for equal opportunity for all qualified teams, coz definitely the Philippines ain’t just Manila.
It definitely boils down to logistics and finances. How can we qualify without goin to Manila? Definitely there is Garena, and why not use it? Rebutting with the fact that ADC is a lan tourney, that’s in the tourney proper wherever it will be held. That’s why we have internet tech dude, to alleviate our distance problems, so hell yeah, use Garena for the national elims. Send a few mods here, that will cost less and should be part of your budget. The main reason for this filtering process is to bring out the best. So ADC organizers, do your job properly, and we will definitely do our part in proving ourselves. Peace. One Country, One Love. Go Pelepens!
April 30th, 2008 at 7:16 am
I suggest a very cheap and simple way to end this.. As for the remaining 2 slots for the Province, I think we should play this on GGC so that all of the Provinces in the Philippines can compete requiring at least 1mpbs of net connection for smooth play. Furthermore, it should be based on rankings to get the top 2 and they will only spend there thousands once for the Finals in MoA. Wacha think? There are many dedicated people here who can organize that..
April 30th, 2008 at 8:22 am
Bantay kang ungas… I disagree with your argument. If what your aiming for, if ever, it will be implemented, Philippines dota gaming will crumble because Ungas will now have the chance to join ACG. Stop Philippines for Mass Starvation!
April 30th, 2008 at 9:55 am
JUST A POINT OF CLARIFICATION THAT MANY DOESN’T SEEM TO GET: TEAMS ARE WILLING TO SPEND FOR A TRIP TO MANILA, but not two trips. GET IT? We are NOT requiring the organizers to sponsor trips. UNDERSTAND?! PLEASE READ CAREFULLY BEFORE COMMENTING!
April 30th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
metro manila should have had the 2 slots or at least 3 slots open while provincial teams have more slots open
April 30th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
@ Banana.. GGhan nalang 2… agree ako kay nometz.. chris
ahahhaha… Ang Yabang…. NI banana ahahahhaha
WHO U?
May 7th, 2008 at 4:20 am
That was quite odd, I was thinking at least the same number for Visayas and Mindanao players, like 3-4 slots. This seems really unfair.
May 7th, 2008 at 5:46 am
just like what polar said, requiring non-manila teams to travel twice if ever they make it, is quite a burden, unless the teams themselves have sponsors or whatever. the sad thing about this is that the organizers aren’t willing to go to the provinces to hold elims, at least having the elims at places which are accessible and lest costly. like 1 or 2 places each for LuzViMin would be a big help.
whats even sadder is the fact that they are only allowing 2 slots for non-manila teams, and even if perhaps the best can be found in manila. this move is self defeating, since the reason why we are having elims is so that we will be able to foster and recognize the best team to represent the philippines. they should at least give the non-manila teams the opportunity to be able to show their capabilities.