The last few days were controversial for the Philippines eSports industry with their own ups and downs. Most local and global media covering online betting and the eSports industry actively discussed the top 3 news. Among them were the nominations of Benny QT and Gonzales for the upcoming eSports Award, problems with the management of the MDL Team, and the last battle between Smart Omega and Onic Philippines.
Smart Omega vs Onic Philippines
During the recent match between Smart Omega and Onic Philippines, the former changed the lineup in a way that no one could expect. As a result, a popular goldliner “Kelra” was shifted into a jungle role. At first, such a change was taken as controversial, but soon, everybody saw impressive results in Game 1. Kelra managed to do his best using the Harith pick.
As a result, Omega was literally destroyed by kill scores (4-0-4 KDA). For Kelra, it was more than a significant achievement since he is not very experienced in the “jungler” role. During the interview after that match, he mentioned that he still has much to do to improve this new role and master new techniques. Such impressive Kelra’s flexibility may be a real game changer and an ace in the hole most MPL Philippines should be wary of.
ECHO and BennyQT Nominations
At the time of writing, MANILA Philippines is the top Mobile Legends team on the local as well as the world stage. The team managed to reach such status mainly because of two top players: ECHO and Benedict “BennyQT” Gonzales. These players were recently nominated in the upcoming 2023 Esports Awards. Since 2016, Esports Awards has been the only organization that celebrates significant achievements in the eSports industry.
The procedure is fairly simple: first, the public names players who deserve to be nominated. At the second step, professional judges have come into play. Currently, eSports enthusiasts still have a chance to vote for these players. They can do it directly on the eSports Awards website. The live ceremony will take place on November 30 in Las Vegas.
The MANILA team is nominated in the “Team of the Year” category. Earlier last year, it had already managed to win the M4 World Championship and Season 11 of Mobile Legends Bang Bang Professional League Philippines four months ago.
As for Gonzales, he was nominated for the “eSports Mobile Player of the Year” after getting an impressive performance during the M4 World Championship. ECHO previously also won the “Mobile Team of the Year” nomination and was the first in the “Mobile Player of the Year” category in the inaugural Mobile Gaming Awards last July.
Scandal with Blacklist Academy
Recently, it became known that Moonton Games imposed sanctions on Blacklist Academy. The reason was violations of management policy. Everything begins from the Eviann Balquin interview to Spin.ph. He said that the management did not cover any team’s food expenses or pay salary.
Soon, there was a deep investigation that confirmed the words of Eviann Balquin. After that, Moonton officially declared Blacklist Academy LTX guilty of poor budget management. This situation will likely cause a deeper exploration of the conditions players experience while staying in all boot camps. Inspectors will also focus on all contract conditions players signed and whether the management fulfills them.
