October 27–29, 2017 – Manila, Philippines. The mobile esports landscape is changing in the Philippines, and one of the major catalysts in this spectrum is Mobile Esports Arena (MESA). MESA started their monthly tournaments for Hearthstone, Clash Royale and Vainglory this March with a prize pool of PHP100,000 ($2000) for all three games monthly, being a MESA Champion is one of the most coveted tournament titles in the Philippine Mobile Gaming. However, MESA isn’t stopping with a monthly tournament — they recently held their first Invitationals, and Broken Myth is here to cover MESA’s 2017 Vainglory tournament.
MESA Vainglory Invitationals
It was an exciting weekend for Vainglory fans and players in the Philippines as winners of the month-long eliminations will come to dominate other teams to claim the ultimate title: MESA Invitationals Vainglory Champions, an annual opportunity to prove that your team is the best of the bests in the Vainglory Philippines community.
Day 1: First Blood
The first day of MESA’s Vainglory Invitationals resulted in each playoff match being swept 2-0. Vainglory8 SEA team BREN Esports and Zodiark, two of the high tiered teams in the country battled their way in a main stage match. Zodiark went for a meta composition Reim, Kestrel and Lyra as their jungler, carry and captain, respectively, but was countered by BREN’s pick of Vox, Baptiste and Ardan. BREN’s Sync1 (Vox) proved his skills as a seasoned player by showing great moves in the lane, denying the enemy team of resources and earning his team the win for game one. Zodiark, with hopes of winning in the second game, tried to do their best but proved no different than the first match, eventually losing to BREN due to technical issues. On the other hand, MAJ Instagaming faced Apex Predation in MESA’s booth match with MAJ winning both matches, securing their semi-finals slot.
Day 2: Wildcards
Day two kicked off with players from all over Manila and nearby cities lined up for the Wildcard Tournament with hopes of securing a slot to play in the Invitational Playoffs. Two teams — Generals Charlie and Vindictive Squad — proved their might by their wins determining the final line up in the main bracket.
Moving onto the main bracket, the first match of the day pitted Generals Charlie against Vindictive Squad, both teams from wildcards. The game gave us the thrill of Vindictive Squad taking advantage of their early game power with Gwen and Ozo harassing Generals Charlie. However, the enemy team was able to turn things around and secure a semis slot. Later that day, Generals Alpha faced LOYALISTA in a battle for the last spot in the semis, with Generals Alpha taking the slot. To cap the day, the Vainglory Staff team participated in a casual match against community members with yours truly playing.
Day 3: Championships
The first match for Day 3 was upsetting as things turned unexpectedly for BREN Esports when they faced MAJ Instagaming. The Vainglory8 team wasn’t able to secure any wins, giving MAJ the first finals slot with a clear 2-0 score. Generals Alpha, on the other hand, won over the wildcard champions (Generals Charlie), earning them the last finals slot. The Championship match started late but it didn’t kill the hype for the community to watch the game. MAJ Instagaming emerged as MESA’s Invitationals Vainglory Champions with Generals Alpha taking home second place and BREN Esports team bagging third place. Not a single third tie-breaker match was played in the series; all games resulted in a 2-0 sweep!
The Community
Aside of the main tournament event there were community matches held by MESA to showcase the game to the general audience. Participants played Battle Royale, and those who won their matches bagged some MESA and Vainglory swag — caps, lanyards, shirts and stickers. Some cosplayers were also in the event booth to showcase their creations and portrayed as one of their favorite Vainglory heroes.
The Vainglory Philippines Community has grown significantly in the past two years, and with Vainglory 5v5 coming soon, we could be seeing more participants and audiences in future ESGS or similar events!
About ESGS
Organized by Gariath Concepts and dubbed as one of the biggest esports and gaming conventions in Southeast Asia, ESGS continues to grow and provide the best gaming and esports experience in the Philippines and has grown to become a bookmarked local gaming event, eagerly awaited by brands, publishers, tournament organizers, academic institutions, cosplayers, and fans of games and gaming.