The Road to The Nationals is a series of tournaments which serves as the prelude to the inaugural 2019 season of the eSports league in the Philippines known as " The Nationals". The winners will be part of a pool of players which the six pioneering teams of the league will draw players from.

Background

Launch and format

The Nationals eSports league was officially launched on July 24, 2018, in a press conference. In the same event, the "Road to The Nationals" a series of qualification tournament to determine the players of the six franchise teams to compete in The Nationals' inaugural season was announced. Three qualifiers for each of The Nationals three video game titles will be held. These tournaments will run from August to October 2018 with the qualifying eight teams from each of the three titles competing in the final qualification tournament at the Electronic Sports and Gaming Summit 2018 to be held from October 27 to 28 at the

SMX Convention Center The SMX Convention Center Manila is a convention center located in Pasay, Philippines. It is the largest private venue in the Philippines for trade events, industry conventions, corporate functions, and international exhibitions. The building ...

Pasay Pasay, officially the City of Pasay ( fil, Lungsod ng Pasay; ), is a 1st class Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, highly urbanized city in the Metro Manila, National Capital Region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, i ...

. The winning teams will be given millions of pesos in prize money and a chance to get drafted in one of the six franchise teams of The Nationals.

Video game titles

Three titles, belonging to three categories:

PC gaming A personal computer game, also known as a PC game or computer game, is a type of video game played on a personal computer (PC) rather than a video game console or arcade cabinet, arcade machine. Its defining characteristics include: more divers ...

, Mobile gaming,

Console gaming A video game console is an electronic device that outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home consoles, which are generally placed in a permanent location connected to a t ...

, will be contested in The Nationals. On July 24, 2018, two titles for The Nationals were confirmed: ''

Dota 2 ''Dota 2'' is a 2013 multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game by Valve. The game is a sequel to ''Defense of the Ancients'' (''DotA''), a community-created mod for Blizzard Entertainment's '' Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos.'' ''Dota 2' ...

'' for PC Gaming and '' Mobile Legends: Bang Bang'' for Mobile gaming. As of that date, two titles are being considered for the Console gaming category: ''

NBA 2K19 ''NBA 2K19'' is a 2018 basketball simulation video game developed by Visual Concepts and published by 2K Sports, based on the National Basketball Association (NBA). It is the 20th installment in the ''NBA 2K'' franchise, the successor to ''NBA 2 ...

'' and '' Tekken 7''. ''

'' was confirmed as the third title by August 2018. but this decision was retracted and ''Tekken 7'' was made the third title in September 2018. The Road to The Nationals will feature these three titles.

Qualification tournaments

''Dota 2''

Elimination tournaments for ''

'' will be held from August 4 to October 13, 2018.

''Mobile Legends: Bang Bang''

The Road to The Nationals integrates the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Professional League Season 2 tournament for the elimination phase of ''Mobile Legends: Bang Bang''.

''Tekken 7''

Elimination tournaments for '' Tekken 7'' was scheduled be held from August 4 to October 13, 2018. Originally the schedule was meant for elimination tournaments for ''

'' before the basketball video game title was replaced by the arcade fighting game.

Final tournament

The final tournament will be held in conjunction with the Electronic Sports and Gaming Summit 2018 from October 27 to 28 at the

. Matches will be broadcast live on

AksyonTV Aksyon TV () was a Philippine free-to-air television network. It was a joint venture of Nation Broadcasting Corporation and TV5 Network, Inc. (international operations is under its subsidiary Pilipinas Global Network Ltd.), both under PLDT medi ...

''Dota 2''

Eight teams qualified for the final tournament. The final best-of-five series was contested between the Sterling Global Dragons and the Station 751. The former team won 3–1 over the latter.

''Tekken 7''

Eight players qualified for the final tournament. Alexandre Lavarez (PBE, AK) and Andreij Albar (PBE, Doujin) contested in the final match with the latter winning over the former.

Notes

References

{{reflist 2018 fighting game tournaments 2018 in Philippine sport 2018 multiplayer online battle arena tournaments Esports competitions in the Philippines The Nationals (esports)