The Lowdown on Manila Cup 2016

Another year, another Manila Cup (I hope this really becomes a yearly thing actually). Last year we covered the first Manila Cup, giving our thoughts on the event: what we like, what we disliked, and our overall impressions of both the event and the games featured. So did Manila Cup 2016 outdo the original? Well here are our impressions:

First off the venue itself. I have to say, this year’s venue being a clubhouse is a marked improvement on last year’s venue. The advantage of holding such an event in clubhouse over a barcade is quite obvious. The clubhouse allowed for a rather “roomy” venue considering the amount of players and spectators in attendance. Acropolis’s clubhouse proved able to comfortably (relatively speaking considering the amount of attendees) house the roughly 400+ attendees.  There were around 200-300 players in total, and an estimated 100 spectators.

The downside of this venue though was the ventilation. While the venue was able to hold 400 people, the ventilation left something to be desired. It was pretty damn hot during the day when everyone was still in attendance, and the sun was bearing down on the clubhouse. Hell, when I watched the VoDs for the commentary (Mike Ross, Gootecks, and Spooky on commentary was hype), the most common complaint I heard from the international commentators was the heat.

Later in the evening when the crowd started dissipating, it started getting cooler at least. Maybe next year we can get another “upgrade” to the venue.

Speaking of international visitors, aside from the aforementioned Spooky (who has been living here for a few months it seems), Mike Ross, and Gootecks; there were a lot of international pro-players in attendance. EG’s Justin Wong, K-Brad, and Ricki Ortiz. Japanese pros including, Kazunoko, Eita, and Bonchan to name a few; and other players from the Asian region such as Gamerbee, Jiewa, and Cola321 (who apparently was using this as an alternate name, but I can’t recall his usual gamertag right now).

The presence of these international bigwigs shows how the Philippine FG scene is progressing. It looks to be a bright future, and we cannot give enough credit to Imperium and thus Manila Cup for doing the work for the scene. Hopefully we get more big events such as Manila Cup and thus further raise awareness of the Philippine FGC.