SIBOL Pilipinas capped off its 33rd Southeast Asian Games campaign with a historic fourth consecutive gold medal in the Men’s Mobile Legends: Bang Bang event, alongside back-to-back silver medal finishes in the Women’s division.
“Generally, the results were better than we expected. Coming into this, I think we had realistic expectations. To be honest, I think we’re really getting good at predicting the results of the teams that we are fielding,” said SIBOL General Manager Leo “Jab” Escutin.
“That also means that we have a better understanding of what we can improve on, what more we can prepare, and, of course, what more we can sustain so we can continue improving the results.”
Since the introduction of esports to the SEA Games, SIBOL has consistently delivered gold medals in the Men’s MLBB event. Jungler Karl Nepomuceno, a member of the 2019 squad, secured his second SEA Games gold as the Philippines swept Malaysia, 4–0, in the men’s gold medal match.
The Women’s MLBB division, which was first introduced in the previous edition hosted by Cambodia, again saw SIBOL settle for silver behind regional powerhouse Malaysia.
This year, however, SIBOL earned a measure of redemption by eliminating Indonesia in the semifinals. The Filipinas advanced to the gold medal match against Malaysia, where they pushed the series to a deciding Game 7 but ultimately fell short in a heartbreaking 3–4 loss.
Beyond MLBB, SIBOL also competed in the Men’s Arena of Valor tournament, finishing behind strong contenders Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand. In the demonstration event of Magic Chess: Go Go, the Philippine squad claimed a silver medal.
“I still consider [SIBOL’s SEA Games run] a success, specifically because we defended our MLBB gold medal. We’ll develop more strategies. We already have initial strategies on how to improve our performance, especially in [the] women’s [division],” said Marlon Marcelo, Executive Director of the Philippine Esports Organization.
“Look forward to our domination as we move forward to the next campaign, which is the most important one, the Asian Games.”
Esports will remain a medal event in the 2026 Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan, following its debut in the 2022 edition in Hangzhou, China.
The continued inclusion of esports in the Asian Games underscores the discipline’s growing mainstream acceptance, building on its status as a medal sport across the last four editions of the SEA Games.
“Next year is a really important year for us because it’s going to be our Asian Games run. We are preparing something very, very different. I think the fans can expect a different kind of SIBOL in terms of the strength that the team will bring to the Asian Games,” said Escutin.
