Two years ago, SIBOL Pilipinas medaled in every event it entered at the 32nd Southeast Asian Games, finishing third overall with two golds, one silver, and three bronzes before going on to reign supreme as overall champions of the IESF World Esports Championship.
That success now feels distant, overshadowed by a series of heartbreaks in 2025.
SIBOL’s MLBB Men’s and Women’s squads both suffered painful exits at the IESF Southeast Asian qualifiers last August, falling to Cambodia and missing out on a spot on the world stage.
It marked the first time the men’s team failed to qualify for the annual global tournament, having secured at least a gold or silver finish in every edition since 2022.
Cracks Beyond Mobile Legends
(C) SIBOL
The setbacks extended beyond Mobile Legends.
After delivering a historic gold medal at the 2019 SEA Games, Dota 2 has struggled to recapture that form.
SIBOL settled for a 9th–12th place finish at the 2023 IESF World Esports Championship, where regional rivals Myanmar and Indonesia placed second and fourth, respectively.
The Dota 2 squad showed signs of recovery in 2024 with a 5th–8th place finish, falling only to eventual world champion Greece. However, that momentum stalled in 2025, as SIBOL bowed out in the quarterfinals of the IESF South and Southeast Asia qualifiers, missing out on a return to the world stage.
PUBG Mobile followed a similar trajectory.
After an impressive regional run and a respectable 11th-place finish at the 2023 IESF World Esports Championship, SIBOL eventually relinquished its regional title.
Even as the Philippines replicated its gold and silver finishes in the MLBB Men’s and Women’s events, respectively, that proved to be the extent of SIBOL’s haul at the Southeast Asian Games, with the delegation fielding just three squads across six medal esports events.
A Program at a Crossroads
(C) UAAP Season 87 Media Team
While flashes of brilliance remain—particularly in Mobile Legends—the broader program has struggled to keep pace across multiple titles, exiting tournaments earlier and competing with reduced depth compared to previous cycles.
With PUBG Mobile, League of Legends, and Mobile Legends set as medal events at the 2026 Asian Games, the stage is set for another defining test of the SIBOL national team program.
Beyond results, the current crossroads could also open the door for expansion.
With chess now integrated into the Esports World Cup ecosystem, there is growing opportunity for SIBOL to explore chess esports as a competitive pathway aligned with the Philippines’ long-standing strength in the discipline.
A potential collaboration with the UAAP Esports program—which has already institutionalized chess alongside esports titles such as MLBB, VALORANT, and NBA 2K at the collegiate level—could serve as a natural entry point, allowing the national program to build a sustainable pipeline while bridging traditional mind sports and modern esports competition.
