What is “eSports”? eSports is the idea of playing games competitively with the machinery and formality of traditional sports. By giving competitive gaming a solid foundation to work with, eSports provides it with a more professional and organized albeit less grassroots environment.
It was the second half of 2014 when die-hard gamers Joe, Mikel and Gelo decided to bring eSports to their region of Southern Manila. Previously, eSports in the Philippines was confined to Northern Manila and Cebu with organizations like Mineski and Arcanys based there.
Versus Philippines, touted as an “eSports organization focused on communities”, was the result of this. While they seemed to have all the logistics for it, they were still at a loss as to what game were to be their flagship title. Mikel (aka GodZ) suggested that they go to 2014’s iteration of the Pinoy Gaming Festival and find a community to spotlight there.
After scouring through the various communities at PGF, Versus had finally decided on a game to focus on. During their excursion, they’d found the Smash community to be one of, if not the friendliest one around. They realized that it was young enough to mold it into something having the camaraderie of grassroots scenes and the production value of eSports heavy ones, something that Gelo wanted from the get go. David (SpicyD), the de facto head of the scene at the time, was luckily very open to their group which made it easy for them to pick it up.
Right after the event, Versus and the Rumpus Crew entered into a partnership to promote each other’s future tournaments.
The History Of Philippine Smash By Justin Banusing
Facebook Group | Subreddit | Twitter (For Updates) | Northern Manila FB Page | Ilonggo FB Page (My Region) |Southern Manila FB Page
Contributors To This Chapter: Mikel Godinez (GodZ), Gelo (Dmnyo), Don Yves Giron (DYG), Denis Giron (Guppy), David Cayuca (SpicyD), Gaston Dualan (Hypebeast)
Videos: PGF Podcast by TooMuchGaming, PGF Montage “See You At ESGS” by Versus, “SSBPH Community Video” by SpicyD
Posters and Photographs: All by SpicyD
Table Of Contents
Origins: Garage Casuals, OctoBrawl and Imperium Year End Party
Finding A Home: Tournament M and Summer Smash
New Blood: For Fun, For Glory And The Foreigner
The Other Side: Birth Of The South Sm4sh Scene, Philippine Gaming Festival
The First National: ESGS and National Expansion
X-Smash: The Christmas Party
The Kerfuffle: The Melee Of South’s Past, Versus Smash 4 Circuit & Imperium Monthlies
Revival Of PM/Melee: Melee Mayhem
Glossary
Pinoy Gaming Festival
PGF Montage Video
Pinoy Gaming Festival 2014 was the biggest gaming convention in the Philippines at the time. Using his connections as Team X-Over’s founder (defunct local FGC coverage group), David was able to secure a highly coveted spot for Smash amongst the other major Philippine eSports like Dota. Up to today, people still credit PGF to be the fire that ignited the scene’s spread nationally.
Before the event, David had gathered a group of people in the community in order to train them to become the official TOing crew. Aside from him and Pepper (his girlfriend), the newly christened Rumpus Crew was comprised of founders Stephen Reverente (SteefDood) and Jasper Sabigan (Jase) alongside neophytes Jorem Olivarez (TheGreyMan), Gerard Crisostomo (UltiMagnus) and Alex van Schoonhoven (Destimo).
Due to logistical concerns, the Rumpus Crew had to make Project M a freeplay title so that they could focus on Smash 4.
The tournament proper started Sunday afternoon. Aside from the standard bunch of tourney-goers (bar DJR, AlphaL and RZ), Southern Manila Smashers (pre-Versus) also arrived to join. Southern Smashers like Daez, Ganondorf main LM Monserrat (Love Machine), Falcon main Mikel Godinez (GodZ) and Little Mac (now Sonic) main Nando Maglutac (Nandoom) all made their first tournament appearances at this event.
TheGreyMan with Steef in the background
With the top 3 not around, the fight for 1st place was tighter than ever. Stomping through winner’s bracket and eventually taking the tournament was Rumpus Crew’s very own Greninja user HypeBeast with Zelda/Bowser Jr. main BBNikface getting 2nd. In Loser’s Finals, BBNikFace made the legendary comeback against Leo, coming back from a 2-0. This solidified him and HypeBeast to be Top 5 in the nation.
BBNikFace (left) and HypeB (right) wearing their iconic hat/costume respectively while playing Grand Finals, much to the audience’s delight
With a new partner secured, Smash was only getting bigger everyday. Soon enough, they would be hosting their first national at the Electronic Sports And Gaming Summit (ESGS). Meanwhile, far off the coast of Luzon, another region was beginning to develop; this region straying off from the Smash 4 focused Manila.
Glossary
Luzon – Northern region of the Philippines. It houses the capital region of the country known as the NCR (informally called Manila). NCR is divided into three regions as of last month: North , South and Center.
Visayas – Middle region of the Philippines. Home to the Iloilo and Cebu Smash scenes.
PGF – Pinoy Gaming Festival, one of the major gaming conventions in the Philippines.
ESGS – Electronic Sports And Gaming Summit, the biggest gaming convention dedicated to competitive gaming in the Philippines.
Rumpus Crew – Term used to refer to both frequents of Kiko’s gaming lounge, The Rumpus Room and to the North’s official TO team.
Versus eSports – Southern organization that manages the entirety of Southern Manila tournaments.
Do they have a plan to initiate an event like this. I think, if so, my Gamers Org will surely be glad to have this kind of event here in Davao. As their President, I would like to ask if it is possible to initiate an event like this here in our City.
Hi there! You can contact me on Facebook for more deets about Smash Bros PH and I can even add you to the group if you’d like.
There’s actually a small scene in Davao from what I’ve heard.
Do they stream some tournaments, I’m a half-decent player ( NOWHERE close to them )