2023 JCI MANILA

The JCI Manila Mobile Legends craze started in 2017. There were only a handful of players then, and we usually would just PM each other for games. We eventually made a viber group with 20 or so members which led to the first 5v5 custom match happening in Natcon Tagaytay 2017. Shout out to Lark’s Argus!

No one really knew what potential the esport would have but we all knew we had fun playing, and that it was also really fun to watch. The environment is very similar to college basketball, with the ooohs, aaahss, and trashtalk. If you’ve never experienced a live esports match, you really should. The energy is just di erent.

After Natcon, we just had to capitalize on the opportunity presented by Mobile Legends. The board then, led by Director J.R. Francisco and Commissioner Miko Medalla, created the first ever Esports Night with Counter Strike and Mobile Legends at Highgrounds QC. Which is a really funny story because the electricity died early on, and the only event that pushed through was Mobile Legends with 4 teams all on Mobile Data.

At this point, we knew we wanted to be like the Basketball, Football, or Golf tournaments inside the chapter but we didn’t have enough players for a proper tournament. And so we kept convincing and recruiting people to play Mobile Legends with us. We eventually reached 45 members in the viber group in 2019 and so we started organizing the first ever tournament with Chairman Junro Mamaril in charge. We had 5 teams with 7 to 8 players each, in a single round robin format. The entire playo s was played in a single day, in what was a testosterone filled 14 hours of Mobile Legends in Blue Turtle Manila. Team Ahorns Knows won the tournament with an undefeated record. The day ended with a turnover of chairmanship from Junro Mamaril to myself, as well as a video recognition of the top 10 plays.

The season 2 draft literally happens on the first day of lockdown in 2020. Ralph Sales, Mick Uy, and I made an on the spot online draft and the rest is history. This was the season that started the Valiant League for developing players, the Magic Chess tournament, the daily player statistics leader boards updates, the all star game, and a little bit of live streaming. We used to rely on replays in a Google Drive, yep, screen recorded the whole thing. Team BFF won Main League season 2, and Team G won the Valiant League.

Still in 2020, Season 3 comes along in a more professional manner with Chairman Ralph Sales creating the JCI Manila E-sports page, and really forming the foundation with which the league is in now. We started livestreaming all the games with members pitching in for commentary, analysis, and back end work. Seasons 2 and 3 teamed up for a joint Awards Night and donated more than P160,000 in project profit for the covid response e orts of the BOD.

The succeeding seasons brought in even more professional ism with the introduction of cosplayers, legit shout casters, full sublimation jerseys, pro coaches, team dinners, team fellowships, champion trips, and the like. I know some of the plans the Season 8 committee has in store, and this might just be the best season we will ever have. I mean, custom entrance songs for all teams, and a league theme song?! Damn, our members are something else.

Looking forward to seeing you all at the Land of Dawn. Congrats in advance Chairman Ian Aricheta and committee!