Globe Telecom expands partnerships and welcomes League Of Legends

Only a few months have passed since the announcement of a partnership with MET (Mineski Events Team) to produce the Philippines Pro Gaming League featuring Dota 2, Tekken 7 and Arena Of Valor, but Globe is back at it again.

This latest move sees the Phillipines based telecommunications giant (full name Globe Telecoms), further expanding their reach in the esports realm of South East Asia.

Globe has announced the sponsorship of Globe Conquerors Manila, a Riot sanctioned event permitting a direct entry to the World Championships and marketing partnership with Riot Games/Garena for League of Legends. An additional AOV tournament event called Valor Cup has been confirmed too. This is a local stepping stone into the Arena of Valor World Cup and the expansion of their existing partnership with MET, including exclusive marketing with team Mineski.

It should come as no surprise that a titan of local industry like Globe would continue to expand into the esports industry, especially after the last few years growth in the SEA region. One needs only look at the recent announcement that esports is set to become a competitive sport at the 2022 Asian games and that revenue numbers from PC games alone are projected to surpass $2 billion in 2021, according to research firm Niko. But Globe has hedged its bets following in-house trend analysis and corporate evangelism by doubling down on its commitment to multiple titles and verticals along with their partners’ Riot, Mineski and Garena (SEA Ltd).

Jake San Diego, Director and Head of Games at Globe took some time to explain to us how all this came about.

“When I joined in 2015, my first business plan was to establish a wider reach of mobile game offerings, leveraging our payment gateway so players could get games using their credit. Following that, I presented and socialised my esports strategy to other department heads in the business that gained traction all the way to the top. The visionary that is Ernest Cu understood that Globe could be an enabler of esports in the country, then urged me to go big in its development here in the Philippines and beyond.

“Where we had difficulties to overcome was the early stage of selecting who to partner with and specifically how we went about connecting with them. Once we saw that we (Riot, Garena and Mineski) all had the same vision to elevate the level of esports in the country and the region, things progressed very quickly to where we are today.”

He concluded: “We defined what we wanted to achieve together, and that is to enhance the level of esports by creating instances and opportunities in all levels of the skill tiers here. From grassroots all the way to the top.”

Manila has, for quite some time, been host to everything Dota 2 in SEA and with this partnership, Tencent (the parent company of Riot Games) has found the ally they need to take back their share of the market in one of the most enthusiastic esports regions in the world. And following the success of ESL One Manila and the Manila Major, why not start making League of Legends and AOV events in the capital too. But why stop there? Present at the announcement ceremony in the Globe HQ was Brian Mirakian, Senior Principal of Populous, the firm behind the Arlington esports arena and the still-in-the-planning-stage Las Vegas and London Spheres. We will let you connect the dots on that one.

South East Asia has, like many other regions, suffered from poor infrastructure to allow for vast and rapid expansion of online gaming and tournament structures, to the point where SEA Ltd (previously Garena) had to build its own infrastructure to promote esports in the region.

With Globe in play, clearly focused on making the Philippines a force to be reckoned with on the esports world stage, while promoting its digital lifestyle brand, building tournaments, events and content, one can only imagine that this could well be the investment the region needs to solidify the foundations and showcase the next wave of esports legends.