Team Rave at the office of POEA
L-R: Director Robert Larga (POEA), Officer Norman Cualteros (Office of Sen. Bam), Director Jesus Gabriel C. Domingo (POEA), Hoff Sacobo (Rave), Mark ‘Cast’ Pilar (Rave), Administrator Hans Leo Cacdac (POEA), Djardel ‘Chrissy’ Mampusti (Rave)

The office of Senator Bam Aquino wrote to the Bureau of Immigration (BI) and the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration(POEA) after the offloading incident of Filipino professional Dota 2 team, Rave. Senator Bam intends to find out the root causes of the problem and to solve the issues so it would not happen again in the future.

POEA invited the three players of Rave that were involved in the incident for a meeting. In the said meeting POEA was clarified with Rave’s state as a professional gaming team that frequently participates in online and offline gaming tournaments in order to financially sustain themselves with prize money – all this without a salary. Rave’s biggest win so far being their 5th place finish at the Dota 2 Asian Championships at China which netted them at least $150,000 (around P6.6 million).

Rave also clarified with POEA that the players do indeed have a contract but does not make them employees because of the absense of a salary clause. Rave’s Korean manager, Pyung Kwon, provides them a place to stay (gaming house) with a fast and stable internet connection at South Korea. Because of the country’s location and internet, training at Korea enables Rave to scrim with teams all over the world which includes North America, Europe, and China – a very unique and sizable advantage.

POEA extends their support towards the professional Dota 2 team, and clarified with them what are the right documents and processes for convenient travelling especially with The International Dota 2 Championships (the biggest annual Dota 2 tournament, last year’s prize pool reached $10,930,698 or P486 million) closing in this August 2015 at Seattle, USA.

The offloading incident caused Rave to perform poorly in various qualifiers for international tournaments:

• online SEA qualifier for Starladder 12, main event in Bucharest, Romania (pulled out due to schedule conflict with US visa appointments for Major League Gaming)
• online SEA qualifier for ESL ONE, main event at Commerzbank Arena in Frankfurt, Germany (lost to Underminer at the quarterfinals)
• online SEA qualifier for Redbull Battlegrounds, main event at Warfield Theatre in San Francisco, California (lost to Team Malaysia at the finals)

Rave however managed to qualify for The Summit 3, a $200,000 tournament at Los Angeles, California which is set this coming May 2015. Their performance in this tournament will weigh heavily towards their chance of a direct invite to The International 2015.

The office of Senator Bam thanked POEA for their willingness to extend their help towards the Filipino professional Dota 2 team.

Bam Aquino then addressed the questions as to why he is in full-support to esports.

“Malaki kasi ang potensiyal ng nasabing industriya na makakatulong sa paglago ng ekonomiya ng ating bansa.

Marami nang kumpanyang Pilipino ang pumapasok sa industriyang ito, mula sa paggawa ng animation hanggang sa pag-develop ng software.

Ang katumbas nito ay daan-daang bagong trabaho at kabuhayan para sa ating mga kababayan.
Ang pagratsada ng industriyang ito ay katulad din ng paghataw ng business process outsourcing industry sampung taon na ang nakalipas.

Ito’y puno ng potensiyal para sa papasimulang negosyo at kayang magbigay ng magandang trabaho para sa mga artists at developers.

Sa galing ng mga Pilipino sa pagdidisenyo ng software, ang Pilipinas ay nagiging isa na sa mga paboritong destinasyon ng online video gaming companies para sa paggawa ng bagong produkto.

Maliban pa rito, kilala na rin ang mga Pilipino bilang isa sa mga aktibong manlalaro ng online games sa mundo.

Sa ngayon, mayroon nang halos 29 milyong Pilipino ang naglalaro ng online games. Sa nasabing bilang, nasa dalawampung milyon ang casual gamers habang nasa siyam na milyon ang tinatawag na midcore at hardcore gamer.

Kung mabibigyan ng sapat na suporta, lalo pang lalago ang potensiyal ng video gaming industry bilang pagmumulan ng trabaho at kabuhayan, maliban pa sa mga karangalan na gaya ng bigay ng Team Rave!”

Source: Mineski.net