POINT OF IMPACT E1: UAAP Esports - locked in or game over?

For the first time in its 80+ year history, the University Athletic Association of the Philippines or UAAP has instituted an esports tournament in what can be a precedent for other, bigger leagues to gain both an audience and a new sporting field ahead of the 2025 Esports Olympics in Saudi Arabia.

The debut titles included are among those highly valued in the esports ecosystem: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang for the mobile category, NBA 2K for the console category, and VALORANT for the PC category.

While it is a welcome development for the PH gaming community whose core audiences involve gamers in the university field, one might throw a curveball and say that it is actually the league, not just the players, who will actually benefit more than the players themselves.

This is not to say that the UAAP or any big university league, for that matter, has anything but altruistic motivations in making esports a part of its staple of disciplines. The change is just reflective of how esports has become one of the new ways to attract the Gen Z audiences.

And like in any sport, the numbers don’t lie.

The last major MLBB tournament, the 2024 Mid-Season Cup in Saudi Arabia, drew a massive viewership of over 2.3 million peak views in the Grand Finals match between Falcons AP.Bren from the Philippines and the Selangor Red Giants from Malaysia - according to data from global esports statistics provider Esports Charts.

Meanwhile, the ongoing VALORANT Champions Seoul tournament, the major world tourney for VALORANT esports, drew over 768,000 peak views during the Gen.G versus Sentinels Day 9 Group Stage match, based also on data from Esports Charts.

Compared to the views-heavy share of MLBB and VALORANT, though, NBA 2K has had a smaller, more niche audience. The NBA 2K League 2024 scored a meager 20,958 peak views, based also on Esports Charts data. 

Whether its 20,000, 768,000, or 2.3 million - the generational bridge that the UAAP has among different students and alumni of the eight member schools is a lucrative market that the league wants to penetrate and also promote through the inclusion of esports.

With students representing alma maters and donning the school colors of Ateneo, La Salle, FEU, UST, NU, Adamson, UE and Season 87 host, UP, the potential of UAAP Esports to generate interest (and much-needed metrics and eyeballs) in esports is huge.

Compared to an earlier attempt by another well-known league to enter the esports scene, the PBA Esports Bakbakan, the UAAP Esports tournaments may accomplish what the PBA may not have successfully done in its inaugural esports foray: get generations of fans invested in esports the same way they would fill arenas in basketball or volleyball games.

So far, UAAP Esports organizers have been doing things the right way for the esports community to back it up: hold the competition in an on-site venue, select a good mix of titles, partner up with a good broadcast organization, and get the best talent that the target audiences actually know and relate with. Whereas the PBA Esports Bakbakan focused on a mish-mash of esports offerings, and not all the franchised teams committed to all the esports titles that were featured.

And looks like the gamble is slowly paying off. Concurrent VALORANT audiences on the One Sports YouTube channel is in the high thousands per live broadcast, while the NBA 2K portion is also gaining its own following. Timing the league schedules on strategic days (with MLBB competitions to be held on the weekends) is also seen as a good move.

And if the UAAP Esports teams would want to continue this level of initial success, as with anything in esports, consistency and the right branding and execution is key. This, the writer humbly believes, is the time for them to experiment and make quick fixes so that the league can become a powerhouse esports league on its own.

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