One of the oldest names in PH esports shares his story
Joebert Yu’s Origins
I was already organizing tournaments even before TNC and Mineski came. It was back in 2004 when I started organizing Dota 1 tournaments in cybercafés. I like to see teams having rivalries and I also enjoy creating team rivalries. I want to create story lines.
I was a really, really, really hardcore gamer. I started as a gamer. Before the personal computers and even before esports, I loved playing Adventure games, RPGs, and Shooting games on Super Nintendo Entertainment System, SEGAs, Gameboys, and Sony Playstations.
I used to play and manage a Dota team named 129. I owned a cybercafe back then. We also had a team; we were a good team. Maybe not the best team but a good Dota 1 team. I lived the times when we used to go to places to challenge other people. That’s how I met old Dota 1 teams like Team Flow, Team Ninja, Team Papi, and even Team Mineski.
My passion for gaming instilled my passion for organizing gaming events. I love to see a sea of people happy and excited while they get to see a lot of games. That’s how I transitioned from playing games to seeing people enjoy the games. That’s where my passion for organizing gaming events are coming from.
I don’t have a Steam account, Garena account, Battle.net account, Playstation, or Xbox. I have a laptop but it’s more for work than gaming. Well, maybe there are a few games on my mobile phone. I buy games, but I just collect them. I don’t play them. As in, at all.
I attended my first international gaming convention in 2006. I was introduced to the idea of gaming conventions when I attended the World Cyber Games Asian Championship. There were Counter-Strike, Age of Empire, and even a LAN tournament for Dota 1. If I’m not mistaken it was Team Zenith from Singapore who won.
When I decided to have my family, I took a break from organizing gaming events. I got married in 2010 and now I have two daughters. I continued organizing events when I met Herman Ng from Rapture Gaming, the organizers of the World Cyber Games Asian Championship.
I got to organize Pinoy Gaming Festival Summer Assembly. Malls as a venue for gaming events started when Herman Ng asked if I wanted to organize events in the Philippines. He introduced me to numerous gaming and hardware companies, although I already knew a couple back then.
Sendi Mutiara Multimedia gave me Cyber Slam. I stepped down from Rapture Gaming in 2013 to join SMM. I worked with Mr. Benson Te, a Business Developer for Mineski International currently, and Nico Nazario, now founder of WomboXcombo. I organized Cyber Slam 2014.
When SMM folded, I was already contemplating doing another event. I had to develop my own brand because I never owned the Philippine Gaming Festival. I met up with a couple of local game developers in 2014 and we came up with a brand new event name.
The Birth of ESGS
The Electronic Sports and Gaming Summit was born. The idea behind it is to create an event where we combine the elements of esports competition and gaming convention. There are gaming competitions, exhibition matches being played while at the same time there are gaming and hardware companies who showcase their games or products in the event.
We Filipinos are not that blessed. An average Filipino doesn’t have the means to fly to Japan, or to the United States of America to go and witness gaming events. That is why I organize these kinds of gaming events, for the Filipinos to experience what a gaming convention looks like.
For ESGS first-timers, forget that you ever knew what a gaming event looks like. Once you go here, you won’t stay in one area. You get to see many things. Imagine a carnival where you get to test rides and play games.
Expect to see a lot of activities happening. You get to see a lot of new things. We have companies from China, Japan, and USA joining in. A studio from Hong Kong will be there along with Southeast Asian gaming companies, including Taiwan. That’s the essence of international gaming conventions. You get to see the world’s contribution to gaming.
The Future For Joebert Yu And ESGS
ESGS is my legacy. I want people to see and know that there are other events out there other than purely esports tournaments. If it’s possible, I want all gaming and hardware companies to exhibit at my event even for a single time.
I hope that I get to meet all interested companies. I know I have yet to meet all gaming companies, but I wish, even for just one time, all gaming and hardware companies get to exhibit at least once in the Philippines.
I have new projects coming up, I wish we can push through with these.
This is my passion. I hope that I have shown the attendees that we can do these kinds events in the Philippines. Given the circumstance that I have now, I hope that I can continue organizing gaming events. If I can provide for my family while doing this forever, why not?
