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Fellow nerds, brotosses, friends, strangers, team mates, families, spectators, professionals, amateurs players, tax payers and aliens.. Good day. My name is Arthur James "Drjimmy" Malgapo and I represent a local Philippine gaming team, Cube. Our team is based in the provincial city of Cebu which is of course, outside of the Capital city, Manila. We have discussed and contemplated with each other if we were to give out our statement regarding our experience with the PPSL, also known as the IPL 4 Pacific Qualifiers. I know the event has already passed but it still remains in the minds of many and has tarnished the image of eSports in SEA. We (Team Cube) all have agreed to tell our side of the story and try clear out some things regarding how the SC2 Universe now sees eSports in our country, The Republic of the Philippines.
It is not in my intention OR Team Cube's intention, to put down anyone in Team AZK. We just wish to let everyone know our side of the story.
It was a few months back when Team AZK held the PPSL Qualifiers. Four of our team mates, namely Cube.Dione, Cube.Rixilius, Cube.Salt and Cube.PayAso, secured their respective slots for the IPL 4 Qualifier that was to be held in Manila. They were promised by Team AZK to have their transportation expenses covered and that they didn't have to worry about spending for plane tickets. As the weeks went on, we were waiting on Gus "Witchdoc" Ledesma to confirm that our players' tickets have been secured, but each time they would tell us that they are working on it. As October came, we grew more and more concerned regarding the tickets because we knew that if the tickets were bought a few days before the departure date, prices would get really really high. Despite our concerns and worries, we were constantly assured by Gus that he would be able to come up with the tickets. So we kept our hopes up.
November came and our anxiety levels were at an all time high. We were beginning to think that we might have to secure money and the tickets on our own, but we didn't want to make hasty decisions without confirmation from Gus. One of my team mates constantly followed up regarding the tickets but was ignored. Only when he asked a question that had nothing to do with the plane tickets, did he get a response and comment.
November 4 and still no word. We then decided to come up with some amount as quickly as possible so that we can send our guys to Manila. We were able to get donations from generous team members but it wasn't enough, as the tickets to send 4 players and a manager to Manila amounted to 23k Php or $510.
One of our team mates received a call from Gus 2 days before the IPL 4 Qualifer day and told him that he was going to try and buy their tickets now. Our hopes got up, but we didn't receive any return call or message for the rest of the day.
November 6 dawned, and we received a message from one of the AZK members saying that he would be the one to buy our tickets and told us that we would need to wake up at 3am because the flight was going to be really early. We did as was told but still, no tickets.
Over all the experience was bad for us as well. We are a growing gaming team with high hopes and a long way to go, but this series of events has really impacted our morale as a team.
I would also like to express my side regarding the feed back on the Philippine eSports scene in numerous posts. Yes I have to agree that we are a 3rd World country and shady people are about. But not all of us are desperate for money and would do crazy things just to try and survive and make ends meat. A lot of people on my team would run a tournament, and HAVE ran tournaments without earning a single cent.
Learning from this experience, we also hope to grow as a team and do better when our time comes to hold big tournaments that involve international players. Lessons have definitely been learned, and we are aware of the intense criticism that comes after a failed event. We would also understand the hesitation of any international sponsors if we would approach them for any of our future events, and hope that they would give us a chance.
On a final note, I have huge hopes for the eSports scene in SEA and sincerely ask that everyone else in the SC2 Universe not to count us out. Being part of the SEA community and representing a small fraction of it, we hope that things will only get better for the future of eSports. On behalf of Team Cube, GL HF XOXO =)
Sincerely,
Arthur James "Drjimmy" Malgapo
Team Cube Caster
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You are the man, DrJimmy. With love from SEA, Singapore.
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Nice to hear more perspectives, hopefully this doesn't drag on much longer for everyone involved, and if your name is a The Who reference you win @ life =D
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the more i hear about AZK's shady team, i hate them more.
but its really cool to hear a Phillipines team's perspective on the matter, and i'm glad we cleared up the unfounded opinion of some people that 3rd world country teams were all shady. team cube fighting~~
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This is sad to hear. I'm sorry what happened with your team regarding transportation...
I won't lie though. Part of this statement came off as positioning for dibs on hosting a future tournament which kind of brought a mixed message to the statement.
I hope your team perseveres through this experience and doesn't let it discourage them in their paths as players..
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I gotta ask, who is this Gus character? Has he been in the community long? How does he get to a position to attract sponsorship from IPL and S2 anyways?
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Are there any legal actions that can be taken against this Gus character? It seems warranted in this case. I'm not familiar at all with laws in the Philippine's but is any contract was signed and Gus didn't follow through, couldn't something be done about it?
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I just feel bad for NEXSickness lol :s
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Switzerland2892 Posts
It's quite sad that the event turned like this.
But I think we all saw that an esport scene is growing in Philippines, I really hope it will continue to grow and get better to avoid those kind of problems.
Hope team cube will do well in the future 
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On November 09 2011 10:41 Corrik wrote:
This is sad to hear. I'm sorry what happened with your team regarding transportation...
I won't lie though. Part of this statement came off as positioning for dibs on hosting a future tournament which kind of brought a mixed message to the statement.
I hope your team perseveres through this experience and doesn't let it discourage them in their paths as players..
I am sorry if it gave you a mixed message. But rest assured, the post was not meant to be anything but our side of the story.
I will be straight up with you, we are a growing team and we do have aspirations of holding or hosting events, I won't lie. We know it will be hard to regain the confidence of the SC2 Community. I just wanted to acknowledge that.
Thanks
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On November 09 2011 10:43 slicknav wrote:
Are there any legal actions that can be taken against this Gus character? It seems warranted in this case. I'm not familiar at all with laws in the Philippine's but is any contract was signed and Gus didn't follow through, couldn't something be done about it?
It would actually take forever, and cost way too much, for the little return in terms of money.
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It's a shame that people are reading this story as reflecting badly on the Philippines Starcraft community. This isn't about that, it's about the particular individual who was running the tournament and his management of it.
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SEA eSport has always been well developed with a large pool of talents lying around. Its the professionalism that we were looking for and clearly PPSL could not deliver the expected outcome. In near future i think the safe bet to host major events in SEA is still Singapore/Malaysia + Australia. Any sort of market testing need to be done carefully with care else the sponsors will eventually give up on eSport in SEA 
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What lengths people go to just to have a night out with Tasteless and Artosis. Host large tournament, embezzle prize money (allegedly), fail to keep promises of travel expenses, cancel promised HoN tournament and crucify your own team's standing in the community.
This Gus guy really had the hots for Tastosis.
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On November 09 2011 11:00 Full.tilt wrote:
What lengths people go to just to have a night out with Tasteless and Artosis. Host large tournament, embezzle prize money (allegedly), fail to keep promises of travel expenses, cancel promised HoN tournament and crucify your own team's standing in the community.
This Gus guy really had the hots for Tastosis.
He's just a kid with low self-esteem, wanting to hang out with the cool kids.
Sad life.
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Wow, TL almost needs a forum called "How Gus Screwed Me."
Seriously, all this fallout is ridiculous. 0_0
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I just hope this dark event will never happen again and will serve as a lesson to all upcoming events... ^_^
And oh, I also hope, as mentioned in the post, it will not tarnish the Philippine starcraft scene in the community...
XOXO ♥
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I feel you jim... I feel you...
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well written, and best of luck to your team. AZK can recruit as many big names as they can, but they probably won't even share the bond Cube has with each other. Keep up the hard work fellas and you'll see the world stage soon enough!
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It is clear that no one should do business with this Gus guy or AZK. Every step we take in esports we learn about the people who should not be running major events.
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EPT
