Dominance in competitive gaming is extremely rare, with legendary teams like T1 in League of Legends, and Astralis for CS:GO being the only notable teams who consistently win their respective major tournaments. And if you think about it, we’ve never seen a women’s team dominate and consistently win– until now.
The first and only SIBOL women’s team, the Wild Rift team, breezed through opposition and marked the country’s first gold medal for esports in the 31st SEA Games, as well as the first women’s esports team to ever win a gold medal altogether. Consisting of team captain Christine “Rayray” Natividad, Charize “Yugen” Doble, Roann “Hell Girl” Robles, Gia “Jeeya” Llanes, April “Aeae” Valiente, and Angel “Angelailaila” Lozada, their SEA Games campaign was nothing short of pure dominance, only losing one game in the entire run.
Their energy and charm was key in their growth as players and as people, and honestly, you can just feel that they were destined to succeed. I mean take it from them to call out their own prophecy.
They’re more than just gamers too, just check out Angel’s iconic cartwheel.
On a grander scale, this is a groundbreaking win not just for GrindSky Eris, but also for women and women’s esports as a whole. This shows that women can do what men do, it’s just a matter of giving them a platform to perform, and GrindSky Eris shine when the lights are at its brightest.
And when all is set and done, we will remember the pioneers who brought in the golden age of women’s esports in the Philippines.
Congratulations, girls!