Acer’s Asia Pacific Predator League 2022 international gaming competition is making a comeback as an in-person event again after a two-year long hiatus, expanding the contest to more countries and holding out a larger prize pool to represent the reinvigorated esports gaming industry.
“After two years of lockdown and travel restrictions, we are so excited to meet the esports teams in-person again. ‘Become One’ is the theme for Predator League 2022, emphasizing the need to reconnect with fellow gamers and demonstrating Acer’s commitment to the gaming community,” Andrew Hou, president of Acer Pan Asia Pacific regional operations, mentioned in a statement.
At home, Acer Philippines announced the tournament at the weekend-long gaming and pop culture event “CONQuest Festival 2022” organized by the collegiate gaming and esports network, AcadArena.
During the festival, Acer Philippines also showcased its latest product offerings which include the Helios and Triton laptops, the Orion desktops, the Predator X28 and X38 gaming monitor series, and gaming gears Cestus 335 and Aethon 301 TKL.
“We have seen so much growth and potential in the country’s esports landscape and that is what the Asia Pacific Predator League is all about. But more than that, we are very happy to see the stakeholders in esports hopeful about the future after two years of restrictions,” said Acer Philippines general manager Sue Ong-Lim.
Back in 2018, Acer’s gaming sub-brand Predator held the inaugural Asia Pacific Predator League with only Valve’s multiplayer online battle arena video game Defense of the Ancients (DOTA) 2, where the esports team Geek Fam hailing from Malaysia ultimately rose as that year’s champions.
The following year, Acer Predator included the battle royale shooter PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), leading to two regional winners for 2019: the Korean team Afreeca Freeca for PUBG and TNC Predator representing the Philippines in DOTA 2.
Despite mobility restrictions, the Predator League 2020/21 named four winners from different nationalities, the Indonesian squad Eagle 365 won the APAC division for PUBG, while the Asian leg was dominated by South Korea’s DWG-Kia. For DOTA 2, the country’s own TNC Predator rose to the top of the APAC event, and Myanmar’s Team Veteran secured the title for Asia.
The Predator League’s maiden run initially pitted seven countries, which grew to eight in 2019, and is now a strong consortium of 16 countries which include Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The qualifiers for Valorant (August 4) and DOTA 2 (August 7) leading to the playoffs on August 31 and August 29 respectively, will culminate in a Philippine Finals on September 17-18 at the SM Mall of Asia Central Atrium. The winners for DOTA 2 will represent the country in the grand finals which will be held in Japan from November 11-13.
The Predator League 2022 Philippine Finals’ 1st place winner will receive P200,000, the 2nd place P100,000, the 3rd place P75,000, the 4th place P50,000, while qualifier winners will each receive P25,000.
