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The Road to The Nationals Grand Finals is only a few days away, to be held at the 2018 Esports and Gaming Summit (ESGS) from October 26 to 28, and the last qualifiers for the tournament's DOTA2 and Tekken 7 leagues were concluded last weekend. Two DOTA2 teams qualified through the Cavite qualifier leg while a total of three Tekken 7 players qualified through the Marikina and second Manila qualifiers, closing out the eight finalists for each of the two leagues. Desolation of the Dragons, Flight of the Angels After qualifying through the Manila leg several weeks ago, Sterling Global Dragons had to forfeit their finalist spot due to a change in their roster. This forced them to attempt to requalify through the Cavite leg last weekend. In spite of the roster change though, the team was still able to dominate the event and not drop a single game. Their finals series against Brodie even finished in less than an hour of total in-game time, sweeping them 2-0. ArkAngel had a relatively tougher time to qualify as they wrestled against Tamago during their best-of-three qualifier final series. While they ultimately finished the match with a 2-0 sweep, Tamago made them work hard for their finalist spot. The first game in their series was an incredibly close back-and-forth game while the second ended with ArkAngel gaining a commanding lead later in the game after surviving a very tough start.  Sterling Global Dragons and ArkAngel now join the six other finalists at the Road to The Nationals grand finals at ESGS 2018. The other finalists include So Lucky (Manila), Quid Pro Quo (Manila), Station 751 (Cebu), Davao's Pride (Cagayan de Oro), Voyager (Bacolod), and TaskUs Titans (Iloilo). The eight teams will compete for the lion's share of the tournament's PHP 1.2 Million prize pool, as well as a chance to be signed by one of the franchise teams in next year's The Nationals league. Never Give Up The last three finalists for the Road to The Nationals Tekken 7 league were also decided last weekend, completing the eight contenders for the grand finals at ESGS 2018. Juliano "Elite.Jules" Lozano qualified through the Marikina leg at Secret Base Gaming Lounge last Saturday, October 13, while Ryan "SMAP|Tomahawk" Cocharo and Jeffrey "Coffee_Prinz!" Gonzales qualified through the second Manila leg at PlayBook Video Game Lounge on Sunday. During the Marikina qualifier leg, Lozano was sent to the Loser's Bracket early after losing in the first round of the Top 8. But he was able to mount a successful comeback and climb his way up to the event's grand finals against Daniel "SecretBase.Machine Head" Eking. In spite of the latter's twice-to-beat advantage, Lozano's momentum helped him take two 3-0 sweeps against Eking to ultimately secure his spot in the Road to The Nationals grand finals. With two qualifier spots available, the second Manila qualifier concluded rather quickly with Cocharo and Gonzales dominating their respective sides of the bracket. The two eventually faced off in the Winners Finals where Gonzales won 3-1 to secure the first finalist spot of the leg. Cocharo was able to bounce back and secure the second finalist spot though with a 3-2 win against Christiansen "Elite.SenDC" Dela Cruz in the Losers Finals. Lozano, Gonzales, and Cocharo join the rest of the Road to The Nationals Tekken 7 finalists, including Alexandre "AK" Lavarez (Manila), Andreij "Doujin" Albar (Manila), Francis Steven "UFTC|Gogoy" Valencia Cabahug (Cebu), Jade "ArkAngel.Jaynine" Yasay (Davao), and Raymund Jay "LimitBreak" Sarte (Cagayan de Oro), who will battle it out over a prize pool of PHP 300,000. "The past three months have truly shown the potential of esports in the Philippines and the immense amount of talent our country possesses. We look forward to seeing the finalists compete at the Road to The Nationals grand finals and bring esports in the Philippines to the next level. And as a testament to our commitment to Philippine esports, the Finals of the Road to The Nationals will be aired live on Aksyon TV on October 27 and 28 - making it the first local esports tournament to be broadcast live on national television," said Vincent "Chot" Reyes, President and CEO of TV5. "We have witnessed something great with Road to The Nationals: the rise of a new generation of athletes in the exciting world of esports, and ESNAP is committed to working with like-minded organizations and companies with the goal of nurturing the Filipino's talent in gaming to help make them world-class," Joebert Yu, Esports National Association of the Philippines President, added. For more details about The Road to The Nationals and The Nationals, visit http://thenationalsph.com.
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