With the Pinoy Gaming Festival opening it’s doors on the 27-28th October. Arguably the biggest event in the Philippines opens it’s doors for the second year running. Here at BattleAsia, we thought we would grab a few words with the managing director of the event; Joebert Yu, to see what we can expect from the event this year, the Philippine gaming scene as a whole and what he thinks will be the biggest draw for the crowd!

Without further ado, here is the exclusive first ever interview with Joebert;

Hello Joebert! If you would like to introduce yourself to our audience and explain what organization you’re from and what is happening within the next 2 weeks?

Good day! My name is Joebert Yu and I am the managing director of RapturePH Inc. In the next 2 weeks, RapturePH Inc. will hold one of the (if not the) biggest e-sport event in the Philipiines which is the Pinoy Gaming Festival 2012, now in its 2nd year.

I can sense a lot of excitement about this event, I notice you say this is the 2nd year. How popular was the first event and are their plans to make it bigger and better this time round?

Yes, the first event was really big, thousands of e-sport enthusiasts came in and watched the event. We held it in one of our popular malls here which is SM North Edsa Cyberzone. For this year, we were already thinking of making it bigger. One of things we did was change the venue to a bigger area, which is the SMX Convention Center.

Yes I notice that you have a great array of different titles at this year’s event, from DotA 2 to League of Legends and Starcraft II. There are also lesser titles on the eSports scene such as Dragonest? What are the thoughts behind having such a wide selection?

After the first PGF which had only two games (Dota and Starcraft 2), we decided to have more games because we wanted to create an event that other games/publishers can also be a part of. Initially when we did this, we wanted to invite different publishers to come in to the festival also.

With regards to the selection of games, one of the reasons why we chose these games is because we were also being awarded with making national qualifiers here for a variety of different competitions.  For instance, games like Crossfire and World of Tanks, where the winner will represent the Philippines in the World Cyber Games in Kunshan, China. And games like Dota 2 and Counterstrike: Global Offensive, where the winner will represent the Philippines in the Asian Cyber Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Great interest from the audience during Pinoy Gaming Festival 2011.

How many people are you expecting to this year’s event? Where is it? What are the options for getting a ticket?

For the gamers/finalist, we are expecting around 700 and more. For the enthusiasts, we are expecting around 4-5 thousand people a day and above. The event will be held at SMX Convention Center Hall 3. They can buy a ticket at any SM Mall branches. Ticket cost at P70 (per day). When they buy a ticket, they are entitled to get freebies like PGF 2012 baller and Monster Energy Drink.

How do you rate the Philippines eSport scene? Seems to be really active with lots of tournaments? Do you think the enthusiasm shown by the gamers can make a global Philippine game superstar in the future?

Right now, e-sport is really picking up here. There were lots of e-sport event happening this year compared to the past years. I think as the years go by, there will be more and more organized e-sport event in the Philippines. Right now there are PH teams/players that are known in the e-sport community worldwide. Teams like Mineski are already well known and won in international events like the Razer Dota 2 that was held in Singapore last March 2012. I think it is only a matter of time before there are a lot of teams here can make a global impact in the worldwide competition.

What are you most looking forward to about this year’s event?

Actually there are a lot of things I’m looking forward to from the Pinoy Gaming Festival but besides the success of this event, the things I am most looking forward to are for e-sports to be recognize by our government and to acknowledge and accept it; secondly I want the Philippines to be recognized by some big e-sport organizations like the World Cyber Games to show that we are capable of hosting a big event and maybe someday in the future, we will be given a chance to host an international event.

Awesome, which tournament do you think will draw the biggest crowd and why is this scene so strong in the Philippines?

Hmmm….I would think the biggest crowd would be the GMPGL Dota 1 matches, because there are a lot of well-known professional teams there. Each team in that tournament has a lot of fans. Also it has the biggest rivalries between teams. I would think the finals of that particular game will be the biggest draw for this year’s PGF.

Thank you for taking the time to talk with us, I am sure you are very busy with the last minute preparations. I wish you all the best in putting on a great event; do you have anyone you’d like to thank for their efforts in making the second Pinoy Gaming Festival a reality?

I would like to thank all our sponsors/partners for making Pinoy Gaming Festival 2012 a reality. I would like to thank all the people (crew/marshalls/shoutcasters/registration people/everyone) that have given their time and effort to make this event into a reality as well. Without all or any of them, I think this would not have been possible.

I would also like to thank you Stuart and your people for this interview…this is my very first time being interviewed and I am grateful for this chance.