eGilas set for World Finals

MANILA, Philippines — The eFIBA World Finals will be held in Jonkoping, Sweden, this weekend with eight countries, including the Philippines, lined up to battle in the first-ever face-to-face competition on NBA2K24 using PlayStation 5 and a 5x5 ProAM gamemode. At stake in the virtual basketball tournament is a pot prize of 50,000 Euros or the equivalent of P3 million.

The Philippine team, nicknamed eGilas, made it to the World Finals by sweeping the online Asia qualifiers that ended last Nov. 7. In the double round eliminations, the Philippines crushed India twice, 221-52 and 159-27, Singapore twice 69-30 and 60-48, Mongolia twice 58-42 and 87-45 and Indonesia twice 33-29 and 60-59. In the best-of-three finals, eGilas blanked Indonesia, 59-55 and 57-41.

The World Finals contenders are USA, New Zealand, Brazil and France in Group A and Morocco, Lebanon, Turkey and the Philippines in Group B. The Philippines plays Lebanon, Turkey and Morocco tomorrow. The top two finishers of each group advance to the semifinals and finals, both best-of-three series, on Sunday.

The Philippine delegation is led by SBP official Xavier Gubat. Manager is Richard Brojan and assistant manager is Philippe Herrero while the coaches are Nieile Alparas and Kristian Cuaresma. The players are Isaiah (Ice) Alindada, 21, Lynard (LCB) Banzon, 30, Kenneth (Clue) Gutierrez, 18, Julian (Social) Malllillin, 19 and Prich (DonPrich) Diez, 21.

“Mukhang malaki ang chance natin sa World Finals,” said Gubat. “Hindi patangkaran at pabilisan dito. Pantay-pantay lang lahat pag hawak na ang game controller at sa diskarte na lang talaga magkakatalo at ‘yun ang advantage ng eGilas (at sila’y) mga best of the best 2K players natin sa bansa.”