More than just competing for gaming glory, the esports teams in the ULeague Mobile Legends Charity Clash Tournament are helping in the fight against COVID-19.
Scheduled on Sept. 16 and 17, the Championship Round of the charity tournament will be livestreamed on the ULeague Facebook page. Proceeds from the ULeague teams in the Charity Clash Tournament were given to COVID-19 initiatives of various nonprofits as a way for the esports and gaming community to help vulnerable communities cope with the pandemic.
Will Round 1 champions SALARIUM emerge victorious again? Or will the ULeague crown a new winner in Round 2 of its Mobile Legends Charity Clash Tournament?
The ULeague is Union Bank of the Philippines’ (UnionBank) inter-company esports league. It is holding the ULeague Charity Clash Tournament, an online competition featuring the popular game Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. This charity clash is organized by UnionBank and its partners. These include the Distributed Ledger Technology Association of the Philippines, Fintech Philippines Association, UShare, and Tech Up Pilipinas Inc.
The Mobile Legends team of Salarium emerged victorious in Round 1 of the ULeague: Charity Clash Tournament that Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank) and its partners launched. This was for the benefit of charities with COVID-19 relief programs, including Caritas Manila.
Their team, also called SALARIUM, defeated the Noob Killers of Dragonpay in the Round 1 finals held on June 11. The organizers will hold the succeeding rounds in the coming weeks.
“We launched our own internal esports tournament early this year as an avenue to foster community and engagement in UnionBank through gaming,” UnionBank Senior Vice President and Head of the Fintech Group Arvie de Vera said in a press statement.
“With the Charity Clash Tournament, we want to build the same community through gaming in the fintech industry, and advocate our value of Ubuntu as we support organizations like Caritas Manila that continue to help out our kababayans during this time of need,” he said.
Henry Aguda, SEVP, Chief Technology and Operations Officer, and Chief Transformation Officer of UnionBank, says Bank On Wheels is a moving version of of their fully digital bank branch called The ARK.
Find it a hassle to go to your bank branch, especially during this community quarantine? With Bank On Wheels, UnionBank of the Philippines has been bringing the branch to its customers.
Bank On Wheels is the country’s first 5G mobile banking kiosk. UnionBank launched it shortly before the announcement of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ). This was actually serendipitous, according to Henry Aguda. Aguda is UnionBank’s SEVP, Chief Technology and Operations Officer, and Chief Transformation Officer.
“Our president and CEO Edwin Bautista has always envisioned a modern and smart rendition of a mobile banking kiosk. A moving version of our fully digital bank branch which we call The ARK. This idea has come to fruition, with our very own Bank On Wheels launched last March 6 at one of our busiest branches in Quezon City,” Aguda told Digital Life Asia.
Businesses should think long-term and realize that digital is the new normal, says UnionBank of the Philippines Chairman Justo A. Ortiz.
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced companies to embrace digital transformation. It would wrong, however, for businesses to think that digital is just a means for survival, or part of their business continuity plan. Instead, they should accept that digital is the new normal.
“Clearly the pandemic has given us a use case for digital. Many corporations — large, small-, and medium-scale — have realized that investing in resiliency is going to be a lot more important going forward. But having said that, we don’t want the idea of digital and digital transformation to be just BCP,” said UnionBank of the Philippines Chairman Justo A. Ortiz.
“I think that clearly there’s a lot of opportunity for digital to be mainstream as our new normal. So it’s not about social distancing and face masks, because there could be other black swans that come down the road. Other pandemics, other natural disasters, and, God forbid, even wars. But it’s important that we basically focus on digital and mainstream it,” he said.
