DYNACOM Calls for Support in Esports Endeavors from SSC Candidates
In an interview on April 12, 2019, the officers of the Dynamic Communication Society (DYNACOM) asked support from the candidates for this year’s Supreme Student Council (SSC) elections in their efforts in the matter of esports. Present during the interview were Quezel Karm Cabahug, president of DYNACOM; Lawrence Craig Ramas, vice president — internal; Jay Garret Demerin, vice president — external; Czarina Raquel Olandria, vice president — information; and Thomas Rey Barcenas, assistant vice president — external.
The DYNACOM officers clarified that there is no need to bring esports in the platforms of governance in the running candidates. However, according to them, support would be extremely helpful, citing the assistance this academic year’s SSC offered to them in organizing esports activities during USC Days 2018.
The officers recounted their experience with the USC administration during the said event. Although the Department of Computer and Information Sciences had expressed support in DYNACOM’s endeavors, the USC administration considered them a nuisance while traditional sporting events were conducted. A university priest, whose name DYNACOM chose not to disclose, also called esports as a disruption not only in the USC Days activities, but in academics as well. Further, the members of DYNACOM were hindered in obtaining permission to utilize university facilities in their esports events, which included getting passed on from one office to another until there was not enough time left to organize.
DYNACOM, however, expressed gratitude to the SSC as a collective in allowing them to have a conversation with the USC administration, as well as in helping with the prizes of the events. It has to be noted that the esports events during USC Days 2018, despite having no support from the USC administration, pushed through outside the campus, and was subsequently recognized during GADJA. Also aided by the collective SSC but unrecognized by the USC administration were the frisbee and flag football events.
The officers of DYNACOM also mentioned that the desire to establish esports within the university has already been existing in the years before the first USC Days esports tourney. However, it is only now that DYNACOM decided to attempt to make it official and also only in this year that the SSC helped.
DYNACOM also hopes that their assistance in having USC represented during the recent Mayor’s Cup, an inter-school esports event within Cebu, would help in having their efforts recognized. During the cup, teams representing USC in DotA 2 and League of Legends emerged as champions in both events, while its Mobile Legends team managed to place fourth. Taking into consideration that students with failing grades were not allowed to compete in Mayor’s Cup, DYNACOM hopes that USC’s victories would dispel the notion that esports events are a distraction from academics.
The officers also shared that they are in the process of drafting a constitution for Warrior’s Arena — a proposed student organization that caters to esports enthusiasts. The organization would be under DYNACOM but would retain autonomy in its prospective activities, which include organizing esports events inside USC. The current plan is to open membership to college and senior high school students, regardless of academic program and strand.
Hence, it is with these considerations that DYNACOM called for support from the running SSC candidates. The officers also requested that their organization is to be duly credited as the main proponent of esports within the campus. They emphasized that they aim for visibility, especially among the freshmen in the university, and that this can be done with adequate support from the SSC. As such, they expressed hope that the next batch of officers will continue what the SSC of this academic year has begun.
The SSC election will be on May 2. The entire graduate and undergraduate student body in tertiary education in USC is encouraged to participate.
