Yield Guild Games (YGG) Pilipinas has wrapped its annual Roadtrip campaign at Ayala Malls TriNoma in Quezon City on July 14, 2024, culminating its months-long initiative of bringing web3 directly to communities across the country. The event introduced the latest in web3 gaming to a crowd of over 2,900 guests, pushing the total number of attendees of the Roadtrip’s entire national tour to nearly 7,000. YGG’s core community was well-represented, alongside a diverse audience with a range of familiarity with web3 technology, including families, cosplayers, students and passing shoppers. Among the students was a cohort from the Sisters of Mary School’s Cavite campus, who had front-row seats to the program.
The Manila leg was chock-full of activities for guests to level up their web3 knowledge. This included a host of game demos and show matches for Guild of Guardians, Mojo Melee, Sipher Odyssey, Arena of Faith, and more. Most notably, the program featured a game demo for Parallel featuring YGG Esports team captain Ian “Disi” Dela Cruz and YGG Pilipinas community leader Munchies, which helped drum up hype for YGG’s participation in the global Parallel Planetfall Invitational tournament taking place later that evening. Right after the Roadtrip, YGG Esports star player Samuel Sequinox took home the grand prize from the tournament’s US$20,000 prize pool, reaffirming YGG’s place among the powerhouses of web3 gaming.
YGG Pilipinas’ Roadtrip sponsors also showed out in full force, spearheading sessions and giveaways at the event. This included Jambo Technology, who handed out web3 gaming-ready JamboPhone units to several lucky attendees. Coins.ph, one of the Philippines’ oldest and largest crypto exchanges, also gave away branded merchandise throughout the event’s runtime. Delabs hosted a show match for Rumble Racing Star during the event, where local web3 gaming communities raced against each other in front of the crowd. BreederDAO also took the stage to highlight their upcoming projects. During the Roadtrip, attendees saw a sample of BreederDAO’s web3 gaming platform Playcore, as well as its upcoming web3 roguelike Creatorverse.
Prominent members of the YGG community were also in attendance and engaged with guests via meet-and-greets and speaking engagements. YGG Pilipinas community leaders Munchies and Stephy went onstage to promote Season 6 of the Guild Advancement Program (GAP), one of YGG’s questing platforms aimed towards encouraging new players to explore web3 gaming as they join communities and earn rewards from YGG. Axie Infinity legends and YGG mentors spamandrice and Kookoo also graced the event grounds, interacting with YGG community members throughout the event. YellowPanther and KaizerGaming88, co-founders of GamingGrid, one of Asia’s biggest web3 gaming communities, also made an appearance, teasing a future collaboration with YGG.
“Magparticipate kayo in real-life events, especially here like in the YGG Pilipinas Roadtrip,” said NFT X-Street guild founder and prominent YGG community member, Joniel “JB” Bon, during a panel on building successful communities in web3. “Maraming mga opportunities sa web3. If you start, you can onboard your friends and build your own community. Just have fun and enjoy your journey in web3.”
Adding to the event’s celebratory atmosphere, several attendees arrived decked out in cosplay of their favorite characters, with nearly 100 cosplayers competing for a chance to win a portion of the Cosplay Fiesta’s PHP 100,000 prize pool. Many YGG community members also donned cosplay, including YGG co-founder Gabby Dizon and YGG Pilipinas Country Head Mench Dizon dressing up as Nintendo’s Mario Brothers, YGG community leader Stephy as Neko Crystalis from Sipher Odyssey, Munchies as One Piece’s Monkey D. Luffy, and YGG Pilipinas Campaign Director John Sedano as Yoru from Valorant. However, it was Guy Singzon who secured first place with his cosplay of Zhang Fei of the Three Kingdoms.
Through YGG Pilipinas’ partnership with virtual activations company Edison, even community members who weren’t physically present were able to participate. Hundreds of remote attendees explored Edison’s virtual event grounds, gathering around a stream of the Roadtrip on the main stage. Guests tuning in via Edison’s platform were invited to socialize and participate virtually in the festive segments hosted on the main stage. In between segments, players could track down collectibles, join a selection of minigames and compete for the top spot on Edison’s leaderboard for the event.
Local rock band Lola Amour ended the day’s events with a bang by serenading the crowd with their music. As the band prepared to take the stage, the event grounds were flooded with fans hoping to catch their performance, getting a peek into the colorful world of web3 gaming in the process. The band closed their set with the viral hit “Raining in Manila,” just in time for the rainy season to kick in.
“It’s been such a privilege to help onboard thousands of Filipinos into web3 over the course of the Roadtrip,” said YGG Pilipinas Country Head Mench Dizon. “Engaging with our community throughout the Roadtrip has helped us immensely, giving us invaluable feedback that will help us build a much larger program. We’re looking forward to providing more economic opportunities to as many Filipinos as we can, and hope to see you all again this coming November for the third annual YGG Play Summit.”
Over the past four months, the YGG Pilipinas Roadtrip made stops in Batangas, Baguio, Cebu, Davao and Bacolod prior to its final leg in Manila, inviting attendees to celebrate their long-time web3 communities or make their first foray into the space. The entire tour saw the support of local government units and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), as well as partners and speakers from the Philippines and abroad.
YGG Pilipinas has more activities in store for the rest of the year. Headlining YGG Pilipinas’ remaining schedule will be the YGG Play Summit, to be held from November 18-23, 2024, where YGG hopes to onboard even more Filipinos into web3 with a curated event featuring web3 gaming’s best and brightest.