The Asia Pacific Predator League 2022 is coming in guns blazing to bring a world-class event to the land of the rising sun. The best Dota 2 and PUBG teams are gathered in Tokyo to earn the right to call themselves the kings of the region. 6,600 teams registered from 15 different countries and only the best remain to duke it out for the lion’s share of the $400,000 prize pool.

The Philippines has four star-studded teams for Dota 2 in TNC Predator, Polaris Esports, Execration, and GrindSky Esports. While in PUBG, the lone representative is ArkAngel Predator. Filipino talents are also in the official English broadcast of the event with John ‘johnxfire’ Fernandez headlining the show for Dota 2 alongside international talents David ‘Godz’ Parker, Dominic ‘Lacoste’ Stipic, and Mike ‘MLPDota’ Le Phoenix. Hyping up the crowd in the PUBG matches are Darwell ‘Asurai’ Llerena and Nico ‘BlackenBlue’ Gayoso.

GrindSky Esports and Polaris Esports picked up their first wins against their international competition but one of the highlights of Day 1 was the rivalry match between TNC Predator and Execration. With both teams sharing plenty of history in the Dota 2 scene it was TNC Predator who came out on top thanks to the heroics of Krish ‘Krish’ Gupta’s Mars who bagged 21 kills and 20 assists. Krish was everywhere during that match with perfect initiation and Execration couldn’t keep up.

TNC Predator then ended up facing GrindSky Esports in the Upper Bracket while Polaris took on Malay team ChubbyBoiz. In the TNC Predator and GrindSky game, it was a well-rounded effort from the boys of GrindSky that pulled off a win. An impressive 791 GPM performance from carry player Akashi was the edge GrindSky needed to send the favored TNC Predator to the Lower Bracket. For Polaris Esports, it was a dominating performance against ChubbyBoiz with four of their players combining for a high-octane 39 kills.

Unfortunately, the favorites TNC Predator and Execration were relegated to the Lower Bracket while GrindSky and Polaris remain strong in the Upper Bracket.

For the boys of ArkAngel Predator, the competition was much tighter. It was a performance that the Filipino squad will want to improve on as the tournament progresses. Vietnamese squad Genius Esports and Korean squad DAMWON Gaming KIA stole the show on Day 1. Fortunately for ArkAngel Predator, a #2 placement in the final map of the day helped springboard them to the middle of the standings.

The Asia Pacific Predator League 2022 Grand Finals also flew in some fan favorites in the Filipino gaming scape. Kang Dupet, Een Mercardo, Amara, Amanda ‘Maggiekarp’ Zamora, KuyaNic, Alo and many other Predator Brand Ambassadors graced the event with artful cosplay and they even joined in on the festivities around the venue as well.