The Acer Predator League for the 2024 edition just ended over the weekend, with teams Blacklist Rivalry winning the Dota 2 tournament and Team Secret the winner for the Valorant portion of the competition. At the end of the tournament, Malaysia was announced as the host of the next Acer Predator League, scheduled to be played sometime in 2025.
Filipino sweep in Manila
The two games played at the tournament this year, Dota 2 and Valorant, saw teams from the Philippines taking top places in the competition, with support from the local supporters at the Mall of Asia Arena in Manila.
In the Dota 2 rounds, Blacklist Rivalry easily overcame their competitors in the opening rounds, winning in every match without breaking too much of a sweat. They met Team Execration, another Filipino team in the Grand Final, after beating IHC Esports in the semifinals.
Blacklist then beat Execration 2-0, with each match played just under 45 minutes each.
For Valorant, Team Secret was also at the top of their games as the team easily topped their group, giving them a spot in the semifinals. They beat Team Flash from Singapore to book a place in the Grand Final. They met Fav gaming from Japan in the finals, where they easily took down the Japanese team 2-0, playing the two matches for 44 minutes and 28 minutes respectively.
The two teams each won $65,000 (about RM 302,000) each for winning their matches. Raven from Blacklist Rivalry and Jremy from Team Secret were selected as the MVPs of the matches.
Malaysia was selected to host the 2025 edition of Acer Predator League
At the end of the tournament, Acer announced that Malaysia had been chosen as the next host for the Acer Predator League. The tournament is expected to be played around the same time in 2025, with the qualifying rounds for the tournament anticipated to happen in the next couple of quarters.
The official handover of the organizing banner was held, with Kon Tek Yoong, the Managing Director of Acer Malaysia receiving the banner from Andrew Hou, President of Acer Asia Pacific.
For the Manila edition, the grand tournament was a ticketing event. Still, Hou stated that it is not set in stone if the tournament will be going the ticketing route moving forward. He said it will be up to each country to set how the entry will be handled, as Acer Malaysia is still planning the logistics for the tournament for 2025.
