HANGZHOU – The Sibol team of Robert de Guzman picked up a win and a loss in the Dream Three Kingdoms 2 event as the Philippines put up a semblance of a fight in the 19th Asian Games esports competitions at the Hangzhou Esports center on Wednesday.
De Guzman and his teammates first turned back the Sardor Azimov-led Uzbekistan, 1-0, before bowing, 0-1, to the Meirlan Yanmakhanov-powered Kazakhstan, to place second in Group B.
The top two squads in each group will reach the quarterfinals, which now has Kazakhstan, China and Thailand as the first qualifiers.
As the second-placed team in the group, the Philippines, which is backed by the Philippine Sports Commission and the Philippine Olympic Committee, arranged a quarterfinal showdown with Hong Kong on Thursday at 2 p.m. in the esports competition making its debut in the games.
In Group A, Laos took the lead after getting past Hong Kong and Tajikistan in the morning matches.
Group C saw Vietnam stopping Kyrgyzstan, 1-0, but the latter bounced back with a triumph over Nepal, 1-0.
Vietnam stayed unbeaten after whipping Nepal, 1-0, for their second straight victory.
Meanwhile, Sibol tries its luck in DOTA 2 when it meets India on Friday.
(ai/mnm)