Loisa Andalio in 'Friendly Fire' 

E-sport Project Xandata is about to have its Grand Prix in Hong Kong soon. However, the Philippines' leading team, Team Isla, had just lost its star player Adrian Go aka Reaper (Jan Silverio). Isla's team manager Sonya Wilson (Coleen Garcia-Crawford) was impressed with the game play of Hazel Sales aka Kaya (Loisa Andalio) and recruited her. At first, she had a hard time gelling with teammates Von (Yves Flores) and Ryan (Harvey Bautista).

Ever since she graduated from high school, Hazel had been working at the internet cafe called Clicktopia, where she also honed her skills playing Xandata. She was first introduced to the game by her elder brother Aero (Jon Lucas), who was currently in prison. Her mother Emma (Liza Dino) depended on Kaya for cash, which she spent on her drinking vice. One night, she scored a one-shot, double-kill in a game against Team Isla, which Sonya happened to see.

Earlier this year in January, there had already been a local film about e-sports, Prime Cruz's "GG (Good Game)," and now we have another one. Like the first film, despite the fact that the players were all just sitting on their PCs and clacking on their keyboard and clicking on their mouse, this Mikhail Red film was exciting and fun, with excellent editing and music of its game play, and energetic commenting by the players and announcers. 

This may not have a big star like Donny Pangilinan in the lead role like "GG," however, this one was not any less engaging to watch. One of the housemates of "Pinoy Big Brother" in 2014, Loisa Andalio finally plays the lead in a feature film again since "Hospicio" (2018). Andalio gave this one her all acting-wise, playing frank and sassy Hazel with a lot of heart. We do root for her and her team, even if you already have an idea who will win from the start. 

Coleen Garcia's Sonya stood out, but not exactly in a good way. With her glamorous look, aloof personality and English-speaking ways, she did not look like she belonged in the e-sports arena at all. A flashback montage about her past could have helped us understand Sonya more as a character. While her advocacy to get government support for e-sports as a legitimate sport is admirable, her cliched motherhood statements don't motivate much. 

The film espouses three rules for team-play in e-sports: trust your teammates, never get tilted, and play to win. The second one contains a word that may be new to Gen X'ers or those not into gaming. Tilting means getting too angry or emotionally-frustrated during a game, such that you lose focus on the goal. Getting the opponent tilted is the aim of trash-talking. These are valuable life lessons that apply to all situations where we need to work with a group.

This review was originally published in the author's blog, “Fred Said.”