MANILA - Cybercafes are expected to catch up with the country's hype for first-person-shooting game Valorant, a game launched in the middle of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, an official from Mineski said.

"I feel like after COVID, everything is going to be okay, back to normal. Valorant is one of the things that the cybercafe owners will actually look forward to as a game that they would actually care for," Marlon Marcelo, vice president of Mineski Philippines' marketing team, said in a virtual presser.

In most parts of the country, operations of internet shops or cybercafés, heralded as home to the country's esports scene, were halted due to the pandemic, with esports tournaments being held remotely as much as possible to contain the spread of the virus.

"In the Philippines historically, cybercafes were also involved in making the esports community big because the cybercafe business actually helped in creating a more robust [esports scene]," Marcelo said.

At the moment, Mineski is pushing for tournaments such as the National Inter-Collegiate League, which is currently accepting applications for its Valorant legs in Visayas and Mindanao.

Registration is also underway for Mineski VxV, a nationwide championship which is part of Valorant: First Strike, a series of Valorant tournaments to be held across regions around the world.

Valorant is a free-to-download, first-person shooting game launched worldwide last June 2020, where players are expected to "plant or defuse" a Spike in a "one-life-per-round, first to 13" series.