A team’s strength is tied to its growth, and that’s exactly what we saw with Elevate.
It’s a bittersweet end to the season for Elevate’s Ivalice and crew as they closed out PKL 2025 Fall in third place. A respectable finish considering the trials the team went through early in the season.
At the start of PKL 2025 Fall, many would’ve put Elevate as the third-best HoK team in the Philippines. But multiple lackluster performances had them land in fifth place, with them returning to form in the playoffs. Mid Laner Cedric “Ivalice” Santos explained that the team went through a rough patch during the regular season, and it really showed in their in-game performance.
“Di lang sa loob ng game pero sa labas din,” said Elevate’s Ivalice. “Umabot sa point na nagkaroon ng samaan ng loob, which feel ko is normal naman sa isang team. Mas-okay nga na maging direct to the point para mabilis maayos pero wrong timing lang na ongoing pa yung season.”
Yet even then, Ivalice saw a silver lining through these early-season struggles. It exposed a lot of Elevate’s problems and became a critical learning experience for the team as a whole.
“Nakita namin yung mga flaws namin, ano kailangan ayusin namin,” continued Elevate’s Ivalice. “Kaysa umabot kami sa second round robin tapos doon kami magkakaproblema. Mahirap mag-adjust kung ganon kasi palapit yung playoffs.”
The Next Step to Improvement
While Elevate was able to bring it all together for the playoffs, it’s clear that they were still missing something. Their 0-3 loss against BOOM Esports in the lower bracket finals showed that there’s a clear gap between them and the top two, and Ivalice saw that as well.
“Honest opinion ko is nagkaroon kami ng knowledge gap,” said Elevate’s Ivalice. “Yung Blacklist at BOOM, individually, yung knowledge nila about the game is mataas na. Feel ko isang factor to kasi doon nabubuo yung chemistry and synergy.”
“Kung parehas ang takbo ng pagiisip niyo, parahes din yung galawan niyo. Tapos hindi lang yung roles namin yung dapat pinagaaralan namin. Dapat talaga lahat ng mga roles para hindi kami magulat. Advantage talaga kung mataas ang knowledge mo about the game.”
In that case, it seems Elevate is going to be busy in the next few weeks. Their third-place finish was enough to get them into the HoK International Championship 2025 together with Blacklist International, BOOM Esports, and A.C.T. Esports Club. It’s happening later this year in the Philippines, so they’ll no doubt want to show what they’re truly capable of.
Banner photo from Level Infinite.