“You’re gonna be seen as one of the guys, one of the boys para you fit in. You can’t accept that label. You have to be a girl talaga. That’s how you make room for everyone else that wants to come in.”
Sometimes, the MVP does not play.
She observes as keys click, screens glow, and voices ask for aid.
But apart from lending a hand, she is also a shoulder to lean on—providing support for the team even when there is no game ongoing or audience cheering.
As the student head manager for the VALORANT roster of the University of the Philippines Esports Varsity Team (UP EVT), a male-dominated field, Zoe Monique Soliva does not come to play, but she might just be the team’s most valuable piece.
Back in 2022, the Biology major entered the UP esports scene as a freshman because of two reasons: her best friend—UP EVT Valorant former captain Lance Clemente, and her curiosity.
Clemente, according to Zoe, has always hoped to compete in the esports stage, so she tagged along, wanting to know what he was up to. They both joined Oblation Esports (OBE), the official esports arm of the UP Gaming Guild, where Zoe first served as a game analyst for their Valorant squad.
Stemming the bleeding
But nothing is perfect, as people say. While Zoe stayed in OBE, she saw it crumble internally.
“The team kind of went into hiatus or kind of a[n] inactive season,” Zoe shared. “I kind of knew that there were internal issues sa org [OBE] mismo.”
That is when she decided and began to step in, not just to help in creating better plays but to address what she believed were lacking—communication, transparency and trust.
Zoe recognized it was the players who suffered most in an environment keeping them from developing and growing, leading them to endure a humiliating loss in a tournament fielded with the best collegiate teams back then.
“[The management in OBE] shook them up emotionally … They couldn’t trust their teammates, couldn’t trust who their staff were going to be, couldn’t trust anyone. So at the start, I kind of took it upon myself to kind of be the counselor and mediator, just making sure that everyone would be able to communicate properly,” the student manager said.
Since then, Zoe has been helping the team put everything from the ground up—for the team and the esports scene in UP.
The survival of OBE eventually led to the emergence of UP EVT, co-founded by Zoe on Aug. 1 last year, alongside fellow OBE members Aerol Balayon and JR Beo. Two weeks later, the team debuted under their new moniker in one of the grandest stages any collegiate player could dream of: the UAAP.
Becoming the glue girl
The limited time to transition into the league did not seem to matter for the Valorant squad of UP EVT, because having Zoe as the head manager of the team meant that they were in good hands. Together with Zoe’s co-founders, she established the branding of the varsity team to ensure that their identity is set apart from their previous banner.
The 22-year-old is currently handling UP EVT’s social media pages, particularly for Valorant and NBA2K, bringing updates and constantly interacting with the community that supports them.
More importantly, Zoe retained the culture she helped build since the OBE days in terms of communication.
“At first, I would help deliver the concerns. They would share it with me knowing 100% na I’m gonna snitch,” she quipped. “They knew that if they told me that I’m gonna be able to share their concerns with the rest or help them on how to deliver it. So, everyone on the team was able to accept na there’s no hiding anything here.”
From then on, each player did not have to carry their own burdens. They were free to discuss, rant, and vent. There was no need to keep anything to themselves.
As for Zoe, she was surprised with how the players began to treat her as one of their own, but it was really her influence that allowed them to be like that.
“She helped us, you know, build our team chemistry. She makes us hang out with each other […] to the point that we all are friends and family,” shared former Valorant team captain Clemente. “We have formed that bond because of Zoe, and what she has done surpasses just being a manager.”
And when talent meets the needs of the world, it is just a matter of time for success to happen as they cap off the first-ever UAAP Esports Tournament in August 2024 as bronze medalists and hand the champions, De La Salle University’s Viridis Arcus, their sole map loss in the entire tournament.
A month later, Zoe became the new chairman of the UP EVT.
Breaking through
But above the leadership roles Zoe takes in the collegiate esports scene is the fact that she is a woman. She is a woman leading a roster of men. She is a woman in a field dominated by men.
“To delve into the world of esports, people just don’t take you as seriously,” said the UP EVT chairman. “If you want people to take you seriously, they kind of have to see you, like, as a man or as one of them.”
She recognized that gender-based discrimination is one of the major challenges women face as they enter and navigate not only in gaming, but in the world of sports. There were moments where she had to prove her skills—in playing and running the team—to earn respect and be considered.
“That’s fair,” Zoe softly stated, adding that people expect that from her not because she is new in the industry, “I think it’s ‘cause I’m a girl.”
And as a manager, Zoe also highlighted how important it is to see eye-to-eye with the team and be one with the boys, embracing womanhood, and not being labeled as one of the boys.
“Women out there, or girls, even when you’re young, need to know that it’s possible […] that there are people that are already in there, and that there is a space for them. You can’t really reduce yourself to just being a manager. You can’t really reduce yourself to being a person in esports. You have to be a woman in esports,” shared Zoe.
However, being a woman, according to her, is a social experience. It inevitably comes with trials.
“Being a woman is automatically knowing that as you grow up, you’re going to suffer. Being a woman is knowing that everyone expects you to serve. Being a woman is knowing that everywhere you go, your worth will be questioned,” said Zoe. “But being a woman also means that you have the power to change it for everyone else… It’s camaraderie, it’s sisterhood, and it’s breaking through.”
And it is safe to say it is true—Zoe has advanced camaraderie within the team. She made a space for sisterhood to thrive where brotherhood was the norm. She has broken through tough times as a woman leader in esports.
Then, when asked who she is outside esports, Zoe answered, “I’m brave. No matter where I go, [and] that’s kind of how I got in here.”
Editor’s note: The original version of this article was submitted to the Sports Journalism class (J195) under Tessa Jazmines.
