Sibol Pokémon UNITE Tops Group Stage, Advances to Asian Games Quarterfinals

Sibol’s Pokémon UNITE squad bounced back from a difficult start to top Pool A and advance to the quarterfinals of the 20th Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026 on Saturday at Aichi Sky Expo in Japan.

The Philippines and Kazakhstan were both disqualified from their opening match on Friday due to uniform violations, but Sibol recovered to sweep its remaining group-stage matches.

Sibol defeated Chinese Taipei, 2-0, before sweeping Malaysia by the same scoreline to finish Pool A with a 2-1 record.

Chinese Taipei could still tie the Philippines at the top of the pool, but Sibol held the head-to-head tiebreaker after defeating the Taiwanese side earlier in the day, ensuring the Filipinos would retain the No. 1 seed.

“Heading into the knockout stage, we are really prepared kung sino ‘man ang makakatapat namin sa quarterfinals. ‘Yun, we will still practice and tuloy pa rin kami kung ano ‘yung ginagawa namin para malagpasan namin ang quarterfinals,” Sibol head coach Albert Camp said.

Sibol will face the winner of the final selection phase between Hong Kong and India in the quarterfinals.