Hundreds of hardcore gamers from all over the island, a fleet of the best high powered PCs money can buy, and gadgets all under one roof in an unprecedented event, the likes of which have never been witnessed before are about to unfold.
Four hundred of Sri Lanka's best gamers taking each other on, for the coveted title of Champion, Sri Lanka Cyber Games 2008.
This massive gaming tournament, the first ever to be held in such a grand scale is about to create history by taking local computer gaming to the next level – by creating a competitive gaming atmosphere in the country and introducing international standards to the increasingly popular pastime. This one of a kind tournament is jointly organised by the Rotaract Club of the Faculty of Science, University of Colombo and Gamer.LK (www.gamer.lk), an umbrella organization and a web based community for Sri Lankan gamers. It will be held at Committee Rooms D and E of the BMICH from August 15 – 17.
With just five days to go to the highly anticipated gaming showdown, The Sunday Times caught up with two of the brains behind this groundbreaking event, Varuna Wijesundera and Raveen Wijayatilake, President of the Rotaract Club of the Faculty of Science, University of Colombo, and Administrator and Proprietor of Gamer.LK, respectively.
No strangers to competitive gaming, having already worked together on a much smaller scale, yet successful tournament two years ago, the duo are highly optimistic about SLCG '08, which promises to be far bigger and grander than their previous experience, and they assure us that this is going to blow everyone away. And what's more, it's just a taste of even bigger and better things to come, they add with enthusiasm.
"Sri Lanka hasn't had anything of this scale before. We've seen the gaming tournaments abroad online, but nothing local. So we're setting the foundation to bring competitive gaming under international standards to the country." says Raveen.
Nearly four hundred participants have registered for the tournament and the organisers were overwhelmed by the turnout. "We might have to limit the number of teams competing this time due to time limitations but it made us realise, if someone takes the initiative to get something like this done, there's a huge gaming community that's eagerly waiting to take part," says Raveen fervently.
There will be five games featured at the tournament. Namely, Counter Strike, Call of Duty 4, Defense of the Ancients (DOTA), Starcraft: Broodwar and FIFA '08. Referees will preside over all games to ensure fair play.
"The referees will be making sure both teams play fairly and check to see if a team reach an objective before their opponent," explains Varuna.
Commenting on the selection of games, both Varuna and Raveen insist that they have selected some of the best and most sought after computer games in the international gaming arena. Particularly Star Craft, a favourite of most hardcore gamers, although still fighting for its place here in Sri Lanka. "Starcraft is the most popular Real Time Strategy (RTS) of all time," says Varuna.
It's not that big in SL, but its one of the best multiplayer RTSs out there, and the SLCG is trying to promote it here, Raveen adds. "If you want to see how popular Starcraft is, just look at South Korea. SC tournaments are like rock concerts over there," says Varuna.
The tournament will be held for three consecutive days, on a knockout basis, or in other words, an elimination process.
The games will be played as follows:
Counter Strike: 5 vs
5 (team based)
Call of Duty 4: 5 vs 5
(team based)
DOTA: 5 vs 5
(team based)
Starcraft: 1 vs 1 (solo)
FIFA 08: 1 vs 1 (solo)
"There will be no points awarded. There'll only be winners and losers," says Raveen.
It'll be held in two adjacent halls at the BMICH, the smaller of which is used for the actual gaming and the other as a viewing area, complete with giant screen, various stalls and a mini gaming café for the visitors.
Although it's going to be a knockout tournament with players being eliminated, they won't have to pack up and leave. They can stick around and enjoy world class gaming at the mini gaming café and feast their eyes on some of the coolest gadgets and gizmos, including high end gaming consoles on display at the multitude of stalls that will be operated by the many sponsors.
Gamer.LK which is the powerhouse behind this mega project is an online community that was started about a year ago dedicated to Sri Lankan gamers. Both Raveen and Varuna are administrators of the site. Raveen also happens to be the proprietor of this impressive website.
Varuna explains the reasons for Rotaract movement's involvement in this project. "There are a number of reasons. One is to promote Rotaract in a different way, because everyone thinks of Rotaract as a service only kind of thing. Well service is a major part of Rotaract but there's also the fun part which we'd like to emphasize," he says.
The main sponsor for the event is Intel, with Dialog Broadband coming in as the broadband sponsor. Neat, E-Globe and Asus will sponsor PCs and C3 Labs will act as a partner sponsor.
Well known gaming café, The Elements Café, will also be on board. Electronic media sponsors for the event are ArtTV and 101.7 TNL Radio, while the print media sponsor is The Sunday Times.
"Be there when the gaming revolution begins," says Varuna, wrapping things up.
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