Eight Pinoy cyber athletes off to Seattle

Eight Pinoy cyber athletes off to Seattle
Monday, July 23, 2007

Eight Filipinos will represent the country in the World Cyber Games (WCG) World Finals to be held in Seattle, Washington, this October.

The following players survived the three-day national finals held at The Block in SM North EDSA: Team Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Kristofer Romillo, Arvin Agbisit, Gary Gueverras, EJ Clores and Jupiter Gaboy) were declared champions for Counter Strike. While Tristan Solee, Byron Bongon and Israel Magante each bagged their event titles for PC games Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, Starcraft:Broodwar and Need for Speed:Carbon, respectively.

The national champions each received P30,000 in cash plus a Samsung mobile phone. They also bagged other prizes that included Power Color videocards, gift certificates from Villman Computer Systems, Logitech G15 gaming keyboard and various Animax Premium items. They will also receive round-trip tickets to Seattle with accommodations paid by WCG sponsors.

The RP team will compete against gamers from seven continents. Helping them prepare for the main event are major supporters like Samsung Electronics Philippines Corp. and the Philippine E-Sports Entertainment Network, Inc.

“We are proud to give these fine cyber athletes the opportunity to strut their stuff in the global arena,” said Jerry Lacson, Samsung general manager for marketing. “Seeing how they have competed these past weeks, we look forward to how they will fare in this year’s competition.”

Samsung, which has been supporting WCG for the past six years in the Philippines, recognizes the relevance of video gaming in the country.

The WCG preliminaries began last April with hordes of eager and aspiring Filipino gamers signing up. After nearly 10 weeks of intense and competitive cybersports, 64 finalists emerged from Davao, Baguio, Cebu and Metro Manila.

It is estimated that up to 700 of the world’s best gamers will fly to Seattle this October to participate in the world’s most prestigious e-Sports competition.

-- Katrina C. Guevarra (TMTSJ)

Link
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2007/july/23/yehey/techtimes/20070723tech3.html