The recognition by the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) means that members of the delegation will be accorded the same support as regular athletes who are sent for competitions abroad.
This assurance by PSC Chair Eric Buhain came after the final round of the Philippine preliminaries was concluded on August 1 at the Glorietta Activity Center in Makati City.
Players competed in four videogame events: "CounterStrike: Condition Zero" for the First-Person Shooter (FPS) game, "StarCraft:Brood War" and "WarCraft III: Frozen Throne" for the Real-Time Strategy (RTS) games, and "Need for Speed: Underground," the first racing game in the preliminaries.
After the last shots were fired, the last building razed, and the last car streaked across the finish line, eight people emerged as champions out of the 128 semi-finalists.
The iNx team, a group backed by telecom firm PT&T, made a vengeful return after a losing stint last year when it stamped its class over rivals by ruling the "Counterstike" event. The youthful team was composed by Kris Romillo (team leader), Paolo Nanelio, Arvin Agbisit, Gary Guevarras, and Mark Irosa.
According to Irosa, the team spent their training hours during Fridays and Saturdays over a two-month period prior to the event. His team mate, Agbisit, said they see a greater chance of copping a prize at the cyber games because of the "more intense preparations" and the experience they had competing during last year’s edition of the contest.
The brother-tandem of Marvel and Marko Mendoza, on the other hand, swept the competition in the "Starcraft" tilt. In the "WarCraft" battles, it was John Cruz who reigned supreme. Meanwhile, no one was able to keep up with Israel Magante who made his rivals eat dust in the "Need for Speed" racing event.
Majority of the country’s gamers came from Metro Manila, with most of the well-known names in local gaming circles joining the contest such as the Devilz clan. Some "CounterStrike" teams were so large that they fielded two squads in the same tournament, namely the 13 Angels and Cyberteria.
But the preliminaries, supported by Samsung Electronics Philippines Corp., did not just cover the NCR region as network gaming establishments all over the nation also played host to elimination matches.
Cebu and Davao were just two of the cities where the World Cyber Games marshals visited.
The World Cyber Games is the world’s first "Cyber Game Festival" and is designed to build a healthy cyber culture. The event, held on an annual basis since 2000, gathers the best gamers around the world to share the excitement and fun of game tournaments.
This year’s delegation to the World Cyber Games is expected to improve the country’s standing after last year’s batch were humbled and went home empty-handed.
When last year’s Philippine contingent first landed at Seoul, Korea, things looked bright, but their first matches instantly showed them how difficult it was going to be. The Filipino "Counterstrike" players were easily trounced by teams from other countries, Romania and Indonesia among them.
The "WarCraft: Reign of Chaos" players were overwhelmed by their more experienced foreign counterparts. The "StarCraft: Brood War" players were able to pull off a few victories, but failed to make it to the next rounds.
