To the uninitiated, November 5 may seem to be still many, many months away. But now so with seasoned competitors. They know that time flies and this time they won’t let it be.

There is a longer time to prepare this year, noted Ricardo Banaag, Intel Technology Philippines country manager, during a press briefing on the commencement of the preliminaries of the World Cyber Games Philippines that kicked off yesterday in various Internet shops across the country. Provincial eliminations will be held on June 14 and 15 in Davao and June 21 and 22 in Cebu.

Intel, a long time WCG partner, has high hopes on the abundance of Filipino gamers. It believes they have the skills to compete with the world’s top gamers.

"We are proud to be WCG Philippines’ partner again this year. We will continue to support WCG as we continue to deliver new technologies that bring greater visualization and realism to game play," Banaag said in a press release.

Banaag underscored the latest Intel Core 2 Quad processors based on 45nm manufacturing technology as an example of "the right tools to make your game better than before."

This year’s Philippine edition of the WCG gives a new crop of gamers the chance to represent the Philippines in the 2008 WCG Finals slated November 5-8 in Cologne, Germany.

For six years running, the Philippines has been fielding a contingent to the WCG, the largest electronic gaming festival in the world, through the sponsorship of Samsung Electronics Philippines Corporation.

"The quality of our local players has been improving each year but still not at a fast enough rate to match how gamers worldwide are developing," reported Tjader Regis, project manager of the WCG Philippines Preliminaries. However, he remains optimistic that as the number of gamers grows, so do the chances of seeing the Philippine colors in the international winners circle.

Official games this year include: Counterstrike 1.6, Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne, Command and Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath, and Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock.

The closest the Philippines reached is the quarterfinals in 2005. The Philippine contenders were the Counterstrike Team, Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and Philippine Warcraft champion John Cruz.