Hai guise, welcome to yet another WCG Malaysia 2008 recap. As we get closer into the finals, more and more players were eliminated in Day 2. While things are more streamlined as there were less players involved yesterday, the tournament is still plagued by confusing and uneven brackets.

The fastest game to finished yesterday was NFS ProStreet which involved the final 8 players using double elimination bracket. Nothing unusual at this stage, where the outcome has been the same since few years ago except the arrangement of the Top 3 players.

For the first time in 3 years, the WCG Asian Championship 2008 bronze medalist - FoRza fell down to lower bracket after been defeated by M1-Heaven. FoRza now have to meet the lower bracket finalist - Liang before he can get another chance to defend his title against Heaven once again.

For FIFA’08, thing went on as usual where no upset results were recorded yesterday. Giant killer [MyFES]SilDes failed to make it to Top 8 elimination stage while another giant killer - Benaldo (who defeated [W|nDs]A13x, the CELgames’08 champion) also eliminated but at slightly further stage - at the 1st round of Top 8 lower brackets.

In the end of the Top 8 double elimination stage, fellow clanmates [W|nDs]Vin and [W|nDs]Lo0n4tic will meet each other today at the upper bracket finals while the sole MyFES survivor - [MyFES]Bush will meet the underdog [ToRnaDo]V.Pathetic in the lower bracket finals. Both of this will be played today.

Moving on to C&C3:Kane’s Wrath, which is using Top 16 double elimination instead of the usual Top 8 brackets. Eight players has been eliminated early on in Day 1 and the rest of them continued on yesterday. The 2007 champ - [r0r1]AlphaAurora who fell to lower bracket on Day 1 managed to survive until the end of the bracket. He is scheduled to meet Viral.V2 a.k.a Gamerholic today at the lower bracket finals. Waiting at the top of the hill is VicViper, the 1st Runner Up of CELgames’08.

For Counter-Strike 1.6, there is only one upper bracket match was played yesterday which is between LZ and Pu.Gimak. Since LZ managed to overcome Pu.G, they are now already at the finals, comfortably waiting for the team from lower bracket which will be finished today. The title holder, Team Hybrid who are trailing behind in the lower bracket have to win against PwyH first and then against Pu.Gimak before they can get a place at the finals.

In Starcraft, only four players left after a grueling tournament which consisted of almost all top Starcraft players in the country, being the sole international tournament for the game here. In the lower bracket, MYM.Ash and Marine overcame TinChoi a.k.a Cobo and BBtank respectively to book a place in the lower bracket finals. As for upper bracket, the match between legendary JohnRambo and Takaful was played only one round and will be continue today. JohnRambo has the upperhand though, with 1 - 0 score. The winner of both matches today will meet each other in the finals later today.

Last but not least, Warcraft 3. Upper bracket has totally been conquered by long-time champ, PaulYan and also, Sin[Pin.ZZ]. This match should be an interesting one as Pin has been seen as the one who will finally break down Paul’s domination. Whether this will happen today or not, we shall see.

As for the lower bracket, CT^Serry and TankLiew will meet other today after winning their matches throughout the bracket. As per Starcraft, winner for both matches are bound to finals on stage later.

Fuh…that was a lenghty one. Don’t forget to tune in to our live update of WCG Malaysia 2008 Grand Finals which are scheduled to take place in less than an hour time. (Sorry, no live update as we couldn’t find a proper place to setup our gears. ) See you in a bit

WCG Malaysia Official Website
WCG Malaysia 2008 @ Lowyat.NET Forums

We have finally arrive at the WCG Malaysian Championship 2008, the country’s de facto championship of the year. As you know, six different official games ranging from strategy, racing and shooter games are played at Mid Valley Exhibition Center, KL starting yesterday up until this Sunday, 17th August. Up for grabs are cash prizes, sponsored products and of course, the ticket to represent Malaysia at WCG 2008 Grand Finals in Cologne, Germany.

The event was launched earlier this morning to much fanfare. The tournament went on straight after the launch. So far, I believe there is only one general issue for WCG Malaysia this year as far as competition goes which is the tournament’s bracket system. Somehow, the way they were layout is quite confusing especially for Counter-Strike 1.6. Some teams or players who already registered also was missing from the brackets but they managed to get reinstated into the tournament later on.

Couple of upset results happened today. Team Hybrid and [r0r1]Alpha - both last year’s champion in Counter-Strike 1.6 and C&C3 respectively fell down to the lower bracket. But the most shocking news was the defeat of the newly crowned WCG Asian Championship champion, [W|nDs]Si_Jali to [MyFES]SiLdes. Also eliminated from the tournament is also another newly crowned champion, [W|nDs}A13x who won CELgames'08 recently

Apart from those shocking news, there was a little drama happened during the final CS match of the day between Pu.Gimak and Natural Ones. Sometime during the match, N.O alerted to the marshals that PuG was using the flashbang bug. The match was halted and CS marshals reviewed the case. After an extensive review using the match's replay, PuG was found guilty and 1 round was deducted from their score. Still, PuG managed to defeat N.O at the end of the match.

WCG Malaysia 2008 also added Super Dancer Online Xtreme to its official games list but this one will not bring you to Cologne. Still, the game have significant number of fans who flocked the tournament area to watch top players competing against each other.

To sum everything up, the list of players and teams that still competing is available at the end of this post (after the jump). It is a very long list...

From my rough observation, WCG Malaysia looked smaller this time around but it is more organized than previous year. Maybe because the event went back to its 3 days schedule as opposed to 2 days last year. Also, most of the booth has downsized a little. In terms of crowds, since it's Friday, one can expect that the number of crowd was quite average.

That's all for Day 1. See you guys later!

My grateful and sincere appreciation to my fellow colleague at Shrine, Linkinstreet who helped me with our piktors today (and tomorrow as well). If they doesn't look good, blame him!

WCG Malaysia Official Website
WCG Malaysia 2008 @ Lowyat.NET Forums

C&C3: Kane's Wrath
TBA later

Counter-Strike 1.6

• Counter-Seed
• Ghost
• Bt.3
• Mixed
• Kilat Gaming
• Vilent
• MFG
• Genesis Empire
• SFX
• Bottle
• Wanted Junior
• Y.U.I
• Anonymous
• AoA
• HPC
• SP
• EA
• AoW
• Team Hybrid
• AKA
• XSM
• Pu.Gimak
• Natural Ones
• LZ
• V2.LZ2

FIFA'08

• [MyFES]Demonic vs. TommyTong
• Shady vs. [ToRnado]seed
• [MyFES]SiLDes vs. [ToRnado]V.Pathetic
• [ToRnaDo]Falcon vs. Benaldo
• Haleit vs. [MyFES]Bush
• K3nnylim vs. [W|nDs]Lo0n4tic
• [MyFES]Arroyos vs. Briot
• [W|nDs]Dazzle vs. [W|nDs]Vin

NFS ProStreet

• FoRza
• Liang
• M1-Heaven
• M1-SpeedDemon
• ExtreM1n4tor
• strifemare
• stealth
• Syefri Zulkefli

Starcraft

• M1.ChenWong
• rambo_pang4320
• iLoveSC
• AFM
• Fight
• MYM.Ash
• Kaoru
• jom0coda
• Will
• TinChoi
• Soul_X
• buel00
• ArticFir3
• Marine[FLF]
• JohnRambo
• BBtank
• SiEG
• Starcris
• XenoWarlord
• Photon
• Isaac
• AcE
• KalsaLamis

Warcraft 3

• TankLiew
• PaulYan
• Not Perfect
• 4lect
• Freestyling
• M1-NoX
• MVG.BlackHeartz
• Sin[pin.ZZ]
• GreenBean
• Gat-X105E
• Reyka
• Practice_Noob
• MYM.Moon <--- say what lulz?
• Trill
• Xrev[HungTen]
• HawkeeCannon
• DanteWong
• Viggofrost
• Edwin1993
• Aaron
• CT^Serry
• AppleJuice

In a recent poll done by a parental advisory site known as What They Play, nearly 3,000 respondents on 2 separate polls have concluded that parents fear their kids playing certain video games more than drinking beer and watching pornography. The poll also concluded that kids viewing violence is acceptable as compared to kids viewing sex in games.

The results actually projects that parents are more concerned on new information medium outlets rather than traditionally known social ills such as alcohol, drugs, violence and *cough* sex.

It is also commented in the poll that the reason parents are so afraid with the new medium is simply because the unfamiliarity to gaming.

Give your parents a game pad and most likely those who rebel against the idea of gaming does not know how to use it. Gaming gives them a high sense of insecurity as they do not know how to moderate their children in a product that is highly unfamiliar.

With this fact, I’m sure you will have no problem getting gifts for your parents on their next birthday.

WGT Malaysia 2008 is going to open its door with an official launch ceremony next week. The WGT Malaysia 2008 Gear Up Party will be held at Basil Leaf Restaurant, Jalan Damai, Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday, 19th August. If you wondering where that is, here is a map.

Guests will have a chance to test run the WGT Malaysia 2008 official PCs and hardware which are ready to run together with WGT Malaysia 2008 official games. Apart from that, guests are also able to win WGT merchandises and couple of prizes (include a ASUS 22″ LCD monitor ) through activities that are being lined up at the launch event. Not to forget, free dinner buffet for everyone!

If you participated in WGT Malaysia 2007, then you should already received an email from WGT Malaysia about the event. But if you didn’t participated and still want to attend to the event, you still able to reserve your seats. What you need to do is email ashley[AT]in2.com.my and state your intention.

As usual, the reservation is first come, first serve basis. Also, please be informed that no walk-in will be entertained as available seats are very limited. So, reserve you place ASAP!

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that the preferred dress color for this event is RED. Wear red colored shirt and you will obtain useful extra token for the prizes quest!

WGT Malaysia 2008 Official Website
WGT Malaysia 2008 Gear Up Party @ Lowyat.NET Forums

According to several of our trusty industry sources, Sony Malaysia is poised to launch the PS3 sometime in September/October. Details are still very sketchy right now, but we were made to understand that this is for REAL.

Apparently, Sony is now hard at work putting everything together in place and they are doing all the necessary paperwork and groundwork to make the launch a reality. They have approached several local game distributors and our sources told us that they’ve even met with a senior executive from the Singapore office of an international game publisher recently.

No word on pricing, warranty details, bundle options, etc though. Rest assured that we’ll keep you updated once we get any more solid info from our end.

Sony PlayStation Fans HQ @ Lowyat.NET Forums

Welcome to the final day of WCG Asian Championship 2008. Today is the day where the best of Asia will be crowned here at Suntec Singapore. Team Malaysia campaign continues today in a number of games - DoTA, FIFA’08, Guitar Hero 3 (yup, believe it or not :lol:) and NFS ProStreet.

Meanwhile in the WCG Singapore Open Category, Tbun-W4si, DNA-SK and New Cybertime GoV are still in the DoTA competition while in Call of Duty 4, [ESP]aXe and RVG are part of the title contender.

I’m sorry for the update delay since we are pretty much running from here, there and everywhere since so many thing happens at the same time.Jump in to the coverage now!

WCG Asian Championship Official Website
WCG Malaysia Official Website

WCG Asian Championship 2008 @ Lowyat.NET Forums
WCG Asian Championship 2008 @ Multiplay’s Flickr

DoTA

3:33pm: If you follow our forums, you would know that Kingsurf managed to defeat Impreza of Singapore in the quarter finals. Right now, they are playing on stage against New Zealand which…doesn’t go quite well with Kingsurf on the losing side.

3:51pm: Oh noooess!!!! Kingsurf lost the semi-finals to New Zealand! There goes our gold medal hopeful. With that defeat, Team Malaysia is now officially dropped from the overall champion pursuit.

4:14pm: Kingsurf will meet XcN of Indonesia for 3rd/4th placing.

6:00pm: The tournament organizer decided to stop the match half-way and is now choosing the match winner by points. This was done to give way for the closing ceremony. It is not yet known who will get the bronze medal. Stay tune.

6:04pm: The results has been confirmed! Team Malaysia received a bronze medal in DoTA where Kingsurf managed to beat Indonesia’s XcN by point counts.

FIFA’08

3:33pm: [W|nDs]Si_Jali won the 1st only gold medal for Team Malaysia in FIFA’08!!! Earlier today in the semi-finals, Si_Jali defeated his Vietnamese counterpart and continued his winning streak against last year’s 1st runner up player from India during the finals. With that victory, Si_Jali has just repeated his WCG Asian 2006 achievement!

Guitar Hero III

3:33pm: Earlier today, I was been told that there was some mix-up in the bracket yesterday, with Malaysia supposed to be in the quarter-finals. So, yours n00bly truly picked up the guitar again for one final match in the game.

Malaysia was matched up against Philippines during the quarter-finals and I doesn’t stand a chance at all. That’s the end of the road for Team Malaysia in Guitar Hero III.

NFS ProStreet

4:00pm: Team Malaysia ended the NFS ProStreet campaign at semi-finals, where our representative, FoRza lost to Thailand. Later on, as consolation, FoRza managed to obtain bronze medal after defeating the Philippines.

WCG Singapore 2008 Open Category

Call of Duty 4

4:45pm: Alright to recap all the matches that RVG and [ESP]aXe has went through, this are all their stats for the league stage.

RVG: 3 win, 1 lose
[ESP]aXe: 3 lose, 1 win

By that, RVG qualified to the Semi-Finals after being among the Top 4 in the league stage. From now on, it will be the normal, single elimination bracket style.

5:50pm: RVG is now battling against one of the [JEDI] teams for a place in the Finals. Things is quite equal among both teams.

7:00pm: The match has ended! After a long battle, RVG unfortunately lose it in the final map where they ended up as the 4th place receiver.

DoTA

3:33pm: Here are the final standing for all three Malaysian teams in this category:

DNA-SK: 3rd Runner Up
Cybertime-GoV: 2nd Runner-Up
Tbun-W4si: Champion!

Congratulations to all three teams, which almost dominated the tournament.

That’s all from us. See you at WCG Malaysia 2008 next week! Now, I have to catch my train to KL oh noesssssss XD

The stage already set and the game is on! Welcome to the first day of WCG Asian Championship 2008 here at Suntec Singapore. Everybody in Team Malaysia are healthy today, nobody is sick and stuff. So, it is green light for all of us here.

Let’s jump straight to the update then!

WCG Asian Championship Official Website
WCG Malaysia Official Website

WCG Asian Championship 2008 @ Lowyat.NET Forums
WCG Asian Championship 2008 @ Multiplay’s Flickr

WCG Asian Championship 2008

DoTA

Kingsurf Gaming, represent!

11:50am: Kingsurf won their first match against Taiwan. They are going to face Korea after this.

1:16pm: Kingsurf is victorious against Korea! With that, Team Malaysia already booked themselves a place in the Elimination stage. Ks still have one match left though, which is against Vietnam.

3:09pm: Kingsurf just started their match against Vietnam - after 2 hours of delay. Apparently, there was some problem during Vietnam’s previous match which caused the delay.

4:00pm:Kingsurf match against Vietnam already finished, which sided Kingsurf as expected. They will continue their Elimination stage tomorrow at 9:00am, against Impreza of Singapore.

FIFA’08

Si_Jali with his Japanese counterpart, side by side

11:50am: [W|nDs]Si_Jali are doing quite well in his group. He overcome Japan with a very comfortable margin 6 - 0. Next match will be against the Indonesia.

1:16pm: Indonesian player’s controller is having some problem with the game, so that match that supposed to be on stage was brought back to the tournament area.

3:09pm: As expected, Jali terrorized all his opponents in his group - 8-0 against Indonesia and 3-1 against Singapore. He is currently waiting for his first elimination stage opponent, Australia.

8:00pm: Si_Jali defeated his Australian counterpart! That win entitled him a spot at the semi-finals against Vietnam tomorrow.

Guitar Hero III

12:00pm: Malaysia are scheduled to compete in Group C against Thailand and Japan starting 2:00pm. Don’t worry, will be defeated very fast. XD

1:16pm: GH match has been postponed to 4pm. Mehhh

8:00pm: Yup, I managed to finish my GH3 mission successfully without losing my fingers. Yours truly did quite ok against Thailand but lost to Japan for a place in the quarter finals. Ironically, all of us were not a competitive Guitar Hero player. Thailand’s player was actually a Starcraft player and the Japanese rep was actually part of WCG Japan organizing team. What are the odds!

NFS ProStreet

12:00pm: FoRza first match are scheduled to start at 4:40pm against his Philippines counterpart at 4:40pm and against Japan at 5:00pm. Tune in later then!

8:00pm: FoRza won all his group matches and later proceed to Quarter Finals where he again managed to overcome the opponent which is from Australia. NFS ProStreet Semi-Finals onwards will also be played tomorrow at 9:00am, where he will meet his counterpart from Thailand.

Virtua Fighter 5

sna@ke getting some lesson from the famous Tetra of Singapore.

12:00pm: Team Malaysia campaign for VF5 has ended quite early. sn@ke was overpowered by all his opponents from Singapore, Australia and Indonesia which all of them are pretty much ready to compete with their arcade stick all.

WCG Singapore 2008 Open Category

Call of Duty 4

RVG did quite well in the first match

1:15pm: I’ve just found out there are three Malaysian teams competing in CoD4. They are: [ESP]axe, [ESP]wow and RVG. The tournament used round robin format with each group having 3 teams in it. Currently, both ESP teams lost their 1st match, RVG won their 1st match and currently leading in their 2nd match.

3:09pm: CoD4 group stage has just finished. Two out of Malaysian teams managed to qualify to the next stage: RVG - 2 win and [ESP]axe - 1 win & 1 lose. [ESP]wow was defeated in both group matches.

7:27pm: I’m sorry to for the late update, guys. Got caught up in the GH3 match, if you know what I mean. Anyway, 2 team will be chosen from this stage onwards which uses round robin league format. [ESP]axe currently trailing behind with 2 defeat while RVG has better luck with 1 win and 1 defeat.

8:26pm: RVG is in the middle of their third match and [ESP]axe is preparing for their third match on stage.

9:00pm: According to a marshal I met, RVG won their third match. On stage right now is [ESP]aXe vs BF.nut and things doesn’t looked really good with that 0 - 8 score. More coming soon.

9:46pm: The match between [ESP]aXe and BF.nut has finally its end with a huge defeat for ESP side with 14 - 0 and 14 - 2 score for each round. This is ESP third lost in the league stage. Meanwhile for another Malaysian team RVG, their final tally in the league stage is 3 wins and 1 lost which shined some hope on podium finish. The competition will be continued tomorrow.

DoTA

DNA-SK chilling while waiting for their match to start

1:15pm: Tbun-W4si became the first Malaysian team to proceed to semi-finals. New Cybertime GoV managed to proceed to Quarter Finals, while the last update I recived from DNA-SK is that they are still playing in Quarter Finals.

3:09pm: Good news! All the teams is already in Semi-Finals. Currently, DNA-SK is having a match with Tbun-W4si and New Cybertime GoV is meeting xtc of Singapore. If GoV able to win this match, we will have an all-Malaysian finals at WCG Singapore 2008 DoTA Open Category.

4:00pm: Tbun-W4si won the match against DNA-SK and is the first team to reach the finals! Since GoV - xtc match is not yet finished, DNA-SK opponent for 3rd/4th place is not yet known.

8:00pm: xtc managed to stopped an all Malaysian finals by defeating GoV in the semi-finals. So, tomorrow will be a Singapore vs Malaysia affair between xtc and Tbun-W4si for WCG Singapore 2008 DoTA Open Category.

That’s all for today, folks. It has been a very long day. I’ll see you tommorrow!

We just arrived at the Hall 402-403 of Suntec Singapore for the WCG Asian Championship 2008 super weekend. Things are going on quite well here apart from some PC problems in the tournament area yesterday. Currently, all Asian Championship participants are in the tournament area to practice for the big day tomorrow.

Although the tournament hasn’t started yet, we still got couple of thing relay from the venue. The most shocking news so far was that the WCG head organization, ICM insisted that Team Malaysia to fill in the void left by Guitar Hero 3 and Virtua Fighter 5 since all the other teams in WCG Asian Championship 2008 managed to sent a complete team.

A couple of calls were made and unfortunately, all the suitable candidate were not able to make it due to last minute call up. Eventually, sn@ke were called to filled in for Virtua Fighter 5 and yours truly as well (due to the fact there was no other Malaysians around at Suntec when I met Team Malaysia’s manager earlier today), was asked to fill in for Guitar Hero 3. *sweat* :O

Here are the complete list of Team Malaysia for WCG Asian Championship 2008, including the last minute attendee:

1. DoTA: Kingsurf
2. FIFA’08: [W|nDs]Si_Jali
3. Guitar Hero 3: Chapree
4. NFS ProStreet: FoRza
5. Virtua Fighter 5: sn@ke

Moving on, Malaysian teams progressed well at WCG Singapore DoTA Open Category. All four teams that attended the event (mkvl was absent) managed to pass through Top 32 stage. Unfortunately, Kingsurf have to forfeit their Open Category spots due to Team Malaysia’s Asian Championship commitments.

Still, it was a blessing in disguise for the other Malaysian team, Tbun-W4si as they was scheduled to meet Kingsurf in Top 16. Same goes to DNA-SK where Singapore’s Asian Champions rep, Impreza have to forfeit their spot as well. This means that both Tbun-W4si and DNA-SK already booked themselves a place at Quarter Finals.

The only Malaysian team still in Top 16 stage is New Cybertime GoV, where they are scheduled to meet Singapore’s fAze tomorrow. For more information about the WCG Singapore’s DoTA Open Category brackets, check out the awesome coverage at GArena forums.

That’s all for today from Suntec Singapore. Join us tomorrow as Team Malaysia will start their WCG Asian Championship 2008 campaign…just like our Olympic 2008 team in Beijing, China. LOL.

WCG Asian Championship Official Website
WCG Malaysia Official Website

WCG Asian Championship 2008 @ Lowyat.NET Forums
WCG Asian Championship 2008 @ Multiplay’s Flickr

In a short announcement by Ronald Vong, one of WCG Malaysia 2008 tournament officials, all the 128 and 32 participation slots for FIFA’08 and Starcraft respectively have already filled up to the brim. This means to all gamers that already received their confirmation letter, you can breath a relief now.

For those who HASN’T received their confirmation letter, there is one last chance for you to register. On 7pm of Thursday, 14th August, WCG Malaysia officials will closed down the pre-check in process for all confirmed gamers. Whatever slots that are not picked up, will then be released to you guys.

Only one more week left, guys. Are you ready to game?

WCG Malaysia Official Website
WCG Malaysia 2008 @ Lowyat.NET Forums

Richman Online, AsiaSoft’s latest MMO might looks and feel similar to the popular Monopoly board game, but that are where the similarities end as well. You can construct houses and stuff in both games, but you can’t destroy them using rockets in Monopoly, right?

And…you guys are in for a treat today. AsiaSoft is currently running a closed beta test session for Richman Online from 4th - 18th August 2008 and they want to pass a couple of special CBT passes to you! You only need to answer one question as below:

- Name us one of AsiaSoft’s game titles.

Yup, it is that easy! Send the answer to multiplay[at]lowyat.net together with your Lowyat.NET profile page link (example: mine - http://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showuser=11652) and the first 70 people who emailed us the correct answer will receive the activation code together with instructions on how to use it. Good luck!

Richman Online Official Website
Richman Online @ Lowyat.NET Forums

MobiusGames, the publishing arms of Digital Media Exchange, Inc of Philippines has recently announced that they are accepting application for closed beta test sessions for Dekaron. The application are opened to gamers from Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia. The game is developed by GameHi from Korea.

Dekaron is not a new game actually. It has been around for some time and have a huge following at its home country. The game are now being played in over 65 countries around the world including North America (under the name 2moons) and Europe. Dekaron has been touted as the most violent MMORPG ever to grace the MMO market…so for you underage peeps, stay away.

It is not known how long the CBT sessions will last. Head on to its official website for more details then.

Dekaron SEA Official Website
MobiusGames Blog

Dekaron @ Lowyat.NET Forums

It has been three years since the MMO side scroller - Maple Story invaded us with its cutie gameplay. In conjunction with that, the game’s publisher in Malaysia - AsiaSoft is inviting everybody especially fans of the game for a huge birthday bash this coming Saturday, 9th August 2008.

The party will take place at Cineleisure Mutiara Damansara’s Concourse Area from 10:00am till 8:00pm. The area will be turned into Maple Story-themed environment complete with a real-life Maple Story Flea Market; featuring tons of mini-games for everybody to enjoy. The market will also be graced by StormBand whom will be performing using instruments that is made from recyclable materials.

Apart from that, there are tons of activities where you can win cash, physical and in-game premiums as prizes. Lucky draws, @-cash card redemptions and stage games are just a sample of these activities. Check out Maple Story official for more juicy details.

Maple Story Official Website
Maple Story @ Lowyat.NET Forums

During WCG Singapore’s Paya Lebar Kovan Community Club League last weekend, Rapture Gaming held live draws for almost all WCG Singapore 2008 official games including those in the Open Category. The one category that interest many was the DoTA Open Category which has a very high cash prizes compared to others.

With that, one can expect that many Malaysian teams will come and take part in the tournaments. Below are the full results of the DoTA Open Category draw:

Group A: Rebound, fAzeTheMusic, [e]LiTe, New Cybertime-GoV
Group B: [$], Exolus, UnDerGrounD, Dream
Group C: sP, K&K, Imm0rTal^GLHF, Mosaic
Group D: CWG, you think you funny!, IoD
Group E: JopEy-, JaYz T-1, Artysta, PMS|NyX
Group F: Xeno, Vendlus, Team Smil, �Dx�
Group G: AboVe23, Behind the Escalator, Tbun_W4si
Group H: Champions of the Naaru, EtERN|ty, xVp
Group I: Confirm Can Kill, [R]eMaKe`-, ShinShoU
Group J: [A]ttitude Gaming!, Da, Bagus
Group K: Crusaders, Prevalence, Warrior
Group L: Devote, DNA-SK, Sleedo
Group M: MKVL, zEn|th, Evolution RhythmOfLife

*Kingsurf as the champion of WCG.sg Paya Lebar Kovan CC League, is already in Top 32 of the category.

There are five Malaysian teams all together. As you can see, all of them managed to avoid each other but MKVL was drew into a very tough group. Containing two Singapore’s powerhouse - zEn|th and Evolution ROL, I believe MKVL have to work extra hard to proceed to the next round.

The WCG Singapore 2008 DoTA Open Category will start this Thursday, 7th August up until 10th August, Sunday. Will home ground advantage give Singaporeans a boost or will Malaysian teams triumph against the home teams? We shall know the answer soon. Pew pew pew!

WCG Singapore Official Website
WCG Singapore 2008 DoTA Open Category Live Draw Video

WCG Asian Championship 2008 @ Lowyat.NET Forums

The second season of Championship Gaming Series that concluded last week saw the crowning of a new world champion at the CGS 2008 World Finals in California, USA. Birmingham Salvo from UK, steamrolled all their opponent that included CGS Latin America champion and also CGS Season 1 World #2 to bring home the Mountain Dew World Champion trophy plus USD $ 500,000 prize money.

Salvo’s path, as mentioned, was quite hellish. Mexico City Furia (the current Latin America champ) and Carolina Core (last season’s World #2) were drew against them but Salvo managed to defeat them with epically tight score, 22 - 19 and 21 - 20 respectively.

Meanwhile, San Fransisco Optx came into the World Finals through a playoff and won against Dallas Venom and Berlin Allianz to book a place in the Grand Finals against Salvo. But their run towards World Champion title were stopped by the UK team’s superiority with the final score of 22 - 15.

While we can several sign of downsizing towards our own CGS franchise - KL Taufan, it seems that the World Finals were also facing the same thing. You can see that there are lesser teams and there were no Individual Championships as well (UPDATE: There is Individual Championship! Thanks nitroN for correcting me!). Will this format stays next year? All I can say is since CGS might change again the format again even after two relatively successful season.

Words on the air said that the new season could come sooner than you expect. Whether it’s true or not, see you next season!

Final Standing - Prize Money (USD)
Champion: Birmingham Salvo (UK) - $500,000
2nd Runner Up: San Francisco Optx (USA) - $150,000
3/4th Place: Carolina Core (USA) - $70,000
3/4th Place: Berlin Allianz (Germany) - $70,000
5/8th Place: Dallas Venom (USA) - $30,000
5/8th Place: Mexico City Furia (Mexico) - $30,000
5/8th Place: Sydney Underground (Australia) - $30,000
5/8th Place: Wuhan Dragon (China) - $30,000

Image Credit: TheCGS.com

CGS 2008 World Finals MVP
Dean “Picaso” Sutton and David “Daveyskills” Kelly - Forza Motorsports 2, Birmingham Salvo (UK)

CGS 2008 World Finals Individual Championship Champions
Counter-Strike Source: Dallas Venom (USA)
Dead or Alive 4 Female: Vanessa “Vanessa” Arteaga - San Francisco Optx (USA)
Dead or Alive 4 Male: Emmanuel “Master” Rodriguez - Dallas Venom (USA)
FIFA’08: Yfran “eafra” Garcia - Chicago Chimera (USA)
Forza Motorsports 2: Erno “FinPro” Kuronen / Philippe “YggdrasiL” Vaillant - Berlin Allianz (Germany)

Championship Gaming Series Official Website
KL Taufan Blog

The WGT Malaysia official website, which has been taken down around 2 weeks ago, is now online again. While the registration is still closed, but the new update has revealed that Call of Duty 4 is now part of WGT Malaysia 2008 official games!

The previous mentioned official games such as Counter-Strike 1.6, FIFA’08 and NFS ProStreet still in the list. The rough structure of the tournament is already online but according to a tournament official, all of them including available participation slots is not yet confirmed until the actual registration is open. Yup, hold your horses then.

WGT Malaysia 2008 looks quite promising, IMHO. If you wondering how WGT Malaysia 2007 looked like, take a look at THIS video then. Can’t wait!

WGT Malaysia Official Website