Taiwan Excellence Gaming Cup Concludes Amidst Huge Fanfare
More than 500 gamers, a spirited audience, high-end gaming gear and a heavily charged atmosphere marked the grand finale of the second Taiwan Excellence Gaming Cup that took place at Infinity Mall, Malad on September 18th and 19th.
The winner team ‘Team Neck Break’ walked away with a whopping INR 1,70,000 as a cash prize at one of the most awaited and biggest DOTA 2 Gaming Championship in the country. ‘Team Elunes’ won the second place and took home INR 90,000, and ‘Team Bad Xcuse’ secured the third spot and received INR 40,000 as prize money.
After the stupendous success of the event last year, this year, the gaming festival was back with its second edition with double the prize money and even bigger fun. This year, a total of 203 teams registered for the event out of which 64 participated in the elimination rounds held in Mumbai and Delhi each. The number of teams registered was almost double from that of last year with players coming in from Shillong, Pune, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Bangalore to participate in the contest in Mumbai. While last year the Cup had been held only in Mumbai, this year, Delhi too was added to the venue after a tremendous response to its debut version.
A total of 8 teams, 4 in Mumbai and 4 in Delhi qualified for the grand finale which saw an impressive display of high-end gaming gear as well as some of the latest lifestyle products from Taiwan Excellence, including sleek tablets, smartphones, gaming technology, leisure-related and travel products. The event attracted 11 of the most popular brands from the digital world as sponsors including ACER, ADATA, ASUS, BenQ, D-Link, FSP, Gigabyte, GX, MSi, Thermaltake and Transcend.
The participants, as well as the crowd, consisted of avid gamers and techies. All of which were overwhelmed at the magnanimity of the event, which is now considered to be one of the few gaming events in the city of such international repute.The event was streamed live on Twitch TV.
Speaking of the tournament, Micheal Lin, Director of the Taipei World Trade Centre Liaison Office in Mumbai, said, “The popularity of the maiden edition of the Taiwan Excellence Gaming Cup was so high that this year we scaled up the event to include even Delhi in the venues. The response we received for our second edition too has been massive. We are glad to bring in this championship for passionate gamers because we believe it gives them an opportunity to showcase their skills as well as offer them a chance to win big money.”
Lin added that since India does not have many gaming tournaments, the Taiwan Excellence Gaming Cup strives to give passionate gamers a chance to realise their potential and encourages them to take it to the next level.
Echoing Lin’s thoughts is Sunil Grewal, a Director at Gigabyte Technology (India) Pvt. Ltd, one of the key sponsors of the Taiwan Excellence Gaming Cup. Grewal said, “A few years back, gaming was just a private affair in India. But slowly we are seeing gaming events of such big scale like the Taiwan Excellence Gaming Cup being beamed live online, with a highly dedicated audience who wait impatiently for the occasion. This is the reason why the gaming industry in India is slowly but steadily becoming a competitive spectator sport.”
Rajeev Singh, Country Head of BenQ, another sponsor, said, “We do need more events like the Taiwan Excellence Gaming Cup because in India. The gaming industry is still in its nascent stages. Especially competitive gaming is yet to pick up because of a lack of good tournaments. We are happy to be associated with the Taiwan Excellence Gaming Cup because it is a great opportunity for gamers.”
Rounak Sen, Captain of the winning team Neck Break, said, “Winning felt good, as it had a good prize pool. It felt great to be a part of TE Gaming Cup. The entire set up of the event was very grooving. We are looking forward for TE Gaming Cup 2016″.