By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

A GROUP of student entrepreneurs from the University of the Philippines-Diliman is organizing a Metro Manila-wide WarCraft III: Defense of the Ancients (DOTA) tournament that aims to bring together the various groups of DOTA players in an effort to find the best players for a chance to compete in international DOTA events.

DOTA is one of the most popular local area network games worldwide and has a wide following in the Philippines. It is played on a five-on-five team-based match wherein the opposing teams’ primary objective is to destroy a structure in the middle of a map called “Ancient” while staving off each other.

The UP Circle of Entrepreneurs (UPCE) organized the Aenigma 2008 DOTA Tournament as part of their annual business-related project. This is the first time that the group has organized a gaming tournament on a wider scale and the group also hopes that it will be a regular event.

The tournament is being marketed across different DOTA forums in the Philippines, as well as through a special UPCE website for the event.

In an interview with hackenslash, UPCE president Kevin Velasco said the competition will have three qualifying legs: Makati, Quezon City and Manila, wherein DOTA players nearest these areas will be able to compete for a chance to get into the finals, which will be held on March 1.

The grand prize is P30,000 for the winning team and P15,000 for the first runner-up.

Velasco said the winning group will get a chance to represent the Philippines as members of the international DOTA community called Razer, which will evaluate if the Philippine team is capable of competing in the international circuit.

UPCE chair for Operations Aldrin Macaraig said there are many DOTA teams in Metro Manila alone, some of whom are already very good players as they have beaten teams from different areas.

“Unlike online games, DOTA teams have to meet up to play against each other. The Aenigma 2008 tournament hopes to bring them together and find out who really are the best players,” Macaraig said.

One disadvantage, however, is that some teams have already become so good that other teams do not want to play against them as they know they will be beaten.

“This is the perception we’re trying to change. These teams must know how they would fare against better teams so they could learn new strategies,” Macaraig said.