By Relly Carpio
INQUIRER.net

IP E-GAMES is holding an exclusive girl gamers-only party on March 29 from 5 to 9 p.m. at the GameFrog Internet cafe in Metrowalk Ortigas. Interested ladies need to send their full name and contact number via e-mail to veya@granadoespada.com.ph.

They are inviting all girl gamers, especially those who play massively multiplayer online role-playing games to the event.

“This event is open to all the ladies out there,” said Bea Navarrete, IP e-Games assistant product manager and Granado Espada community manager.

“We conducted this event to draw attention and awareness among the girl gamers in the gaming community, plus this is in line with International Women’s month. It’s basically like girl power!” Navarette added.

Special freebies like Granado Espada in-game items and merchandise will be given to the participants. A Girl Power! one-on-one player vs player tournament will also be held with the winner getting “a very special prize,” Navarette said. “Secret!”

The exclusive Girl Gamer T-shirt and GE Limited Edition boxes will be on sale at discounts at the event.

By Relly Carpio
INQUIRER.net

LEVEL UP!, in cooperation with Netopia, recently held an open competition for their casual basketball game FreeStyle at the Netopia Bridgeway at the Greenhills Shopping Center. Sixteen teams of three members each registered at the venue and went through the eliminations.

The top four teams who made it to the semifinals are Just Play, Reinezzence, Stratos, and Turbulence. It was a close match between Just Play and Reinezzence with the latter taking the win in the last game of their best-of-three after going into double overtime. Turbulence won over Stratos and went on to grab the top title for the competition after winning three matches straight in the best-of-five in the final round versus Reinezzence. Though it wasn’t an easy win as the first match went into overtime, and their third win was decided by a two-point clutch shot.

Team Reinezzence is composed of Bryan Castillo a.k.a. BoyTalbog, Kevin Imperial a.k.a. Bell, and Gary Tiro a.k.a. KalyeBoy20. Champion Team Turbulence is composed of Jon Lagman a.k.a. aGuLabjr, Kevin So a.k.a. kobeLAlakers, and Kenneth So a.k.a. Practsim.

Tito Chavez, Netopia vice president for Marketing and Sales, and Erwin Cruz, Netopia cluster manager for the area, were on hand for the awarding of prizes to the winners.

“We support our communities; this includes our gamers. In fact we have a lot lined up for them and our other customers this year. Though we cannot divulge our plans yet,” Chavez said.

Hector Sagrado, Level Up! brand manager for FreeStyle, was there with his community managers to handle the event. “Nagulat kami sa dami ng mga nag-register,” Sagrado said. “May mga galing pa ng Valenzuela, and we even have a team na may lady player.”

Team Just Play, which made it to the final four, was the team that Sagrado was talking about. Roselle Isip, 26, was the player in question.

“Wala lang, siya lang ang na-tripan ko na laruin nung may Internet shop kami eh,” Isip explained when asked why she plays FreeStyle. “Try ko lang naman kung mananalo, kung hindi oks lang.”

By INQUIRER.net

FILIPINO player Kevin Patrick Chung will fly to Singapore to compete in EA Play, which will be held on March 15 to 16 at Marina Square’s Central Atrium as part of the company’s plan to further foster interactive community exchanges in the Asia Pacific.

Chung topped the Command & Conquer: Tiberium Wars tournament held at the Villman Cyberzone at SM Megamall.

“I think successful naman, it being the first competition we’ve held, and the limited amount of time for the set-up,” said Jo Oliver, operations manager of event sponsor DataBlitz.

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By Relly Carpio
INQUIRER.net

“FOR the next seven days, i-Hooked Buendia will have various promos in celebration of our opening,” said Maribel Thomas, franchise owner of the newest branch of power gamer hub i-Hooked. “From 1 to 6 p.m. everyday, various local game distributors will hold sponsored events, themed towards their games at our branch: e-Games (March 12-13), Amped (March 14-15), and AMDG (March 16-17). On the 18th, i-Hooked will have the finals of their Ownage DOTA competition, where the winning representative team will take home P10,000 in cold hard cash.”

Here’s a photo I took of Thomas with Benedict Villanueva (left), general manager of Sabiclub, the company that owns the i-Hooked franchise, and Dong Hun Lee, president and CEO of Sabiclub.

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By Relly Carpio
INQUIRER.net

THE MINUTE you get a little interest in street racing, be it the legal or the illegal, you almost immediately hear of street racing gangs. But have you ever heard of virtual street racing gangs?

Meet Team C.R.o.W., which stands for Certified Racers of Wangan. Each member is an advocate of NAMCO’s arcade racing game Maximum Tune, now in its third incarnation. You see them mostly in Glorietta 4’s Timezone, playing their favorite arcade game Maximum Tune. And unless you watch them playing the game, you wouldn’t recognize them from the regular patrons.

“We have been playing for seven years now as a group,” relates mild-mannered team leader Ricci Salvador. “We founded Team C.R.o.W. around February last year.” According to Salvador, the team currently has 22 members, with ages ranging from 11 to 30-plus. “We’re a pretty well-rounded group, and try to keep it that way.”

Here’s a photo of Team C.R.o.W members (l-r) Edward Blanza, Dan Salvador, Josh Sargen and Kiko Jopillo with team leader Ricci Salvador.

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