By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

THE WORLD Cyber Games Philippines 2008 Final is still a month away but the competition is heating up for some of the game titles that are part of the tournament.

Some players have already made the cut to become finalists in WCG for the games Command and Conquer 3 (C&C3), WarCraft III: Frozen Throne, Defense of the Ancients (DotA), Counter-Strike, and the Xbox 360 game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.

The finalists for each of the games will be bearing down on each other in July.

Meanwhile, there will be tie-breaking competitions on June 7 and 8 at the SM Megamall to find out who else would be moving to the finals at the SM Mall of Asia.

The top four finalists for C&C3 are Edsel Ramos, Kevin Chung, Aldyn Belgica, and Bernard Garcia, who beat eight other players in the game.

The WarCraft III finalists are John Benedict Cruz, Frederick Pe, Tristan Solee, and Ariel Escolano. Solee was the previous WarCraft III Philippine representative to the 2007 WCG Grand Final in the US.

The DotA teams that will move to the finals are Pag-ibig, Mineski, BS, and Flow, which was also the Philippine representative in the Asian Cyber Games in Singapore in 2007. It was Flow that brought the Philippines its first medal in an international gaming competition in 2007.

The top five Counter-Strike teams who will face off at SM MOA are Kinky, Horsemen of the Apocalypse (HOA), WK, What’s New B, and Wanted. Team HOA has been the consistent Counter-Strike Philippine representative for the past six years, though team Kinky is closing in for this year’s tournament.

Meanwhile, the Guitar Hero III finalists are Rafael Formoso, Jose Antonio Cruz, Luis Benesa, Nino Tanseco, and Robin Molas.

Michael Vinluan, general manager of eSports, which is organizing the WCG, said that they have reserved spots in the finals for Cebu and Davao players of CS, WarCraft III, C&C3 and Guitar Hero III.

The semifinals for Need for Speed ProStreet and Virtua Fighter 5 will be held on June 7 to 8 at SM Megamall.

Editor’s note: Video showing Counter-Strike and Defense of the Ancients players duking it out taken by INQUIRER.net community evangelist Alex Villafania.