By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

THE PHILIPPINES will be the host country for this year’s Ragnarok World Championship (RWC). This will be the first time in four years that Ragnarok Online developer Gravity has hosted the RWC outside South Korea.

Online game publisher Level Up!, which distributes RO in the Philippines, will organize the RWC, which it will happen concurrently with Level Up Live!, an annual event highlighting the company’s games and other services. Level Up Live! is set for October 18 to 19 at the World Trade Center in Pasay City.

In an interview, Gravity general manager for Business Development Changki Kim said the choice for a host country for the RWC was a difficult one to make as Level Up! was competing with AsiaSoft, a game publisher from Thailand.

“Thailand actually won last year’s RWC but Asiasoft could not prepare the venue this year,” Kim said.

Kim added that there are about 40 to 50 players from at least seven countries participating in the RWC in the last two years.

Level Up! brand manager for Ragnarok Online Carlo Ople said the company is prepared to hold the RWC as it has already experienced organizing big gaming events. He said Gravity has been working closely with Level Up! to ensure the smooth operations of the competition.

He said they are expecting a much bigger crowd this year for both Level Up Live! and RWC as they are expecting about 12 teams from 32 countries to join the competition.

The Philippines’ Team Armada won third place in the 2007 RWC in South Korea.

RO reportedly has over seven million subscribers in the Philippines, with a peak concurrent user base of 55,000.