By Alexander Villafania
INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines — Thailand remains the undisputed champion in this year’s Ragnarok Online World Championships (RWC).

Thailand is followed by South Korea and Indonesia in second and third place, respectively.

The Thai team is composed of Ratchasak Kanchanasapha, Mana Pattharavilaloet, Minlawat Tararuthai, Somporn Sinsanguan, Hatsakan Santitaweechai, Ekkasit Nimket, and Narin Sukwisutthichot.

This is the second time the Thai team won in the RWC. They won in last year’s RWC held in their home country.

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By Alex Villafania, hackenslash Reporter
INQUIRER.net

RAGNAROK ONLINE, which started the online gaming craze in the country when it was released in the Philippines by Level Up! Inc. way back in September 2003, will have a brother sometime next year. Ragnarok Online 2 is currently being developed by South Korean firm Gravity and those who attended Level Up! Live at the World Trade Center from Nov. 3 to 4 got a chance to play an alpha version of the game.

Level Up! Ragnarok product manager Carlo Ople gave hackenslash a demonstration of the game and so far, it is looking great. The game has been totally redesigned from the original. Instead of using 2D sprites and pre-rendered backgrounds, RO2 now employs Unreal Engine 2.5, an updated graphics engine that makes RO2 a true 3D game.

Here’s a video interview that INQUIRER.net multimedia reporter Erika Tapalla did while Ople gave the demo.

While the characters will still look like the same ones from RO1, they can now be seen in full 3D. The same goes for the environments. Ople said the current demo is just about 20 percent of the actual game and the finished product would be much bigger and look better.

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HACKENSLASH/INQUIRER.NET reporter Alex Villafania, INQUIRER.net multimedia reporter Erika Tapalla and I caught up with Level Up! International Gameboss Ben Colayco on the first day of Level Up! Live at the World Trade Center.

Here’s Alex interviewing Ben, who shared that the company will launch at least four new games in the Philippines next year through Level Up! Inc. Ben also said the Philippines remains their biggest and most important market. Level Up! International has offices in the Philippines, Brazil and India.

Video taken by Erika. For more videos from INQUIRER.net and our partners, go to iVDO.

HERE’S hackenslash/INQUIRER.net reporter Alex Villafania interviewing Level Up! CEO Jane Walker during the first day of Level Up! Live at the World Trade Center in Pasay City.

Video taken by INQUIRER.net multimedia reporter Erika Tapalla.

Want more video clips from INQUIRER.net and our partners? Visit iVDO.