By Alexander Villafania
INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines — While waiting for the upcoming World Cyber Games Finals in Germany, the organizers of the WCG Philippines tournament has started the WCG League in an effort to spur continues training of gamers hoping to get into the annual WCG Finals, local organzer eSports said.

The WCG League starts on October 18 and will be held at the Cyberzone of the SM Mall of Asia.

For now, two games will be highlighted and both are for the Microsoft Xbox 360. These are Guitar Hero III (GH3) and Soul Calibur IV (SC4).

For GH3, the game mode will be one-versus-one and will be set on expert. There will already be a selection of songs including “One” by Metallica, “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns N’ Roses, the extremely difficult “Through the Fire and Flames” by Dragonforce, among others.

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By Alexander Villafania
INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines — While the Philippines is hoping to win a medal in the Beijing Olympics, a Filipino has already brought home a medal but for a different competition.

Luis Benesa won a silver medal in the Microsoft Xbox 360 game “Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock” at the World Cyber Games (WCG) Asian Championships held in Singapore on August 8 to 10.

Benesa beat China, Vietnam and Korea to reach the semi-finals. He was beaten by a player from New Zealand for the top spot.

The 18-year-old Ateneo De Manila University student is the first Filipino player to win a silver medal in an international competition of WCG, and the second overall to win a medal.

The first medal the Philippines garnered was a bronze medal by the five-man team Flow playing Warcraft III: Defense of the Ancients in last year’s WCG Asian Championships.

This is also the first time Benesa competed in an international gaming competition. He was second place in the WCG Philippines competition after Rafael Formoso who will compete in the WCG Finals in Germany in November.

The rest of the Filipino contingent to this year’s WCG Asian Championships did not make it to the final rounds. The Philippine contingent is composed of players for Virtua Fighter 5, FIFA 08, and DotA.

Mike Vinluan, general manager for WCG Philippines organizer eSports, said the group is proud yet surprised that a young player for a new game that they introduced would take home a silver medal.

“This is a step closer to a gold medal. Hopefully, we win one either in this year’s WCG Finals or next year,” Vinluan said.

By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines – While the Philippine contingent for the Asian championship of the World Cyber Games is currently training on their own, they promised to play hard in this year’s global competition, an executive of the World Cyber Games Philippines organizer eSports said.

The teams are now playing against players from other countries in the official Asian championship website.

Michael Vinluan, general manager of eSports, said the players are now training “within their natural grounds” where they are most comfortable.

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Editor’s Note: Updated article with links to list of winners

By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines — After nearly three months, the World Cyber Games (WCG) 2008 Philippine leg competition has come to a close with a dozen gamers chosen out of 104 to represent the Philippines.

They will join the WCG 2008 Grand Finals in Germany on November 9, as well as the Asian Cyber Games in Singapore in August.

Leading the group will be the five-man Counterstrike team Horsemen of the Apocalypse (HOA), composed of Arvin Agbisit, Paolo Nancho, Jupiter Mars Gaboy, EJ Clores and Gary Guevarras. The group has been the consistent Philippine representative to the WCG Grand Finals for the past four years, organizers of the local competition said.

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