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By Alexander Villafania INQUIRER.NET MANILA, Philippines -- The Philippines' top gamers fought but checked out early in all of the games at the World Cyber Games 2008 in Cologne, Germany, according to the game's official website. None of the Filipino video gamers were able to break through round 16, just three steps closer to the championship finals which was held November 10. The eight-man Filipino team joined four of the 14 games included in the WCG 2008. These are the PC games “Command and Conquer 3,” “Counterstrike 1.6” and “WarCraft III: Frozen Throne.” The country also sent one player for the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. Nevertheless, the Filipino gamers did manage to win a few rounds early on before facing more formidable players. The Philippines' Command and Conquer 3 player John Raymond Tan won three rounds and lost two. Guitar Hero III player Rafael Formoso had three wins and three losses, while WarCraft III player Frederick Pe had one win and five losses. The Philippines' Counterstrike team Horsemen of the Apocalypse (HoA) won twice and but lost three times. HoA has been a returning Philippine champion since 2005, though it has yet to win a medal. Tan, Formoso and Pe are first-time participants in this international competition. The five-man HoA is composed of Gary Guevarras, Arvin Agbisit, Jupiter Mars Gaboy, Paolo Miguel Nacho, and Erwin John Clores. Champions for some of the WCG-sanctioned games have been announced. Champions include Netherlands' Manuel Schenkhuizen for WarCraft III; Denmark's mtw.AMD [spelled as is] for Counterstrike; German Pascal Pfefferle for Command and Conquer 3; British George Boothby for Guitar Hero III. The full list of winners is available from the official WCG website.

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. SC4 will also be on one-versus-one mode in best-of-three rounds. Each round will be 60 seconds long. Players must also use the same character throughout the game. The top winners of GH3 and SC4 will take home P10,000 and P8,000 respectively. Second placer winners for GH3 will get P5,000 while for SC4 it will be P4,000. The WCG League will also play host to a cosplay event. The first and second placers in the cosplay will take home P15,000 and P10,000, respectively.

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. The Philippine team will be competing in WarCraft III: Defense of the Ancients (DotA), Guitar Hero III, Virtua Fighter V, and Need for Speed: ProStreet. The country's representative to DotA is Team Mineski, which is composed of Rhymel Olete, Jose Silva, Jr., Ronald Robins, Kendrick Sy, and Rovic John Perez. The Philippine team for DoTA has already been set for Group C, along with Indonesia and Malaysia, according to eSports. Filipino player Israel Magante will represent the Philippines in Need for Speed: ProStreet. He is matched up against Japan and Malaysia in Group D. Guitar Hero III Philippines representative Luis Benesa will compete against China and Vietnam in Group D. Philip Ortiz will fight against Japan and Thailand in Virtua Fighter V. Vinluan said the Philippine team is set to leave on Thursday to get ready for the competition, which starts August 7 in Singapore.

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. Meanwhile, new players have dominated other games during the WCG finals. Frederick Pe won the championship for the game WarCraft III: Frozen Throne, while John Raymond Tan won the top prize in the real-time strategy game Command and Conquer. Rafael Formoso was declared the winner in the Guitar Hero III (GH3) game, which replaced Dead or Alive 4 as a tournament game for the Microsoft Xbox 360 console. Team Meneski dominated the popular local area network game WarCraft III: Defense of the Ancients to become the country's representative to the Asian Cyber Games in August. Team Mineski is composed of Rhymel Olete, Jose Silva, Jr., Ronald Robins, Kendrick Sy, and Rovic John Perez. The national champions received P30,000 in cash, a Samsung mobile phone, an Intel Quad Core processor-based computer system, premium items from computer distributor Villman, Logitech gaming keyboard and mouse, an Asrock motherboard, Sparkle video card, gift certificates, among other items.