More than 500 gamers, a spirited audience, high-end gaming gear and a heavily charged atmosphere marked the grand finale of the second Taiwan Excellence Gaming Cup that took place at Infinity Mall, Malad on 18 and 19 September.
The grand stage was set for the gamers to witness an epic battle between two teams who had crossed various stages and hurdles to reach the grand finale on 19 September. The intense battle ensued and ‘Team Neck Break’ came on the top on the given day against their opponents Team Elunes.
The winner team ‘Team Neck Break’ walked away with a whopping Rs 1,70,000 as a cash prize at one of the most awaited and biggest DOTA 2 Gaming Championship in the country. Team Elunes won the second place and took home Rs 90,000, and Team Bad Xcuse secured the third spot and received Rs 40,000 as prize money.
Neck Break, winning team captain, Raunak Sen said, “Winning felt good, as it had a good prize pool. It felt great to be a part of TE Gaming Cup. The entire set up of the event was very grooving. We are looking forward for TE Gaming Cup 2016”.
After tasting success last year, this year the gaming festival was back with its second edition with double the prize money and even bigger fun. While last year the Cup had been held only in Mumbai, this year, Delhi too was added to the venue after a tremendous response to its debut version. The number of teams registered was almost double from that of last year with players coming in from Shillong, Pune, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Bangalore to participate in the contest in Mumbai.
A total of 8 teams, 4 in Mumbai and 4 in Delhi qualified for the grand finale which saw an impressive display of high-end gaming gear as well as some of the latest lifestyle products from Taiwan Excellence, including sleek tablets, smartphones, gaming technology, leisure-related and travel products.
Speaking of the tournament, Micheal Lin, Director of the Taipei World Trade Centre Liaison Office in Mumbai, said, “The popularity of the maiden edition of the Taiwan Excellence Gaming Cup was so high that this year we scaled up the event to include even Delhi in the venues. The response we received for our second edition too has been massive. We are glad to bring in this championship for passionate gamers because we believe it gives them an opportunity to showcase their skills as well as offer them a chance to win big money.”
Lin added that since India does not have many gaming tournaments, the Taiwan Excellence Gaming Cup strives to give passionate gamers a chance to realise their potential and encourages them to take it to the next level.
The event attracted 11 of the most popular brands from the digital world as sponsors including ACER, ADATA, ASUS, BenQ, D-Link, FSP, Gigabyte, GX, MSi, Thermaltake and Transcend. The event was streamed live on Twitch TV.
Echoing Lin’s thoughts is Gigabyte Technology (India), director, Sunil Grewal, one of the key sponsors of the Taiwan Excellence Gaming Cup. Grewal said, “A few years back, gaming was just a private affair in India. But slowly we are seeing gaming events of such big scale like the Taiwan Excellence Gaming Cup being beamed live online, with a highly dedicated audience who wait impatiently for the occasion. This is the reason why the gaming industry in India is slowly but steadily becoming a competitive spectator sport.”
Standing firm as the 19th largest economy in the world, with a well-developed capitalist economy, Taiwan has proven itself to be a major player in the market. Taiwan not only has developed into a hub for tech, but is also more familiar than Japan and Korea with classic martial arts themes and the aesthetics favoured by the 100 million online gamers in China. With events like the Taiwan Excellence Gaming Cup, Taiwan is looking at finding a firm footing in the Indian gaming market.
