Taiwan Excellence brought back their Gaming Cup season five with a lot of opportunities and expectations. Gaming Cup was a sanctuary where gamers co-operated, used strategic advances and came together in teams to win against their opponents. The grand finale of the iconic Taiwan Excellence Gaming Cup 2018 (TEGC) saw ace gamers from across the country converge in Mumbai to battle it out at the gaming world’s ultimate championship. The fifth edition of TEGC concluded at the Infinity Mall in Mumbai amidst huge fanfare on Saturday as top finalists locked horns for the most coveted cup.
“TEGC is only becoming bigger and bigger and numbers prove how popular we have become in the five years since we set foot in India’s gaming circuit. We come from the world’s best gaming destination in Taiwan. So, we have the best of technology to offer to Indian gamers, which no other existing competition does, which makes us so unique. TEGC gives passionate gamers the chance to experience some great gaming, technology and the chance to win big money. We hope to come back with a much bigger edition of TEGC and to continue to receive love and support from gamers across India,” TAITRA vice president Simon Wang commented on the occasion of TEGC finale.
TEGC 2018 offered a versatile collection of games including PubG along with Dota2 and CS GO. The field was officially laid out on 16 July as the elimination rounds for the pan India championship began with an impressive line-up of cities including Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata.
Like other seasons of TEGC, this year also they had a mobile rig travelled all across India and gave people a glimpse into what the technology of Taiwan has in store for them. The participants at the finale mentioned that TEGC is class apart and no other competition could match its level because it provides players an experience of a lifetime. Even before the eliminations for the Cup started, TEGC had already reached out to people across India with TE Rig. This vehicle cruised its way into people’s hearts and minds providing first-hand experience on the best gaming products. It covered nearly the entire West, North and Eastern regions of India before returning to Mumbai. In its fifth year, TEGC popularity has grown rapidly. The first edition five years ago had seen 565 players and this year, the number has grown to 4,310 players. In conversation with AnimationXpress Wang expressed, “We believe not many such tournaments are going around India so we hope that this kind of tournament sponsored by TAITRA from Taiwan can be organised continuously and can upgrade or promote public awareness among Indian youths in the gaming industry. Today the teams have grown four times and participants have grown eight times which means that Indian youths have started noticing this area and also Indian government is trying to promote this industry .”
Considering the interest of youngsters in playing games, Taiwanese sponsors expressed to Wang that they have planned to invite the champions to visit Taiwan at the end of the year. This way they will encourage the champions to participate in the World Gaming Championship at Taiwan, end of the year. With this grand opportunity “Champions will experience the excitement of the world tournament, once these players go to Taiwan they become the heroes and become youth icon of the gaming industry in India. So I hope they will become key opinion leaders and youngsters could consider them as good examples” Wang added.
This year too, the biggest attraction featured some of the best gaming technology and gear during the finale celebrations from internationally recognized gaming brands in the world, including Acer, Adata, Asus, Avermedia, Coolermaster, D-link, Gigabyte, InWin, MSI, Silicon Power, Team Group, Thermaltake, Tokuyo, Transcend and Zowie. Taiwan – the Mecca of gaming – is home to these brands that are synonymous with advanced gaming technology.
At the 2018 grand finale, amount of 1 million was split among the teams. The winning teams of CS CO and Dota 2 (Entity Gaming and Signify) took home 0.2 million each, teams (God Particles and ROG Titans) won the second place with Rs 0.1 million each, and teams (Invictus and Wipeout) and teams (Daysleeperz and LXG ESports) winning the third and fourth place with .05 million each. Finishing fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth place winners, teams Elements and Ate Gaming, JHS and Uknowns Cartel, GOFigure and Standin5 , Kafan and Team Revolution respectively, took home .025 million each. Alongwith the cash prize, the winners also took home some amazing technology goodies from TEGC sponsor brands.
India is the second most popular country in the world with maximum age group below 30 years, opening opportunities for marketers considering the potentiality of the youth. Speaking on the occasion Wang said, “ In 2020 Asian games to be held in Hangzhou China, it is decided to put gaming as a regular competing genre. So it is a great opportunity for Indians to come up with the trend.”
With the rapid growth of AR and VR technology AnimationXpress questioned Wang about their plans to introduce AR VR in gaming cup, to which Wang replied that Taiwanese companies are continuously developing and experimenting this gaming genre, of which some of them has become pioneers. “So next time we might include AR and VR technology in the gaming cup where our intention will be- to draw more attention among Indian youths.”
Considering the opportunities, growth of players, brands’ interests and technology advancement in the gaming sector, we can predict that in the years to come, India will acquire a spectacular place in the world gaming teams.