THE gaming world's Olympic event, the World Cyber Games (WCG), is here again.
The Asian edition, called the World Cyber Games 2009 Asian Championship, will be held at Suntec Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Centre from July 4 to 5.
The tournament - one of Asia's biggest - will see over 110 champions from 14 countries like South Korea, the Philippines and Australia fighting for bragging rights in games like Team Fortress 2.
Singapore ranks 17 out of 83 countries and territories on the WCG website. South Korea holds top spot.
The Singapore Finals will be held at the same venue on July 3.
About 600 gamers will battle to represent the Republic at the grand finals, held in Chengdu, China, this year.
Calling gaming a 'serious business', Ms Cassandra Tay, the Media Development Authority's (MDA) director of communications and community and international relations, said: 'The MDA has supported the WCG Asian Championship for four consecutive years, attesting to Singapore's aspirations to be a regional gaming hub.'
WCG's director of marketing division, Mr Jason Ahn, said contestants can 'look forward to even more games'.
Cybergame whizzes get to pit their skills against each other for 15 titles, up from eight in last year's Singapore Finals.
They include three locally developed online games: Stwack!!; Groword; and Sushi-do. There is also a mobile game, Wisestar 2.
Fans of first-person shooter games can outgun the competition in titles like Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2 and Blackshot.
About 800 players from 78 countries participated in the WCG 2008 Grand Final in Cologne, Germany, last year.
Singapore struck gold for the first time at the event, when Mr Jared Beins, 20, outraced Mr Steven Anderson from the United States in mobile- phone racing game Asphalt 4. A silver medal was also won by Mr Danny Koo, 28, when he beat his opponent at fighting game Virtua Fighter 5.
The Asian Championship will also be a platform to showcase top-end gaming products, such as powerful computers by companies like Samsung, Intel and Dell.
