Nine cyber athletes to represent RP in WCG 2005

Following months of intense competition in the national preliminaries, nine cyber athletes have earned bragging rights and the championship titles in the Samsung Cyber Games 2005.

The winners: Israel Magante, champion, Need for Speed Underground 2; Byron Bongon, champion, Starcraft; Horsemen Of the Apocalypse (Kris Romillo, Justin Chan, Kenichi Enda, Arvin Agbisit, and Paolo Nancho), champion, Counterstrike: Source; John Cruz, champion, Warcraft; and Arby Jao, first runner-up, Warcraft.

The individual champions each won P30,000 in cash and Samsung mobile phones, while the Horsemen of the Apocalypse received P150,000 for the entire group and a Samsung mobile phone for each member.

Aside from the prize money, the nine cyber athletes will represent the Philippines in the World Cyber Games grand finals in Singapore on Nov. 16-20, where they will compete with other champions from 70 countries.

Spencer Shim, president and chief executive officer of Samsung Electronics Philippines Corp., personally handed over the checks to the winners during the awarding ceremonies. Samsung is the global sponsor of World Cyber Games (WCG) 2005.

"Samsung is proud of the achievement of our young cyber athletes," Shim said. "We have a high regard for this competition and we feel it is a good vehicle to promote a healthy interest in technology among the new generation."

This is the fourth year that the Philippines is sending a contingent to the WCG. Last year, the grand finals were held in San Francisco, California. In 2003 and 2002, the games were held in South Korea.

The WCG is the world’s biggest and most prestigious gaming festival designed to build a healthy cyber culture. The best gamers from around the world gather in different cities to share the excitement and fun of the gaming tournaments.

The WCG also organizes a conference on the game business and an exhibition for game industry leaders and companies to look into the past and future of the game industry.