World Cyber Games 2006 India Finals Coverage

26th September 2006, the D-day had finally arrived. With the preliminary and elimination rounds all over it was time to get to the business end of things. The WCG 2006 India Finals were being held at the World Trade Center in Mumbai.

The event kicked off promptly at around 10 in the morning. Right from the entrance to the hall where the finals were being held, one could feel the buzz and excitement in the air. All finalists were divided into 2 groups. Group A consisted of Pune, Chandigarh and Delhi; while Group B consisted of Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

First up was FIFA 06, which saw Mumbai’s Reuben Pereira dominate from the very beginning. Reuben is only 16 years old and really made the game look like child’s play. He played every match with team Brazil (clearly his favorite) to grab convincing wins over his opponents. His gameplay consisted of long passes among his wingers who would sprint the length of the field and cross the ball into the box, only to be headed for a goal almost every time.

Next in line was Warcraft and this year’s winner, Sagar Vaishnav (darkboi) really seemed to be possessed, because there was simply no stopping him as he waged war and crushed all his opponents ruthlessly and mercilessly. The speed at which the game was being played was amazing, and seemed more like an FPS rather a realtime strategy game.

With the pace of the event picking up, it was time to rev those rpm’s and burn some rubber. Everyone was glued to the screen as Need For Speed came alive on the big screen. This year’s champ Arun Singh Ravi had a few close calls, but kept his composure and his car on track as he outpaced his opponents. And even though all racers were allowed to race with only the Lotus Elise with no nitro, this guy put in some real flying laps.

The final event for the day was none other than the crowd favorite – Counter Strike. All teams meant business as they shot to kill and made every bullet count. As usual it was the noisiest event of the day, with both the players and the crowd sighing and screaming in unison. Both the teams to make it to the final round seemed to very pumped-up and full of skill. It was one of the most grueling and well matched encounters I have seen in a while. Both ATE (Accuracy, Teamwork and Experience) and xes made no retreat or surrender. Even after 30 rounds of extreme warfare the two teams could not be separated. This match seemed destined to go down to the wire, and you really wished one of them didn’t have to lose. But in a tiebreaker of best of 7 rounds, it was ATE who overshadowed their opponents by taking the win 4-2.

The event was concluded with a press conference followed by the prize distribution ceremony in which biggies such as Sanjay Sharma, VP-IT Business, Samsung India; Samir Bangara, Senior VP, Corporate and Business Development, Indiagames and special guest Bollywood actress Rimi Sen were present.

The eight victorious finalists will fly to ‘Autodromo National’, Monza, Italy between October 18 - 22, 2006, for the championship trophy and coveted award of USD 3, 50,000.

Mumbai players proved unbeatable on home turf as they won every game on their way to Monza. Go India!!! Bring the pride to our ground.

By Andrew D’Mello