THE MANILA MAJOR- A DOTA 2 TOURNAMENT WHERE THE EVENT TAKES PLACE IN MANILA, PHILIPPINES

           

             
The MANILA MAJOR is just one of the tournaments that the game DOTA 2 competition created. Manila has been chosen to host a tournament because of the love and enthusiasm of Filipino’s to the game and the qualification of Filipino Teams to compete in the tournament. Although DOTA 2 is just a game the money that the competitors will win if they become the champion is worth $1,100,000, so for the teams that will be playing in the tournaments, they take DOTA 2 seriously by showing incredible plays and teamwork that a team can be able to perform if they have a goal in mind.

         

              The Manila Major is the third event of Valve’s DOTA MAJOR CHAMPIONSHIPS the venue takes place at the Mall of Asia Arena in Manila, Philippines. DOTA 2 is also considered as an ESPORTS or Electronic Sports because the game can produce sportsmanship, teamwork, trust and can be also compare to the game Chess because a strategy is also needed to win the game. The venue and the set up for the game is incredible, you can watch the game in a giant screen on the middle of the arena just like your just watching a video in a screen but the difference is that it’s live and you can feel the intensity and the joy of the team and the viewers. All teams are set their eyes to the trophy which is the Eagle Song an item on DOTA 2 that’s been produce in the tournament as the trophy.

             It’s been a long preparation to just be in the tournament because 8 regions have to compete first to be the representative of each region. First the Open Qualifiers:

§  Open Qualifiers - April 29th - May 2nd, 2016

§  Eight Regional Single-elimination Open Qualifiers, two brackets for each region.

§  The winners of each Regional Qualifier will advance to the respective Main Qualifier.

§  Main Qualifiers - May 3rd - May 6th, 2016

§  Four Regional Qualifiers.

§  Two groups of five teams, with the top two teams of each group advancing to the Regional Double-elimination Playoff Bracket.

§  The winner of each Regional Playoff Bracket will join the twelve directly invited teams in Manila.

§  Group Stage - June 3rd - June 4th, 2016

§  Four groups of four teams

§  Double-elimination format with matches played in a best-of-three.

§  Top two teams in each group advance to upper bracket of the Main Event.

§  Bottom two teams in each group advance to lower bracket of the Main Event.

§  Main Event - June 7th - June 12th, 2016

§  Teams are seeded into a double-elimination bracket after the Group Stage.

§  Eight teams begin in the upper bracket, eight in the lower bracket.

§  The first round matches of the Lower Bracket are best-of-one elimination.

§  All other games are Best-of-Three with best-of-five grand finals.

               The game emerges successful as Team OG won the championship against Team Liquid and takes home $1,100,000 and for the 2^nd placer roughly $405,000 for the 3^rd placer $315,000 and for the 4^th placer $255,000. As for the team that the Philippines represent Team Mineski and Team TNC Pro they both lost and unable to move to the next stage but still it’s a pleasure for them to play in the big stage and represent the SEA Region and the Philippines.

LEFT 4 DEAD: THE PERFECT GAME FOR ZOMBIE FANATICS AND A GOOD WAY OF EXPERIENCING ADRENALINE RUSH.

                  This game gives me nightmare and makes a good feeling of adrenaline rush. Left 4 dead is a 4 person game where there are just 4 survivors that need to survive and get to the safe place in the game, to do that the 4 players need to defeat or run for their lives just to get to that safe place but running alone is not an option you also need teamwork and assist each other to be able to survive by doing that you can achieve more chance of surviving the game. 

                  Especially this game has its unique zombie characters whereas there’s Hunter a zombie that will jump out of nowhere and you can’t shoot it so you’ll need the help of your teammates, Tanker as the name says Tanker is a little bit too tanky and have a destructing powers because of its big muscles that been able for it to toss big rocks and smash survivors, Smoker a common zombie with just a long tongue that can wrap to the survivor that may cause the survivor to choke and be killed by other zombies, Witch I suggest that its better if you could avoid this type of zombie because anyone that shoots or startled the witch may be fatal in just one strike and lastly the Boomer a fat puking zombie that its mere puke can attract other zombie and cause blindness for the player. It can also be played solo with the help of 3 Artificial Intelligence players but unlike every other game this game has its goal and its finale.

 According to:Left 4 Dead Blog

If you are a fan of the Silent Hill and Resident Evil series, you might want to give Left 4 Dead a try. Unlike the aforementioned games, L4D is a cooperative game. As the name suggests, you are playing as one of the survivors against a horde of infected people/zombies after what seems to be an apocalyptic pandemic. There are also five special infected characters in the game, which are significantly stronger than the usual enemies, namely the Boomer, the Hunter, the Smoker, the Tank, and the Witch. Because it is a cooperative game, there are many features which are not available in your usual FPS game such as seeing colored outlines of teammates to see where they are even through walls, as well as the ability to help and tend to the wounds of teammates.

SPECIAL FORCE- ONLINE SHOOTING GAME THAT COMES WITH SOLDIER RANKINGS AS LEVELS

                This game is the typical shooting game as counter strike the difference is that counter strike is an offline game or LAN game while Special Force is an online game. Special Force has the more high rating than counter strike because of the graphics of it being an Online Game; however Counter Strike doesn’t require good specifications while Special Force has specifications when it comes to graphic content and internet speed. One more advantage of Special Force is that it has an arcade game and new concept of shooting game; Horror Mode where the player can be the human or zombie, humans need to survive by killing zombies or not to be killed by the zombies for 3 mins while the zombie player need to kill all human players. 

              

               What’s good in this game is that there is no AI or Artificial Intelligence that is just programmed with an skill pattern, so the game can be more exciting because you can meet people and be the best and also a good game to get hype and get a good adrenaline rush. To identify the best players to newbies or noobs this game comes up with Soldier rankings as their level so the highest ranking for this game or the highest level is the Star, but for this game rankings are just intimidating but it doesn’t determine whether how good a player is. Ranking is just a ranking as they say.

According to: Special Force

More popularly known by its acronym SF, Special Force is developed by Dragonfly, a South Korean developer. It’s operated by the publisher NetmarblePhils in this country. It has multiple game modes where players are either part of the Red Team or the Blue Team. These teams are not available in single battle, horror, and training mode. SF implements a capping of their frames-per-second rate. In-game, there is a capping of 32 fps while a capping of 40fps is implemented in the lobby.

NBA 2K15 - Where you can do NBA moves like CROSSOVER SHAMGOD, but just in this game.

A Perfect game to produce friendship and rivalry when it comes to basketball. A 5v5 game that you can play with your favorite team as your players, and do moves that you want to do in reality and apply it on the game, coach the game and do strategize moves and amazing plays.

NBA 2K15 is a basketball simulation video game developed by Visual Concepts and published by 2K Sports. It is the sixteenth installment in the NBA 2K franchise and the successor to NBA 2K14. Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder cover player of NBA 2K15.

With a steep learning curve, not to mention a complete lack of meaningful tutorial or practice modes, NBA 2K15 isn't the most beginner-friendly entry in 2K Sports' basketball franchise. No one (and I mean no one) should be forced to get their teeth kicked in by Miami's "Big Three" -- the demo game at the beginning of NBA 2K15 is based on Game 7 of last year's NBA Finals -- over and over again without any explanation for putting them in such a predicament. 

As someone who’s playing sports games all that often anymore, I'd forgotten how difficult it can be to jump back into a genre that grows and changes almost as quickly as the professional sport that it's based on.

Those with little patience for learning new mechanics are likely to find frustration during their early moments with NBA 2K15, but the payoff is there. The moment you realize you're becoming a master of the virtual court is as rewarding as any I've experienced in any game of any genre. I'm actually having trouble putting NBA 2K15 down long enough to review the rest of the games coming out this holiday season.

COUNTER STRIKE- “PAMBANSANG SHOOTING GAME AT CHILDHOOD GAMES NG MGA PEENOISE”

                 One of the games that every Filipino gamer has ever played, this game is like the first game that all Filipinos have play before any game because of the controls W,A,S,D on the keyboard that made the game more easy to play W to walk A to walk to the left S to walk backwards and D to walk to the right. Also this game can be played as a team; you are allowed to pick different maps but de_dust and deathmatch maps are the top choice of every counter strike gamer. Many gamer use counter strike as a form of gambling where there is money involved if a team wins the game or scored the most so many gamers have to form a strategy to win. 

                  This is also the first game that comes to my mind whenever a computer game takes place, and this game is easy to play because of its accessible and low specifications for pc gamers. But in this current day many FPS (First Person Shooter) games have occurred and the graphics and game environment is more advanced and more good, so the game Counter Strike has been considered to be just a child’s game maybe because of Online shooting games that the graphics of Counter Strike considered to be some kind of old fashioned game but many Online shooting games got the concept of their game through Counter Strike.

 According to:Counterstrike: Global Offensive

If you are a gamer in the Philippines and you have no idea what Counter-Strike is, I will assume that you are very new. Counter-Strike (also referred to as CS or Counter in the Philippines) is one of the most popular computer café games in the Philippines. Its earlier versions can still be found in most computer cafés, as well as the online versions. Counter-Strike is originally a Half-Life modification and was later on developed by Valve, the creator of Half-Life. The concept is pretty simple. You choose between two camps: terrorist and counter-terrorist. Depending on the map, you can win the game by successfully planting or setting off a bomb (terrorist), or defusing the bomb or rescuing hostages (counter-terrorist). Or you can just kill everyone on the enemy’s team. It works just as fine on any map anyway.

POGO (Pokemon Go) – Gotta Catch Em All

            A game that originated in just playing at Gameboys where the character is just moving in a map that is based on the Pokemon Story, this game hooked many gamer because of the concept of the game where you need to catch all pokemon and make your pokemons become stronger by challenging pokemon gyms and trainers. But in this July 2016 Niantic has released the game Pokemon Go that you can play on the smartphones and IOS phone, although the map in this game is the real world and pokemons are lurking just around the corner it also needs internet connection and GPS (Global Positioning System). 

         The game became popular because of the games concept that you need to explore and walk through different places to encounter different types of pokemons and to gain experience, pokemon balls, and potions by visiting Pokemon stops that you’ll see on different landmarks or business establishments near you.

Certain screenshots of the game on my phone:

 According to www.en.wikipedia.com

Pokémon Go (stylized as Pokémon GO) is a free-to-play, location-based augmented reality game developed by Niantic for iOS,Android, and Apple Watch devices. The game is the result of collaboration between Niantic and The Pokémon Company, and was initially released in selected countries in July 2016. In the game, players use a mobile device's GPS capability to locate, capture, battle, and train virtual creatures, called Pokémon, who appear on the screen as if they were in the same real-world location as the player. The game supports in-app purchases for additional in-game items.

Pokémon Go was released to mixed reviews, with critics praising the game's concept and the incentive to be more active in the real world, while criticizing frequent technical issues apparent at launch. Despite such reviews, it quickly became a global phenomenon and was one of the most used and profitable mobile apps in 2016, having been downloaded more than 500 million times worldwide. It was credited with popularizing location-based and augmented reality technology, promoting physical activity, and helping local businesses grow via foot traffic. However, it also attracted controversy for contributing to various accidents, as well as becoming a public nuisance at some locations. Various governments also expressed concerns over the security of the game, with some countries passing legislation to regulate its use.

MINECRAFT- Construction begins!!!

                     Minecraft is a sandbox construction game. Gameplay involves players interacting with the game world by placing and breaking various types of blocks in a three dimensional environment. In this environment, players can build creative structures, creations, and artwork on multiplayer servers and single player worlds across multiple game modes.

                     The computer edition of Minecraft is available to all players using downloadable stand-alone launcher. The official demo is free, but has a time limit. Minecraft development started around May 10, 2009, and pre-orders for the full game started being accepted on June 13, 2009. Minecraft's official release date was November 18, 2011. On September 20, 2014, Minecraft for the computer became the best-selling PC game of all time. On August 2, 2016, Minecraft for the computer reached 24 million sales.

                    On August 16, 2011, Minecraft: Pocket Edition was released for the Sony Experia Play gaming smartphone. After its exclusivity with Sony expired, it was released for Android devices on October 7, 2011, and iOS devices on November 17, 2011 for US$6.99. The Pocket Edition was adapted for the Amazon Fire TV on April 2, 2014, supporting the Fire TV's controller, and also released for the Windows Phone 8.1 on December 10, 2014. On December 1, 2016, 

                    After a beta testing period, Minecraft: Education Edition was released on November 1, 2016. The Education Edition contains features that make Minecraft more accessible and effective in a classroom setting.