Gamers Inc.

The International- DotA 2

2nd September 2012. All the DOTA fans worldwide held their breath as the Sentinel and the Scourge battled to defend their ancients. It was the concluding day of The International – Dota 2.

The weekend held pulse-raising excitement in Benaroya Hall in Seattle, Washington. As the teams planned and implemented battle strategies, the crowd cheered, roared, chanted and booed. Skilled heroes representing their respective teams showed the world how it is done best. It’s not every day that a million dollars’ worth of prize waits to be claimed by your hero. To add to it, the adrenalin that pumps through one’s fan-veins when one’s favorite player makes an amazing escape.

One such thrill-inducing moment of The International 2 was the game between Na’Vi and iG, the beautifully orchestrated play combined with the crowd’s reaction is enough to send shivers down your spine.

The final eight teams in the winners’ bracket included LGD-Gaming, Orange E-Sports, compLexity Gaming, Zenith, Invictus Gaming, Evil Geniuses, DK and Natus Vincere. All these teams fought each other in best of 3 matches in double elimination format. At stake was a million dollar first prize, a quarter-million dollar runner-up prize, $150,000 for third place, $80,000 for fourth place, $35,000 for fifth place and the same for sixth place, with the seventh and eighth placed teams each awarded $25,000 for the tournament.

The finals of both the Winners’ and Losers’ Brackets concluded on the final day. In the Losers’ Bracket, the final matchup was between LGD-GAMING and Invictus Gaming. Invictus Gaming scored the win, to catapult them into the Grand Final.
The winner of the Winners’ Bracket, Natus Vincere, and the winner of the Losers’ Bracket, Invictus Gaming, faced off in a Best of 5 game series. The all-important first game was won by Invictus Gaming, who then dropped the second match to Natus Vincere. The pivotal third game was won by Invictus Games, who then went on to win it all and be crowned the kings of The International – Dota 2!

Phew…after all that excitement, the weekend treat for our DotA fans finally came to its termination. But the fever only came out multiplied. Until next year…

Game Review

Game : Sleeping Dogs
Platform : PC, Xbox, PS3
Genre : Open-world action-adventure
Developer : United Front Games and Square Enix

Sleeping Dogs completely blew me away from the minute I started playing it. I was expecting a GTA like game with repetitive missions and useless violence (which are not bad things), but what I got transcends GTA in many areas. You play an undercover cop Shen, who is dragged deeper and deeper into the triad world. The story is engrossing, with you leaning on your seat to see what comes next. The graphics are smooth, but they won’t awe you. The hand-to-hand combat and the Hong Kong action setting provide plenty of thrills. But the area where Sleeping Dogs really shines the most is its storyline. The leveling up system is quite unique and fun. You have 3 areas where you earn experience – triad, cop and face. You earn triad points by being exceedingly violent and cop points by being careful and precise, i.e not GTA. Face points are earned by doing favours around the city of Hong Kong. Side quests like carjacking, street racing and singing karaoke are fun and great for passing time. The option of replaying missions lets you play the mission as many times as you want, if you don’t like the outcome. The 20-hour plus amazing gameplay makes Sleeping Dogs worth the cash. I believe that this is one game that is going to give the upcoming GTA 5 a run for its money.