ESL Heads to Manila on April 2016 with a $250,000 DOTA 2 Tournament

ESL, which is considered to be the world's largest esports company, is heading to the Philippines to bring ESL One Manila. Together with PLDT Fibr & Smart GameX, this South East Asian tournament will take place from April 23-24 2016 in the Mall of Asia Arena. lrich Schulze, VP of Pro Gaming at ESL, said of the announcement:

"ESL has been eager to bring ESL One to South East Asia, and with the Philippines’ rich Dota 2 history, we couldn’t think of a better place,” said Ulrich Schulze, VP Pro Gaming at ESL. “ESL One Manila by PLDT Fibr & Smart GameX will make history as the region’s largest esports competition to date, and we’re confident we can deliver a world-class experience to local and international fans both at the venue and online."

ESL One Manila by PLDT Fibr & Smart GameX marks a prize money milestone of US$750,000 in relation to ESL’s promise to pledge one million dollars in Dota 2 prize money over a twelve month period. The ESL One tournament series has taken Dota 2 to iconic locations such as the 2006 football World Cup stadium in Frankfurt, Commerzbank-Arena, and the famed Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York, both of which have been pioneering in their own right. ESL One Manila by PLDT Fibr & Smart GameX in the Mall of Asia Arena is set to be South East Asia’s largest esports event to date and will be ESL One’s first appearance on the Asian continent.

Tickets to ESL One Manila will go on sale starting December 8, 2015 at 6PM (GMT+8) at SMTICKETS and SMTICKETS outlets nationwide and will have a series of ticket choices:

• Weekend General Admission (P500)
  • 2-day access (Saturday April 23rd AND Sunday April 24th)
  • Seating in the upper ring of the arena
• Weekend Ticket Upper Rank (P1000)
  • 2-day access (Saturday April 23rd AND Sunday April 24th)
  • Seating in the middle box of the arena
• Weekend Ticket Lower Rank (P1500)
  • 2-day access (Saturday April 23rd AND Sunday April 24th)
  • Seating in the lower box of the arena
• Premium tickets (P5000)
  • Entry for Saturday April 23rd AND Sunday April 24th
  • Free food and drinks
  • Goodie Bag
  • Exclusive signing sessions
  • Premium seating in front of the stage

The competition will feature the top Dota 2 teams in the world, with a place reserved and dedicated for a local Filipino team.

ESL has provided a good amount of online and offline competitions. They brought big events such as the Intel® Extreme Masters, ESL One, ESL Pro Leagues, and StarCraft® II World Championship Series.

This is great news as we wrap up 2015, making 2016 a great year for eSports in the country. With the Philippines' growing Dota 2 community, it was only a matter of time that big organizations such as ESL would take notice and provide a huge competition inthe region such as ESL One Manila.

[Source:ESL One Manila]

Getting sucked In By amazing Steam Sales

Just when I said I'm done getting new games in 2011, I see myself with three new games on my PC.  I honestly had no plans on getting it but great sales and pure luck got the best of me. Hey, not really complaining. Bastion and Dungeon Defenders where two games I've always had an interest in. When I saw the huge sale for each game while exploring their Steam Holiday Sale, I couldn't help it. Oh and to top that off I got access to the Dota 2 beta. Win!

What a way to end 2011. With just 367 pesos($8.75) spent, I have three new games to seek my teeth in. I first got bastion on its one day sale in Steam for five bucks, then the next day Dungeon Defenders was on a one day sale for only 3 bucks. With Bastion turning out to be an amazing game and how addicting Dungeon Defenders is, its money well spent.

Bastion - A superb indie game

I finished Bastion the next day and it's literally a masterpiece. This indie game just blew me away. The narration, solid gameplay, and satisfying RPG elements just made Bastion one of the best games coming out of 2011. I want to talk a bit more if bastion but I'll save it for when I make a full review post. It should be back to 15 bucks on all platforms, but it's worth the buy.

I actually played most of my first playthrough on our live streaming channel. Apparently my PC can take streaming and Bastion running all at once. Yes, my PC isn't that strong anymore and a hardware update is long overdue. Quality is indeed not the best but it will get better in the future. Not shelving the game just yet, I'm still playing my second playthrough on New Game Plus with all idols activated at the start of the game(hardest difficulty) and will be streaming that as well so look out for that. Already started and I believe I'm halfway done already. The game is only 4-5 hours  really.

Dungeon Defenders - Tower Defense + Diablo/Borderlands style loot + RPG elements + 4 player co-op = WIN

It was past midnight and the Steam Holiday Sale showed their next one day sales for the day. One of it was Dungeon Defenders at $3.75. Just that much for a game I was considering to get on the Xbox 360 at 15 bucks? I just clicked it and bought the damn game. Thats just 158 pesos for countless hours of game play. The bold description above says it all on what Dungeon Defenders is all about. Max level is 70 and you have four classes to choose from with a couple more classes if you choose to get the DLC. I didin't bother with the DLC(downloadable Content) since they haven't applied any discount on the DLC. It was still priced higher than the actual game. That's how crazy the deal was, because it was literally a 77% discount.

I'm playing the mage class and only at level 11 so I won't say much about the game yet, but so far so good. It's easy to pair up with players, and a level seems to last around 30 minutes to an hour. I was enjoying Dungeon Defenders until I got lucky with Steam's The Great Gift Pile that gives you a chance of winning coupons and actual games when completing achievements given every day until new years.

Dota 2 Beta thanks to The Great Gift Pile

I wasn't really paying attention to this. When I saw a few achievements that are just flat out easy and can be done through the Steam, so I said why not. When I say easy I mean tasks like - Recommend a game, or join a community. Pretty much asking you to be active in the Steam community. The rest of the achievemnts are based on certain game achievements, and most of the games with achievements that I need to get a gift I don't own. I bet Steam was able to lure people into buying certain games just to unlock these achievements and earn some gifts. I didn't bother.

Out of all the achievements currently given, I was able to do seven of them. Each achievement earns you either a lump of coal or a gift. The gift has a chance of giving you discount coupons or actual games. The lump of coal can be converted into a gift if you already have seven in total. those seven achievements earned me five lumps of coal, two discount coupons for Valve games, and access to Dota 2. It came as a gift and I instantly unpacked it to claim as my own. I played a lot of Dota during my college days and seeing how the sequel is shaping up first-hand is an amazing reward.

So far I got into four games of Dota 2. I'll make an impression post as soon as I do a few more matches but it's literally Dota with better graphics. Not sure if this should be called a sequel. There's really no change to the gameplay and even the old heroes play the same. I haven't even seen a new hero added that was not in the first game's roster. The only change they did to the roster was certain names to heroes since Dota 2 isn't involved with Blizzard anymore. Even skill names are different. They all perform the same way just like the old game. They must have changed it to avoid copyright issues when released.

I see a leveling system for your account but it looks like it's disabled for now. because after four games I'm still at level one with 0 experienced earned. What do you get as you level? have no idea yet, we'll see when they introduce the feature.

matchmaking is pretty awful at the moment. It literally takes 15 minutes to get a game going. I know it's a beta after all, but I keep thinking I should have spent that 15 minutes on somewhere else.

Check out Steam's holiday sale by visiting Steam's site. Also, if you have a Steam account, why not participate and do those easy achievements that will only take a few minutes to do. You never know, you might get something interesting from the gifts.

FIRST BLOOD! DOTA 2 Trailer is Finally Here!

What does a hero truly need? The first official DOTA 2 Gamescom trailer is finally here. DOTA 2 is a stand-alone sequel to the popular Warcraft III: Frozen Throne custom map created by "IceFrog", Defense of the Ancients. DOTA 2 is developed by Valve Corporation and will be distributed through Steam. Watch the first official trailer below.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cSFPIwMEq4]

DOTA 2 will be making its public debut at GamesCom that will be held in Cologne, Germany on August 17. Team ASUS Mineski.Infinity will represent the Philippines to compete for the $1 Million prize at the International DOTA 2 Championships.

DOTA 2 will be released this year and will be available for PC and Mac OS X.

DOTA 2 Leaked Screenshots: