Telkom DoGaming League Finals not at rAge this year
DoGaming has announced via its news portal that the final of their 2010 leagues will not be held at rAge, as has become customary in recent years.
“Telkom Do Gaming had intended to run the Do Gaming LAN Championships at the rAge expo, which has been the case for the last two years. Last year, Telkom Do Gaming paid for gamers’ LAN tickets and had intended to do so once more. However, the rAge expo could not offer a block booking for the LAN, which meant that the only way to hold a competition would be for gamers to buy the tickets themselves.”
This raised numerous problems for the league, as tickets sell out very quickly, and some league players may not have been able to get their hands on LAN tickets. Even if all players did manage to all get their own tickets, seating is allocated on a first come first serve basis, meaning that league players would be scattered across the LAN.
On the plus side, Telkom DoGaming has decided to spend the R200,000 it would have spent on tickets on prize money to be spread across the leagues and divisions. The championships will now be played online.
“Telkom Do Gaming regrets that the Do Gaming Championships could not be held in LAN format, as we are aware many gamers see it as the ultimate test of skill. Details of the Championships along with the prize money breakdown will be released in the near future.”
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Comments (6 posted): Comments (6 posted):
Subscribe to comments feedWe only learned of this quite late on Friday afternoon. It was impossible to get any comment at that stage, but we will follow up next week.
Blame the idiots at DoGaming.
They only inquired about a block on TUESDAY this week.
SA Gaming is (F)(A)(I)(L)
"Hi there,
I’ll be more than happy to fill in the gaps. The article on the site doesn’t tell the whole story and the problem is no matter how I answer this it’s going to look like blame shifting or whatever is read into it, but that’s always about perception. It’s important to remember that everyone involved is always trying to give the gamers the best possible experience because it’s good for the whole industry and that’s good for everyone.
The root of the issue is that the request for tickets to us was only made on Wednesday afternoon – this was 4 days before the tickets for the NAG LAN went on sale at Computicket (1 August 2010). I was not able to make any changes with Computicket in enough time (they have various contracts in place to protect the buyers and it would have required meetings, approvals and so on) to ensure that the tickets were secured. In terms of blame – as much as everyone loves a scapegoat there isn’t one in this case. It was just a timing issue that involved too many players and logistics to solve quickly – The NAG LAN and rAge are rather large and complicated events.
I can’t speak for Do Gaming about rAge 2011 but we’re always open to anything that will grow the industry. Remember, rAge is simply an event and is not affiliated to any competition or competitive gaming organisation.
Hope this answers your questions and sorry for any disappointment – everyone on our side did everything they could to make it happen.
Later,
Michael James
rAge Expo"