The Davao Cyber Expo 2007: Davao Cyber Games DoTA Championships (DCE-DCG) held last July 4, 5, and 6, 2007 at the NCCC Mall of Davao City was indeed a big success but marred by much problems and controversy. Organizers Kitsi Avila, Lester Avila and TJ (?) of E2 Events conceptualized the event to raise the level of gaming in the city to a professional one. Although the event may be considered as a success, it still begs the answer to the question that started it all: “Is professional gaming possible in Davao City?” I do not claim to be a veteran gamer, but I believe I can provide more than my two cents worth to this issue.
Dictionary.com lists the following definitions of a professional:
- following an occupation as a means of livelihood or for gain
- following as a business an occupation ordinarily engaged in as a pastime
- a person who earns a living in a sport or other occupation frequently engaged in by amateurs
While it is laudable that the organizers provided a DoTA Constitution for the players, I question why it was authored by a player who was actively participating in the tournament, and affiliated with more than one team. Although there is technically nothing wrong with that, it would have been a more credible constitution had the author been somebody perceived to be impartial, unbiased and with no direct or indirect interest in the outcome of the tournament.
Moreover, the rules stated in the said constitution were erractically and inconsistently implemented. When my team joined one of the first cafe eliminations at the earlier part of the tournament, the teams were made to play one set against each other in the first round. However, in subsequent cafe eliminations, first round eliminations only consisted of single game matches. There were also times in the course of the entire tournament when the “no coaching” rule was not implemented. Inconsistencies regarding the use of pause, and the saving and loading of games were also observable.
Another problem that consistently cropped up during the eliminations was the lack of respect for time and schedule by the players, and the organizers and marshalls alike. Although delays due to technical problems are acceptable, other schedule delays do not reflect well on the commitment of those involved to raise the level of gaming to a professional level.
The above mentioned problems and other such problems are, to a certain extent, understandable and acceptable given that the DCE-DCG 2007 is the first one of its kind. However, what is really striking for me are the blatant violations of the “trashtalking rule.” Article 5 of the DoTA Constitution explicitly states that unsportmanlike behavior, including “excessive shouting” and “any act of disrespect” by the players and teams are causes for disqualification. Despite the heated exchange of words and excessive trashtalking of some teams, not one team was reprimanded, warned, or disqualified due to it. Yes, trashtalking is part of the game. But in order to promote and harbor professional gaming in the city, the gamers themselves must act and play like professionals.
What sets a professional gamer apart from a gamer is how he conducts himself. Being a professional gamer does not only imply earning money from the sport. Rather, it entails discipline and commitment to the betterment rather than stagnation of the sport. What was very disappointing for me was the team that initiated the trashtalking was the best team in the city, the team that already represented the city, and considered by many as professional gamers. It is also frustrating to be at the other end of the trashtalking, while the officials do almost nothing to control the situation.
These aside, there are many other problems and hurdles that the local gaming community has to overcome in order to achieve what it has set out to do. Undeniably, schools and parents are one hurdle that is very difficult to overcome. The perception is gaming is a fruitless endeavor. This might be true for most cases, as most students abandon their studies in order to engage in gaming activities. For this perception to be eased out of the public consciousness, gamers should conduct themselves properly by putting their priorities in order.
Another hurdle that the community has to contend with is the lack of government and corporate support. Luckily for the local gaming community, Davao City officials supported DCE-DCG 2007, and Councilor Leo Avila and the Davao City Government provided financially and logistical support to the event. Councilor Avila even provided excuse letters for the championship participants so they may attend the event.
There were also very limited corporate sponsors to the event. This situation can be easily changed with a constant stream of related activities that would boost the community’s media mileage and marketability.
Unfortunately, even some local gaming cafes do not amply support the cause. In fact, several cafes backed out of sponsoring their championship teams, forcing some cafes to sponsor more than one team. Congratulations are in order for the gaming cafes that supported the event: Sequel and Blinque who each fielded two teams, NetExpress, Alizone Internet Cafe 2, BoyzTrek Cafe, Cindrew’s Net Cafe, Cybermix Internet Cafe, Darth Gamers, FRB Internet and Business Center, Hyper Bits and Bytes Internet Cafe, Intertouch Cafe, Jimber’s Internet Cafe, Macy’s Cafe, and Monster Modz Area 64.
Despite the problems, the hurdles, and the difficulties, the DCE-DCG can be considered a big success at many different levels. For one, it challenged a lot of gamers and teams to professionalize and improve their gaming skills. Another important goal it achieved was to increase awareness and promote enthusiasm in the city regarding the campaign to encourage professional gaming. Finally, the event has built a friendly community of gamers ready to assist and support each other, despite the quest to best each other.
So, is professional gaming possible in Davao City? Yes, but we definitely have a long way to go. The tournament might be over, but the journey is still beginning. The more pertinent question is… are you ready to enjoy the ride? I am. NAAAKS! Your thoughts please.
A related video: WCG Philippines Chief Organizer Tjader Regis
very well said ria.. i am ready to enjoy the ride too! ^^
There was a major bias towards the “winners” of this competition. Fortunately for them, I’m not the one writing this article. I seriously don’t think the “winners” are the best team in the city because of the way they behaved, that is, like foul-mouthed, uneducated lemmings. They went totally against what the organizers are trying to foster here in the city. And to think they “won” just because it was late and everyone was sick of them. So I dunno about the “friendly community” you’re talking about, because from what I surmise, it’s been all about who trashtalks the best and who wins the bet. Changes should start from within the gaming atmosphere, Ria. Get rid of the “gang” mentality and start becoming professionals!
well, professional gaming is possible.. as for the tourney… i dont think it is biased, he helped authored the constitution, but the decisions were still ours… rules are implemented if we help each other…
the fight is still not over… it is too soon to declare who’s the best team in VISMIN, that is only one tourney…. and a lot more to go…
I’ve won my share of Dota tourneys(all thanks to my mentor) and not one game was free from trash talking. My team was one of the loudest even, but whenever we curse(LOUDLY), we do not curse the opponents(most of the time), but rather the situation as a stress reliever. At the end of the day, all of us shake hands and congratulate the winner(if we didn’t win) and everyone who participated for a good game.
@Lester, although the event was a successful one, it is undeniable that there were bumps along the way which are understandable coz it was the first one. I just hope we all learned from the experience.
First of all, thank you for posting your thoughts. It’s a big help for us the organizers to get outside perspective of the event.
It’s true that there were some hurdles, changes, and other inconsistencies along the way, and it does seem chaotic. But before you conclude publicly and raise “unprofessional” flags on the event organizers or event itself, why not talk to us the organizers to understand why things happened that way?
I say this because such blatant one sided comments presented in a “well made” article such as this, does a lot of damage to the credibility we are trying to impose.
As one of the caretakers of DCE/DCG and visionaries of a healthy well supported gaming culture in davao, I have to say something about this.
For one, you questioned why the author of the constitution was a member of a team participating in the event.
– obviously, we needed a very well experienced DOTA player to write the rules, one that will put a lot of time into it, and one that can easily be reached, etc.. Rioren was one of the best candidates for this and willing to spend time and effort on it.
– now why not someone who is NOT part of a team? Ma’am dont you think most of the BEST players in dota who are candidates for this task will most likely be participating in this huge event? And even if we find one that is not participating now, would he/she accept the fact that if he/she authored the core constitution, he/she can never participate in any DCG-DOTA competition????
– lastly, the constitution is not 100% written by him, it comes from different rule sets and concepts such as the WCG, and other popular tournament systems, which has become widely accepted. Further more, we the game marshals, as well as the organizers made revisions and added our own elements as we see fitting.
– i can list so much more.. but the real question is, WHY NOT JUST ASK US why things are and then write a TWO-SIDED article. .. instead of smudging the “professionalism” and “credibility” of the DCG? Because it’s cleverly written and publicized irresponsible comments like these from people, writers,or the press that sends a bad impression of the event to the general public, and YOU ma’m Ria are one who we least expected would tarnish the reputation we have established and de-value all the hard work and sleepless nights we’ve gone through.
Another example? You’re sighting unprofessional inconsistencies in the eliminations, where others had 3 rounds while others had 1 round only.
– again, there are so many things that took place that you dont even know about. We as “professionals” adjusted to them appropriately, and i don’t see anything wrong with our course of actions, which were fruits from long discussions of several parties.
– there are so many reasons why there were round differences in the different elimination grounds, from time constraints, technical problems, and even FUNDING. You have no idea how much we have already financially sacrificed for this event.
About professionalism in general… there are more to PROFESSIONALISM than what is in the dictionary. I believe road bumps that has transpired can not be avoided, if it it were, there are some other things that will go wrong. But if you judge professionalism by perfection, there is no such a thing. I see professionalism as being professional in the face of imperfections. And that’s what we all exercised IMO.
There are so much more i wish to sight for everyone here in defense of my fellow hard working organizers, and marshals, but i will stop here.
While you have pointed out some very good facts for us to reflect on, there are just some stuffs in here that I PERSONALLY can not swallow, specially from you ma’am Ria, whom i thought, of all people, would understand.
If you need to ask questions, before you write your articles, please, ring us, ring any of the marshals. If you do, perhaps, just maybe, you will be enlightened, and your readers can be as well.
Than you
TJ Elmore
DCE/DCG Organizer
DCE/DCG IT Specialist
“sight”, did he mean “cite”?
Teaj, if you read the article more carefully, Ria did say the event was a big success. I also believe there was a lot of inconsistencies in the competition and I question why the trashtalking and coaching rules were never enforced, which you didn’t dwell on. Note that Ria is not a journalist, but a blogger who has the right to her own opinions. I know for a fact that she was very, very enthusiastic about your event and was there in almost every elimination. Until now she’s talking rabidly about it, even though we’ve stopped listening. The best thing for you to do now is LEARN from your mistakes rather than perform damage control. Don’t worry about your organization’s reputation, it hasn’t been tarnished, trust me. You did a great job. But again, you’ve made many mistakes, learn from them, ayt?!
@Yre
i’m not a writer, nor doing an english paper, and lastly i am know to make one too many mistakes of these kinds.. alrite? or..
@Andrew
I see your point and we’ll definitely learn from the GOOD and BAD things that happened in our event. But the points i “cited” (for the english teacher up three) in my post are just some of the stuffs i really wanted cleared up..
and lastly, i’ve seen blogs of different kinds, of this event or others, and it’s alright really, it’s expected.. from 13 yo bloggers to unrational grownups.. but just that i didnt expect this type of article from someone who I thought was atleast “close” to the organizing committee, being one of the official bloggers of the event..
anyway, thanks much, and rest assured we’ve learned from everything.. till the next DCE or DCG event. 🙂 peace
Tea, like I said, she’s a blogger. If somebody spills coffee on her shirt, she’s bound to write about it. Even if she’s “close” to you, it would be unfair to expect only a glowing review from her. But what you failed to see are the good AND the bad that she wrote above. She has in fact written a pretty great article about your event on another site. You might want to check that out. Good that you’ve learned from everything. Next time though, invite some bloggers over. We’re the new media. 😀
hmmm… there are two sides in every coin… i expect tea and lester will react this way, this is the least thing they wanted to hear… they almost sold their souls just to make it successful.(kidding).we are all right in our own opinion…what they are trying to point out is that there are logical reasons why there were such decisions made and why such problems encountered-what uv seen are what we also have seen and we fixed them already-and this can be discussed privately…i know how u feel guys(everybody) i feel the same way..i felt that i hated the problems that had risen up..i was so disappointed…and i found out that what can u expect in any event? always expect the unexpectd… things like this wil really happen…anyway, lets stop this debate…i dont see a point why we talk more about this… we have learned and lets all move on… so instead, lets focus our talk on how we are able to make davao city as the leading cyber city in the philippines, promote responsible use of cyber space and technology, and put cyber culture on a higher ground… is professional gaming in davao ciyt possible? definitely yes… we just started it, more professional than any other dota tournament…rather than hurting each others feeling, lets help each other to attain those goals i mentioned above.. we hav no time for this argument.. what u hav seen is just a minor bump or just a cat’s eye on the road…wer done dealing with that…and there are bigger things to face and must be overcome… yes, a very long road, but for every journey it begins wd a single step… im happy coz we just did that major leap… now lets help each other and support each other .. together lets journey to those goals…
i wud rather want to talk about how to get it done and to prevent problems from happening than criticism…
if u are with our vision and goals, then lets help each other and find a way to make it happen…
kitsi avila
president
e-squared
btw, ria.. we already planned our next events (kadayawan, october mania and christmas)… do u still want to discuss about ur plans wd us? u got my number.. just gv me a beep…ok
Kitsi, yes I think we should move on. About your plans, I’m totally with you. I think it is VERY possible because there are a lot of talented gamers here in Davao and people are more proactive and supportive than some places. One hurdle is that betting is very prevalent. That has stop so our gamers will be more focused on improving their gameplay than winning money.