WITH the 2008 Beijing Olympics stealing the limelight on just about every media known to man, another kind of Olympics had been fought and won following months of preliminary matches: the World Cyber Games 2008 Malaysian Championship, held recently at the Mid Valley Exhibition Centre in Kuala Lumpur. It was three days of intense gaming with only one goal: to represent the country at the WCG Grand Finals in Cologne, Germany, from Nov 5 to 9.

Zone Dancers putting on an explosive performance at the closing ceremony.

Head marshal Ronald Vong (left) and gamer Rinie Ramli reading the pledge at the opening ceremony.

Half-Life: Counter-Strike champion Team LZ.V2 (centre) sharing the stage with first runner-up Team Hybrid (left) and second runner-up Team P.Gimak.

Launched by Multimedia Development Corporation’s vice president, industry development Saifol Shamlan, the opening day of the Malaysian Cyber Games saw a total of 700 participants waiting for their turn to compete in the various games, including Fifa Soccer 2008, Counter-Strike 1.6, Need for Speed: ProStreet, Command & Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath, StarCraft: Brood War, WarCraft III: Frozen Throne and Super Dancer Online – Xtreme.

“A cyber gaming championship like this will open doors for our talents to showcase their skills at the international level, and ultimately create public awareness of the creative multimedia industry,” Saifol said.

Despite being an official platform for WCG, the Xbox didn’t make it to the Malaysian Cyber Games simply because the Xbox platform is not supported by Microsoft locally.

Samsung has been the worldwide sponsor of WCG for the past eight years.