Last weekend I have been visiting the Pinoy Gaming Festival, which was held in Manila’s and also Asia’s biggest mall the SMX Mall of Asia. What an event I have to say, really great – all gamers and the general people are so nice in the Philippines, that I was really amazed.

Everything started off with a very last minute call to go to PGF, 12 hours before the flight, my ticket and hotel was booked and I was ready to go. My friend and colleague from Neolution Group, Satean, sent me some hardware to bring to our Philippine teams.

Arrival in The Beauty of the Sea
When you are about to land in Manila, you will be flying over the ocean, and the view you get is super delicious. It is like flying to a paradise, at least for a European. I am mostly living in big cities, so there I do only get to see water when I shower or open the fridge.

When I landed in Manila International Airport, I was picked up by the Rapture Gaming Asia, BattleAsia and Neolution E-Sport guys at the airport and felt already warmly welcomed. As a guy who has been around in Asia quite a lot, I always try to stick to locals, as I will not get ripped off that much by the taxis.

We all went to check-in in my hotel, had some chats and went straight to the exhibition hall. There we met all important faces behind the event, sponsors were there, casters, such as David ‘Godz’ Parker, but also the Mineski and Rapture guys.

30 Hours of Pure Gaming and Entertainment

The event kick-off was quite nice to see, how disciplined and mature the gamers were; coming in time to attend the games, singing the national anthem and helping to grow the gaming scene in the Philippines. Important people held speeches on the stage, people listened and then it was time to start the festive part and go on rocking.

The tournaments were held in various games, such as Dragon Nest, Tekken, Dota 2, Dota, League of Legends, Crossfire and maybe some more, but I really wanted to see newer titles such as Dragon Nest, which is more of an untapped market to me, besides that I really care about games from the Action RTS scene (Moba, DotA).

Some games such as StarCraft II were quite nice to see, as I never knew that Philippines has such high level in this game. Yet also Crossfire is super interesting to watch, how the audience cheers with teams and how high concentrated players are.

At some point halls were too full that the security had to lock down the place, this shows the general interest in such events. I wish that we have another PGF coming up, where all gamers can meet again and where we as a company can come down and support Pinoy Gaming in general.

Thank You For Your Support
I decided writing this blog because I am truly thankful for all the support you have given me within the last days and also before that. I hope that I could make everyone happy and did not forget anyone who wanted to have a quick chat. With this blog-post I would like to congratulate all champions of the Pinoy Gaming Festival, and encourage those who did not win to step it up next time and seek for another shot.

I would like to thank you, for your stunningly high manners and for your real passion for games. Pinoy Gaming Rocks, I will be back soon, I promise! maraming salamat mahal ko kaung lahat!