CHENNAI : At the lower ground floor of Palladium in Velachery, gamers lined up to register for the many tournaments lined for the day, while others headed over to the Sony station to play FIFA 18 or the new Spiderman game on one of the many screens set up.Many similar scenes were seen all across Phoenix MarketCity at Velachery, at the first-ever Phoenix Gaming Expo ‘18 (PGX ‘18). The three-day event is open to all gamers in Chennai and will feature FIFA 18, DOTA 2, PUBG Mobile and cosplaying competitions, in order to cater to the different gamer preferences in the city.
“This is a relatively new event for Chennai. We wanted a gaming event at the international level that will change the perspectives of gaming in Chennai,” said Harish Suri of Arknemisis Gaming, which worked closely with the malls to put together the expo, which hopes to go national from next year.On the second floor of Phoenix MarketCity, among the cool red lighting in Club Crest, PGX will host a national-level DOTA 2 tournament. The qualifiers were held online, with 76 teams participating from across the country. The final four teams from Mumbai, New Delhi and Bengaluru have been brought in to take part in six-hour semi-finals and finals across the three days for a I10 lakh prize.
Casters brought in from AFK Gaming, a Mumbai-based eSports content and casting company, will provide pre-owned and post-match commentary, as well as live commentary. Vivek Venkatraman, popularly known as Vee Wake, and Heeraka Thakor, popularly known as Floki, will be casting.
The other tournaments are open for casual gamers. The winner of the PUBG Mobile will be awarded I40,000 and cash prizes worth the same. The winner of the FIFA 18 tournament will win a cash prize of I1 lakh, and the winner of the cosplaying tournament will win a cash prize of I60,000 and prizes worth I40,000.