Biggest turnout so far at penultimate HotShotz qualifier

By Anushia Kandasivam July 3, 2017

Skills and talent come to the fore in close competition
Top 3 from each game move on to finals on July 22-23

Biggest turnout so far at penultimate HotShotz qualifier

THE fourth on-ground university qualifier of DNA’s HotShotz eGames Festival on 1 July saw more adventurous gamers and some pretty epic gaming. This was the penultimate qualifying round before the finals on July 22 and 23.

The qualifier was held at KDU University College’s Utropolis Glenmarie campus, which will also be the venue for the upcoming finals.

“We're glad to be a part of Hotshotz qualifiers, having seen all the vibrant talents in the various e-sport communities coming together to be a part of something larger. We can't wait for the upcoming finals,” said Yee I-Van, programme leader of KDU’s Bachelor of Game Development programme.

The Hotshotz tournament features seven games – DOTA2, CS:GO, Overwatch, COD:IW, PES 2017 (Winning Eleven), Street Fighter 5, and new addition Tekken 7, which was added to the line-up this qualifying round and will be played at the next qualifier and finals along with the other games.

There were about 300 registered gamers at the qualifier, the biggest turnout so far, with the PS4 console games seeing the largest number of participants at 150 gamers. Tekken 7, being a new addition, garnered a lot of attention from gamers as well as audience members who stayed to the end to watch the fierce competition.

Tekken 7 competitor Nor Faizzah Mohd Shahari, who reached the semi-finals before being beaten despite this being her second ever tournament, said that the festival was a great event for upcoming amateur gamers to meet other people with the same interests, gain tournament experience and learn new skills and strategies.

“It was interesting watching other people’s gaming styles and seeing how experienced gamers read their opponents. I’ll make sure I improve myself for my next tournament.”

This qualifier’s champion Overwatch team Scrubber, who will be in the upcoming finals, was delighted with its win especially because it was a very close match between it and second placers Bapak Ah! Third place went to Shinsengumi.

“We knew we were up against a good team and we weren’t playing to win, but we managed to outsmart them. We spotted the trap they had planned for us and had to change our tactics as we were playing,” revealed team spokesperson Chemicaloid.

“This competition was all about skills and teamwork, and tolerance and forgiveness of your teammates’ mistakes,” quipped team captain Zeze. While the individual members of Scrubber have been playing Overwatch for a while, they have been playing as a team only for two weeks.

There were numerous other winners on the day who will go to the finals, including Streetfighter 5 winners Fit3amic (first place), Exalmer (second place) and Handsome Jojo (third place).

The gamers were equipped with PS4 consoles and Predator gaming machines. Networking devices were provided by TP-Link which has joined HotShotz as its ‘Networking Partner’.

Aside from the eSports component, HotShotz, as an eGames festival, consists of a games publishers showcase, a PC modding competition, an indie games showcase with 10 publishers and a cosplay competition, all of which will be held during the finals weekend. And not forgetting the VR experience centre as well!

The cosplay competition will be judged by international cosplayers Lychiii, Onnies, Punipun and Yugana, who will also all be available for meet and greet sessions.

Tournament co-sponsor Digi was present at the qualifier and gave away its Digi Prepaid Live pack which comes with 10 GB worth of data for video and music streaming for gamers to enjoy. Digi will again be offering tempting goodies at the next on-ground qualifier on July 8, which will be held at Brickfields Asia College (BAC). You can register for the BAC qualifier through the event site.

Sony Interactive Entertainment Hong Kong Limited Singapore Branch (SIES), Acer, through its gaming machine brand Predator, and the Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) are other sponsors of HotShotz, with Astro as the media partner and KDU University College as the finals venue host. Joining them as a HotShotz sponsor/partner is Armeggeddon, a new player in gaming peripherals that is the official peripherals support. Lazada is the Ecommerce Partner while VR Lab is the VR partner.

Registration for the final gaming qualifier at BAC is open till Sat morning – but only for the PS4 games. At the same time, registration for the cosplay competition and PC modding competition is open. The registration deadline for the PC modding competition is 11 July and the registration deadline for the cosplay competition is 15 July. Ticket sales for the finals are also open.

For more information on HotShotz Asia and competition registration, visit Facebook. For tickets to the finals, visit tix.hotshotz.asia