Last week Telkom Dogaming announced that this year the finals for their online leagues will not be taking place at rAge, as has become customary in recent years. The DoGaming finals at the rAge NAG LAN have become an important event for building spirit within the local competitive gaming community, with top gamers from all around the country getting to meet their online rivals and team mates face to face. Not only this, but a LAN is also a preferred medium for high-level competitive gaming, as it negates problems such as lag and cheating.
DoGaming explained in their original announcement that they were unable to secure their usual block booking of tickets, which allows all the DoGaming league participants to sit in the same area, and ensures that all players are able to attend the event. No reason was given for why they were denied their usual allocation of tickets.
It was decided then that instead of the finals taking place at the LAN, the games would be played online, just like the rounds leading up to the finals. Many competitive gamers voiced their disdain for the decision despite DoGaming offering an extra R200,000 in prize money.
rAge organiser Michael James released a statement:
“The root of the issue is that the request for tickets to us was only made on Wednesday afternoon – this was 4 days before the tickets for the NAG LAN went on sale at Computicket (1 August 2010). I was not able to make any changes with Computicket in enough time (they have various contracts in place to protect the buyers and it would have required meetings approvals and so on) to ensure that the tickets were secured. In terms of blame – as much as everyone loves a scapegoat there isn’t one in this case. It was just a timing issue that involved too many players and logistics to solve quickly – The NAG LAN and rAge are rather large and complicated events.”
In response, DoGaming representative Johann von Backstrom said that “Telkom Do Gaming tried to engage with the rAge expo organisers on several occasions to finalise plans for the Do Gaming Championships to be held at the rAge expo 2010 to no avail.”
He went on to say that DoGaming is “currently exploring various options including holding the Championships online and/or holding a LAN competition at a venue other than rAge.”
With both parties denying responsibility, competitive gamers are continuing to voice their frustrations. Despite rAge 2010 not playing host to the finals of SA’s biggest gaming league, all 2080 tickets were sold out within 24 of going on sale.
We expect that DoGaming will make a decision regarding the future of this year’s league finals in the next few weeks.
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