Telkom DGL 2012 championships kick off at rAge

The Telkom Do Gaming League (DGL) championships kicked off today (5 October 2012) at the rAge 2012 expo in Johannesburg. League gamers will be competing for a share of the largest prize pool in South African gaming history: over half a million Rand in cash prizes, Alienware X51 rigs, and a year’s supply of Monster Energy Drinks.

With over 560 gamers from Telkom’s online Do Gaming League, this championship also marks another milestone as the largest competitive LAN ever in SA.

As explained by Erich Blaschczok, manager of the NAG LAN, “The Telkom Do Gaming section has a dedicated 100M fibre signal that will be utilized to connect their gamers to the internet. Several 10M ADSL lines are on standby as a backup. The games being hosted are Battlefield 3, StarCraft 2, Modern Warfare 3, Call of Duty 4, Grand Turismo 5 and FIFA. As a first in South Africa, two of the online Battlefield servers have been white listed for use at the event. Thus these two servers will be located at the Dome, to allow only the best possible performance for these critical final games.”

Ricus Groenewald, Telkom Specialist Gaming, said that the DGL has grown by 106 percent this year and has seen some major sponsorships for the league and LAN championships from the likes of Electronic Arts, Incredible Connection, Logitech, Megarom, and Monster Energy Drinks who have all contributed to the overall prize pool.

In addition Alienware will be sponsoring Alienware X51 gaming rigs for the winners of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3 and Call of Duty 4 competitions as well as three X51 Rigs for gamers who report on the DGL on the Do Gaming Community Blog.

“We’re seeing more and more gamers moving online because of the opportunity to play with their friends as well as test their skills against the best gamers in the country. Some of the gamers will spend over 20 hours a week honing their skills in preparation for their weekly DGL match. The DGL Championship gives these gamers the chance to fight it out in a LAN environment for their ultimate test of their skills,” said Groenewald.

Telkom will also have the Global Battlefield 3 Community Manager, Daniel Matros, at the stand who will be answering questions from fans about the Battlefield 3 franchise which has been one of the most popular games in the DGL.