Gaming has grown to become something more than just your casual hobby with the introduction of Esports and everyone who’s anyone has been taking part in a lot of tournaments organized around Sri Lanka. Gaming itself has introduced multiple platforms for various types of games some such examples being Riot Games for League of legends. Blizzard for Overwatch and Hearthstone etc. Among these platforms one stands out and that is Steam. Steam is a digital distribution platform developed by Valve Corporation for purchasing and playing video games

Mainly to purchase games, games and more games. This is where the main challenge for gamers as well as children kind of rise to the surface as most of the popular or most played games involve purchasing the games with money. With the intention of bringing to light methods of which you can purchase these games we have the top 5 ways for you to purchase games on Steam here in Sri Lanka

Gifted from a friend

Receiving gifts from a friend is probably the best way for the younger crowd of gamers to receive new and popular games. Not having to get up off your gaming chair to head over to a bank or to find a way to take your parents credit card when they are not looking, this method definitely makes it easier to get what you want and not get into any trouble in the process.

FriMi

FriMI by NTB. Available on the Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store, FriMi is essentially a digital lifestyle partner.One key point that should be highlighted about FriMi is that it is available to anyone. So even if you don’t have an NTB bank account, you can still enjoy all the features of the app.

• Once you download and install the app, you are required to sign up for a FriMi account or login to an existing account.
• Next you will be required to enter your personal details such as Name, Date of Birth, employment etc.
• Following the previous step you will have to create a FriMi ID in order to use the service. The ID will also works as your bank account.
• Add your virtual debit card or FriMi debit card on steam and use the debit card to make purchases for your favorite games
• Receive a 10% discount on your first total bill which has to total up to rs. 3000/- so not only do you get to purchase what you want you also get your money back

Sounds like a great deal doesn’t it? Here’s a video on how users can get their virtual debit card detail in app – http://bit.ly/FriMiVirtualCard

Dialog

Dialog Gaming is the first Sri Lankan network to allow direct billing for purchase of games, credits or in-app-purchases through Steam. The amount will simply be added or deducted from your Dialog Prepaid account or Postpaid bill. With absolutely no extra charges to purchase a game other than the value specified on Steam, purchasing games via Dialog is cheaper and easier as you would only require a Dialog Connection. This hassle-free payment gateway will permit the purchase of games and add ons with no credit or debit card.

With a huge variety of options available to all gamers to add onto to their steam library with the addition of Dialogs top up option and FriMi’s virtual debit card which anyone has access too, definitely provides a much simpler access to your favorite games compared to a few years back where it was significantly more difficult to acquire the games you wanted most. What do you think about our list? If we missed any options please let us know down in the comments section!.

Honda who have been a part of the Esports community since 2015 where they first made an entrance during the Sri Lanka Cyber has contributed towards the growth of Esports and have already given away 2 Honda Navi bikes in 2016 as well as 2017 and with the introduction of Season 1 of the Rider Rush Challenge at the recently concluded Mercantile Esports Championship 2018 they look to do it yet again. The grand prize for the winner of the challenge is a Honda Navi bike. Players are able to take part completely free-of-charge by downloading the Rider Rush game from the Play Store or Apple App Store. Thereafter they have to navigate through the game, collecting as many time points as possible, to be the best player on the leaderboards. New bikes and maps are also available and can be unlocked.

A unique aspect to what Honda has introduced is a joint leaderboard, hence there is no segregation between players who get the app through the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store. All you have to do is head on over to http://riderrush.gamer.lk/ to check out where you stand in the rankings. Season 1 will go on for a period of 2 months starting from July 21st and ending on September 21st. You can play this at your leisure, be it the comfort of your own home or even on the move.

The introduction of a seasonal leaderboard which bestows gamers with tangible rewards for their skill at a game are a fairly new but extremely welcome concept in Sri Lanka. What Honda has done will undoubtedly receive a lot of exposure in the coming months, both in the gaming community as well as the general public, as a bike is not a reward to scoff at. Depending on the success of this venture, there is a chance that other establishments in Sri Lanka may follow suit in order to reach a wider audience, which is only a net positive for the gaming community, as skill will be generously rewarded by companies like Honda. So get to riding as you may be the lucky winner who walks away with a Honda Navi bike absolutely free. 

Proceedings kicked off at around 11:30 a.m where contestants were broken into 6 qualifying brackets, with the winners of each moving onto the final bracket, where they would fight it out to claim the grand prize. Xstation was abuzz with the number of contestants who had kicked into gear and were ready to take on the challenge. The reigning champion, Dishan Nithrananthan was also ready to defend his title, but seemed to be recovering from an injury to his arm.

The most exciting match of the day was however the finals. Coming down to the wire we saw PnX.Dishi the reigning champion going up against nA.Sultan, who had already displayed some marvelous skill and patience in his semi final game against clan mate and rival nA.VeNoM. Riding a wave of momentum, nA.Sultan burst out of the gate, scoring first, PnX.Dishi hot on his heels, scoring his first goal right after, but that did not deter Sultan as he scored once again to take the lead and after a short passage of time Dishi equalized once again. Moving into the second half the room was filled with tension and excitement until Dishi sealed the deal, scoring another goal during the halfway mark of the second half and maintained possession of the ball extremely well, not providing Sultan a chance to mount up an offence or even enter his penalty box, sealing the deal and taking the title once again.

Gamer.LK, the leader in Esports and Digital Entertainment experiences in Sri Lanka, bring the thrill of competitive Esports to your workplace with the Mercantile Esports Championship  yet again – powered by Dialog Gaming. The Championship being organized for the third consecutive year was held on the 21st and 22nd of July 2018 at Trace Expert City, where we saw 100 corporates with their teams and players from any registered business or organization in Sri Lanka battling it out, which made the event the largest mercantile sporting event in Sri Lanka.

The titles held during the Mercantile Esports championship allowed participants to represent their companies and workplaces across a number of team games (Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, League of Legends, Overwatch and Special Force 2) as well as individual games (FIFA 18, Mortal Kombat XL, Project CARS, Tekken 7 and Clash Royale) along with a women’s league (Mortal Kombat XL, Mario Kart 8 and Need for Speed: Most Wanted).

Day 1

The day kicked off bright and early with the proceedings starting at 10.00am, where we saw the first two teams go head to head in a Call of Duty 4 match between IFS and last year’s champions, Virtusa team Huskies. Which resulted in Virtusa white washing their opponents 13-0. After a little while of progressing through the games, the Women’s League kicked off with Need for Speed: Most Wanted, which saw growth in participants from the previous years making this year that much more exciting as well as competitive. With the NFS champ for the title showing up, there was only one way that the title could go; with Himasha Perera finishing in the top spot from Citrus Property Management and Bhagya Nelum from MIT coming in second. The highlight for the day was definitely the Overwatch grand finals between Redline and Calcey Technologies. Calcey Technologies showed tremendous teamwork and momentum to defeat last years champions. During the first game it seemed as if we would be in for a quick finals with Redline dominating the first map, until Calcey decided to increase the pace with some good combination plays as well as team work which left Redline with no answer. Every map came down the the wire with Calcey closing out the finals 3-0 after a tough session against Redline.

Day 2

With things heating up as the top teams progressed through the brackets, we came up to the League of Legends finals match between HSBC and Surge, which yielded an interesting history as the founder of Surge was a League of Legends player, but that did not deter HSBC when going into the BO3 grand finals. The teams seemed to be dead even in terms of skill when it came to game number 1 but Surge managing to focus on objectives which gave them a slight advantage over their foes, eventually leading to a high enough networth lead that gave Surge game number 1, game number 2 saw a more aggressive strategy coming out from HSBC, which in the early game did not seem to have provided them enough; actually giving Surge’s duo in the bot lane a decent kill lead with an early double kill which was the result of their aggression. HSBC seemed to have made a comeback as they won engagement after engagement, catching the Surge champions out of position and managing them through efficient use of their higher numbers, allowing HSBC to snowball for a short period of time until one over-aggressive movement ended in their playmaker going down ,which in turn gave Surge the Baron because of a 5v4 teamfight that HSBC should not have taken. Things quickly went downhill from there and Surge easily closed out game number 2 which made them the champs for the League of Legends title.

All the grand finals which seemed to be nail biters had everyone spectating at the edge of their seats, the Call of Duty finals took a twist when reigning champs Virtusa lost to Asain Lands in the semis and they even went on to defeat Dialog in the grand finals 1-0 with the first map ending in a tie. Running alongside were the single player titles, one which caught a lot of attention was the Tekken 7 grand final where Sri Lanka’s current number 1 and number 2 players faced off against each other in the 1st round and then again in the grand finals. Roshan Jurammpathy from Bayleaf Colombo and Byung Chan Lee from Motion Miracles who fought his way to the top after getting sent to the lower bracket, the final was expected to be one sided because of the result of their meeting in the first round, but it was far from it. Byung took a strong lead going up 1-0 against Roshan in the 1st set forcing Roshan to go to his trump card early picking his signature hero, from there things seemed even, but Roshan managed to control the pace ending up the winner for the Tekken 7 title.

Ending the day in great fashion was the DOTA 2 grand finals between 2 year champions Virtusa who went on to go up against Aclatic (PVT) LTD. The finals did not disappoint as both teams seemed have top notch skills and knowledge of the game, but Aclatic showed great synergy and coordination which gave them the edge over Virtusa and rightly took the title, becoming the new champions at this years Mercantile Esports Championship.

The winner of each title is as follows..

Single Player

FIFA 18

Champion            Qualitaire                        Sachin Dematapitiya

Runner Up           Consortium Lanka          Mohamed Ikram      

Tekken 7

Champion               The Bayleaf Colombo          Roshan Jurampathy

Runner Up               Motion Miracles               Byungcharn Lee

Mortal Kombat XL

Champion                  Ribelz Digital                                Ashwin Umasudhan        

Runner Up    Dockyard General Engineering Services  Dulaj Gunawardena

Project Cars

Champion             ITX 360               Hafzel Preena

Runner Up      Pyxle International   Jayden Hersch

Clash Royale

Champion              Medigain             Rajith Nipuna    

Runner Up             HSBC                Shawn Roberts

Women’s Mariokart 8

Champion          Authenticities        Laroshi Ganegoda Wijayatilake

Runner Up         Millenium IT          Areefa Thassim

Women’s Mortal Kombat

Champion        Authenticities           Laroshi Ganegoda Wijayatilake

Runner Up        Milllenium IT           Vindyhani Gamage

Women’s NFS MW

Champion    Citrus Property Management    Himasha Perera  

Runner Up         Millennium IT                 Bhagya Nelum  

Team Titles

DOTA2

Champions  – Aclatic Private Limited

Runners Up – Virtusa

Call of Duty 4

Champions  – Asain Lands & Homes

Runners Up – Dialog Axiata

Counter Strike GO

Champions  –  Virtusa

Runners Up –  Motion Miracles

League of Legends

Champions   –   SURGE GLOBAL

Runners up  –    HSBC Wolves

Overwatch

Champions    –    Calcey Technologies

Runners Up   –    Redline Technologies

Special Force 2

Champions   –   Motion Miracles

Runners Up  –   Millenium IT ESP

The overall championship ended in a thriller, where the two companies that were placed in a tie for second place were Virtusa and Motion Miracles, while in a shocking twist, Millennium IT were able to clinch the title as their female Cyber Athletes contributed to the majority of the points pushing them above Virtusa as well as Motion Miracles.

The Mercantile Esports Championship has been an annual event for 2 years now, and the signs of the growing Esports revolution is just as apparent in the hype and excitement of this event as it was in previous Esports events of the year. The two year champions, Virtusa were dethroned in a very telling way; with the points of the Millenium IT female cyber athletes pushing them over the finish line, with the spotlight suddenly thrust upon it, this could prove to be a much more hotly contested league in the coming years. The new champions, Millenium IT will have to defend their crown next year against fiercer competition, as Esports continues to boom in Sri Lanka, will they continue to dominate for another year like Virtusa did, or will a completely new champion emerge?

Gamer.LK, the leader in Esports and Digital Entertainment experiences in Sri Lanka, is bringing the thrill of competitive video gaming to your workplace with the Mercantile Esports Championship – powered by Dialog Gaming. The Championship being organised for the third consecutive year will be held on 21st and 22nd of July 2018 at Trace Expert City and is open exclusively to teams and players from any registered business or organisation in Sri Lanka.

The event which is recognised as the largest Mercantile sports event in Sri Lanka, provides a unique platform for participants to represent their companies and workplaces across a number of team games (Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, League of Legends, Overwatch and Special Force 2) and individual games (FIFA 18, Mortal Kombat XL, Project CARS, Tekken 7 and Clash Royale) as well as a women’s league (Mortal Kombat XL, Mario Kart 8 and Need for Speed: Most Wanted).

In addition to the competitive titles, participants will also be able to take part to compete in finding Sri Lanka’s Fastest eRacer. Complete with Red Bull racing seats, racing wheels and pedals, large-screen TVs and the tracks on Project CARS, this is a brand-new concept devised by Gamer.LK and aimed at promoting simulation racing in the country.

Over 60 leading corporates from across the country took part in the Championship last year including industry leaders such as Abans, Brandix, Calcey Technologies, CodeGen, Dialog Axiata, GSK Sri Lanka, IFS, Janashakthi, John Keells Holdings, Leo Burnett, LSEG Sri Lanka, MAS, Nestle Lanka, Pearson Lanka, Pyxle, Sri Lankan Airlines, SyscoLABS, Virtusa Polaris, WSO2 being amongst them. After some exciting encounters, Virtusa Polaris emerged the Champions for the second year running with LSEG Sri Lanka and Dialog coming in second and third place respectively. Many corporates have begun to embrace Esports as an official company sport by establishing teams and recruiting talented cyber-athletes as well.

Esports, one of the fastest growing sports in the country, is governed by the Sri Lanka Esports Association, which is a member of the International Esports Federation. With the backing of the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka, Esports was introduced at the National Olympic Day celebrations of Sri Lanka as a future sport. Esports has been included in the Asian Games 2018 as a demonstration event, for which Sri Lanka is taking part.

The Mercantile eSports Championship is organised by Gamer.LK, who are also the organisers for successful annual events such as Play Expo (featuring Sri Lanka Cyber Games and Colombo Comic Expo). From 2016, Gamer.LK took the initiative to branch out Esports and digital entertainment into the three tiers of School, University and Mercantile as well.

The Mercantile Esports Championship – Powered by Dialog Gaming, who over the years have provided vital support towards the development of Esports in the country. Dialog Gaming is also promoting the competitive title Special Force 2 at the event.. In addition, they will be kicking off the Dialog Gaming League later this year, for which the Special Force 2 champions at Mercantile eSports will qualify. The overall winners of the League will get the chance to represent Sri Lanka at the Special Force 2 World Championships being held in Philippines.

Red Bull, who has supported the culture of Esports in Sri Lanka during recent years is the Official Energy Drink for the event with the Red Bull energy lounge in operation for gamers to energise themselves along with the Red Bull wings team carrying out sampling at the venue as well.

MSI came on board as the Technology Partner for the event. MSI officially launched their 8th generation high performance laptop series in April. The latest MSI laptops will be on display at the MSI experience stall at the event, with participants being able to test and feel sheer power and capabilities available on an MSI laptop.

Frimi is the Digital Banking Partner for the event. Frimi is a fast, easy and amazingly cool digital solution to earn, spend, shop and save, while enjoying awesome deals. Frimi will be offering a 35% cashback discount on all registrations paid through the Frimi app at the event.

TRACE Expert City is the Venue Partner for the event. TRACE aspires to transform Sri Lanka into an economically sound, knowledge based, techno-centric, sustainable business hub by promoting innovation, entrepreneurship and professionalism by technologically reawakening our culture of excellence.

The Mercantile Esports Championship is supported by the Official Radio Sponsor Kiss FM, Official Online Store Play.lk, Digital Media Partner ReadMe and the Audio-Visual & Lighting Partner Elektro Revo.

For more information on the event and to register visit mercantile.gamer.lk and get in touch with Gamer.LK on facebook via www.fb.com/gamerlk for any clarifications.