• Esports tournaments can continue, where traditional sports have stopped
• Esports is the fastest growing sport in Sri Lanka, and is now an official Sri Lankan sport
• Forward thinking brands have partnered with Gamer.LK to run Esports events
• Over 3,000 people are taking part in Esports events from home
• Esports viewership is increasing with more people watching from home 

With sports coming to a grinding halt during these unprecedented times, there’s one sport that has the flexibility to continue. Thanks to its digital nature, Electronic Sports allow athletes to connect to their competitors directly through the cloud, all while staying safe at home. Esports, gazetted as the 70th Sri Lankan sport by the Sports MInistry in September last year has been recognised as the fastest growing sport in Sri Lanka based on its fast growing number of participants and spectators.

Gamer.LK decided to cancel SLCG – the largest physical Esports tournament in the country – in early March where 10,000 participants and spectators were expected to gather over 3 days. With physical events off the table, Gamer.LK has moved competitions online. Partnering with some forward thinking brands, Gamer.LK is currently running multiple tournaments with over 3,000 Esports athletes connecting to their matches from home.

Red Bull Fight or Flight – 1,200+ participants signed up
Samsung Online Esports Showdown – 2,000+ participants signed up
Play From Home live streams powered by Sri Lanka Telecom – reach of over half a million and racked up 180,000+ views.

With gamers being at home, they are flocking to watch the local competitive Esports scene. Esports are well positioned as a spectator sport with high skilled matches getting tens of thousands of views. Red Bull Fight or Flight matches have so far received over 300,000 views across 6 days of competition with the climax of the tournament set for 11th April where the best PUBG Mobile squads will battle it out for a prize pool of Rs. 250,000 presented by Gamer.LK.

This year’s Gamer.LK Clans Dota 2 League (GCDL) Season 14 kicked off 27th January with the same tournament system set up by GLK for online league tournaments; a Challenger League and a Pro League. The Challenger League was an open tournament with 38 teams registering. The top 2 teams of this Challenger League were given the opportunity to play in the Pro League.

Aathal Gaming and 683 made it through to the Pro League where they got to face the top 6 ranked Dota 2 teams in the country which are Sara Kolla, Tactical Nuke, nA – Team Phase, nA – Pirates, x3 – Origin Unknown and nA – The Unpredictables.

x3 – Origins Unknown placed third after defeating xxx in the semifinals 3-1.

Here’s what x3 – Origins Unknown had to say after placing third;

We are proud to have accomplished what we did. It was a brand new team and we did not expect to overcome the challenges before us. The team had a lot of fun as well.

After an exciting one month, the Pro League concluded on the 17th of March where Sara Kollo beat Tactical Nuke 3-2 to become the champions of Gamer.LK Clans Dota 2 League (GCDL) Season 14.

Tactical Nuke after becoming the runner-up, they had this to say;

GCDL has always been one of the most awaited online tournaments every year. The new implementation of a league system proved to be very successful in improving the competitive experience of the whole community. We are honored and proud to have been a part of a climactic grand finals against Sara Kollo, going to a game 5, even though we came in second place. We hope GCDL will continue to provide a path for upcoming dota 2 teams to showcase their talents on a competitive level.

We are awaiting for a statement from the Champion Team Sara Kollo.

Stay tuned with Gamer.LK for more updates.

Battlegrounds 2020 hosted by Phoenix GaminG for the 2nd time this year featured the most famous and hyped mobile game title in the country PUBG Mobile. More than 50 teams have registered for the tournament with 240 players concluded on 22nd of March.

After a successfull PUBG Mobile tournament hosted by Phoenix GaminG (PnX), they had this to say;

Battlegrounds 2020 was the first PUBG Mobile tournament hosted by Phoenix GaminG after it was given ranked status. The tournament went smooth with teams from all the clans taking part. This wouldn’t have happened without our referees who managed the matches and plan the schedules in a way so that teams could get enough break to strategize in between games. A special shout out goes to our streamer Rusiya who casted solo and streamed most of the group stage games and all the games in the finals. We would like to congratulate the winning teams and thank all the PUBG Mobile teams who took part for Battlegrounds 2020

Qualifiers of Battlegrounds 2020’s PUBG Mobile ranked tournament kicked off on the 21st of March. Registered teams were divided into 4 groups randomly and best teams for finals were chosen with best of 3 rounds.

Top scored teams from each group were selected to Finals which happened on 22nd of March.

After a successful run in the Mobitel Esports Premier League for Noob Alliance’s Team Frag they hold their nerves to prove they are the best team in Sri Lanka yet again by winning the Battlegrounds 2020’s PUBG Mobile tournament.

Here’s what Noob Alliance had to say on their team winning the Battlegrounds 2020’s PUBG Mobile tournament

After being besides Team FRag since 2019, watching them going through the impossible challenges and hurdles they had to face, we are absolutely proud to see them finally achieving one of their main goals – consistent victories and establishing their name as a dominant force in the Sri Lankan PUBGM community. As Team FRag looks towards continuing this win streak, we wish them the best of luck. We have seen the response from the PUBGM community of Sri Lanka, and we will do everything we can, to ensure that our PUBGM teams participate in the international stages.

After another succesfull tournament for Team Frag, they had this to say on their strategies; 

Champions of AOD Battleground Yet Again another Title, The Finals were Intense as we always expect, it wasnt easy clinching all those points from the 6 maps – Our usual Strategies got into play and we tried to get an early WWCD and Maintain the top position but it didnt work out so well, So We were implementing our tactis and strategies trying to keep ourselves in the top 3 places so that we dont fall way back in the points table, We also figured by the end of the 4th match we will have to make up a different strategy in order to retain the table top, Our IGL FRagTauterr cooked up a quick Roles switch and Stradegy and we as a team were able to get a Chicken dinner in the Final Map and that got us to the top of the table emerging champions.

Sri Lanka’s other two leading teams which is Wolfgang E-Sports’ NO RULES and NO RULES INFINITY CLUB became runner-up and 2nd runner-up.

This is what Wolfgang E-Sports had to say about their experience playing the Battlegrounds 2020

11 Teams from Wolfgang e-Sports participated in the Battlegrounds 2020 tournament and gave everything they got with a nail biting performance. The hard work of the two teams finally paid off when two of our Wolfgang e-Sports teams, Team “NO RULES” achieved the Runners up in the tournament and “NO RULES INFINITY CLUB “ 2nd Runner up in the tournament. We congratulate both teams in their future tournaments

Stay tuned with Gamer.LK for more updates.

The Sri Lanka Cyber Games Championship has been cancelled due to the current health situation arising from Corona virus fears in the country. In support of government efforts to contain the situation, Gamer.LK felt this was the best decision in order to reduce risk of exposure, and also peace of mind for the gaming & Esports community. The decision was made taking into account discussions and advice from the Health Ministry as well.

After 11 consecutive years of hosting SLCG, it’s with a heavy heart that we make this decision. But it comes from a place of responsibility as 10,000 people were to converge on one location over 3 days.

Although this is a setback, Gamer.LK is in the works to make 2020 another milestone year for Esports, and will be taking the next 2 months to cook up some amazing experiences for gamers islandwide!

Keep in touch with Gamer.LK through our Facebook page and youtube channel – we stream a number of games weekly and create gaming-related content on a daily basis. Also, the beauty of Esports is that it can be played remotely, and we will be planning more online events until the Corona fear dies down.

Stay safe and game on!

The league team from Lowkey eSports, previously known as Lanka Lions from Phoenix Gaming, moves to Noob Alliance.

Captain of the League of Legends team Ashik “ASHSL” Saleeth had this to say

The reception we got when we joined Lowkey Esports from PnX put us in a situation where the circumstances made it hard for us to join the clan back. When things didn’t work out with Lowkey Esports we approached some of the best clans in the Sri Lanka and nA being one of the most premier esports organizations in Sri Lanka were very welcoming. Our main goal is to dominate the South Asian league scene and we believe nA will support us to achieve this goal and we also hope to build a new dynasty in league along side nA.

Here’s what Phoenix Gaming had to say on this move

Ashik,Bhanuka,Acelord,Wonka and nightmare,they were with us for quite some time, every time they played for Phoenix Gaming, they left everything on the rift. Ashik above everyone else was a prominent member on our league wing. He served us well and we are thankful for what him and his team mates have done to our clan. We wish them best.

We reached Noob Alliance and they had this to say

Noob Alliance is excited to welcome Sri Lanka’s top League of Legends team into our organisation. They will be joining Team Phase – the old guard – in building a new dynasty in Sri Lankan League of Legends for Noob Alliance, and will be looking to conquer the South Asian scene; something no team from Sri Lanka has done before. This recruitment has proven to be valuable so far, we have learned so much about the game, and the way this team approaches it. It’s been quite a pleasant experience supporting this team, and we look forward to seeing their achievements in local and international stages.

What are your thoughts on Lowkey eSports League team moving to Noob Alliance?