In this series we try to pick into the brains of the ranked #1 team/players in each competitive game.

This week we dive into the realm of Overwatch.

Overwatch is a team-based multiplayer first-person shooter developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. Described as a “hero shooter” Overwatch assigns players into two teams of six, with each player selecting from a roster of 30 characters, known as “heroes”, each with a unique style of play whose roles are divided into three general categories that fit their role. Players on a team work together to secure and defend control points on a map or escort a payload across the map in a limited amount of time.
It’s basically a FPS combined with a MOBA.

nA|BlackWatch are currently #1 for Overwatch in the country.

Their notable achievements include :

• Gamefest Overwatch ‘17 – 3rd Place
• SLT e-Sports Championship 2017 – Champions
• SLCG’17 Overwatch – Champions
• GCOL Season 1 – Champions
• Get Nailed Overwatch League 2018 – 2nd Place
• SLCG’18 Overwatch – Champions
• SLT eSports Cafe Challenge ‘18 Overwatch – 3rd Place
• GCOL Season 2 – Champions

Their current roster is as follows:

Falca
Bouncyknight (C)
Sleepy
Jonaboy
Madhu22
Sukiribole
Ppeexxel
Deathshot
Naenae

We met up with Ruvin “Bouncyknight” Kularathna to understand how Blackwatch functions and what makes them the best.

Q: How was the team formed

A:Well Sukiribole was the one who convinced me to buy the game, after that i convinced some of the players from my COD4 team to buy it(Madhu, Sleepy and Jonaboy), we found out that Bouncy was also playing later, so since we had 6 players we decided to form the team.

Q: What differentiates you from other teams?:

A:I think we have got a solid dive comp, and most teams in Sri Lanka struggle to deal with dive. We exploit that a little better than others.

Q: What’s your motivation to keep practicing?:

A:These days none. When we started we practiced whenever we could to beat NWA, the top team at that time, that was our only motivation. After we beat them, the number of practice sessions decreased, since the start of 2019 stopped practicing as a team altogether. But I guess the team synergy we built is enough to stay on top.

Q:What do you think your strengths and weaknesses are:

A: Strengths definitely Dive comp, specifically Dive comp with Pharah, widow, winston, dva, mercy and zen. After ppeekxxel joined the team we swapped the zen for lucio. A rein Zarya comp is at like the middle ground of our strengths, it’s not as good as our dive, but we still can play it to a good extent.

Our weaknesses i’d say is bunker comp, with orissa and hog, our tanks are not experienced with it, so it’s a bit harder to play for us.

The fan favorite underdog Victorious Secret made big waves in the scene this year by consistently placing top 2 at all major LAN and online events.
Taking home the top two slots in almost all competitive Dota 2 events for 2018 they ended the duopoly held by The Kade/Indomitus + Death Sentence. Thus solidifying their position as a definite contender for the best Dota2 team in the island.
Due to personal reasons both Kevin ‘ZackPuppy’ Kadanarachchi and Kaveesha ‘Devanstine’ Kagasuru have had to step down from the active roster.
To fill up the gaps left by their absence veterans Muksith ‘Tenza’ Ajwath and Heshan ‘SathaN’ Sanjaya entered the team as stand ins.

Captain Isuru ‘Deathwish’ Lokuge had this to say about the situation :

‘ The whole of VS would like to thank Zackpuppy for the time he spent with us. Unfortunately his changes in his life meant that he couldn’t carry on playing with us, but he’s killing it in Dubai. Devanstine has chosen to take a small break and hopes to come back once he has a better understanding of the patch”

When asked about the two new additions Deathwish said this :

“They(tenza and sathan) bring a wealth of experience to the table and we hope to get as much as possible from them. We also want to thank them for helping us out at the last moment.”

For the fourth consecutive year, Gamer.LK, the pioneer in Esports and digital entertainment in Sri Lanka brings the excitement and thrill of competitive video gaming to the university-level with the Inter-University Esports Championship powered by Sri Lanka Telecom PLC. Considered the largest university-level sporting event in the country, this year’s event will have over 40 universities taking part. Gamer.LK has partnered with MTV and MBC to have the event televised on TV1, making it the first Esports event in Sri Lanka to be watchable both on digital media streams as well as traditional television. The championship will be held in two segments, with the qualifiers taking place on the 15th and 16th of June and the grand finals happening on the 6th of July 2019 at Stein Studios Ratmalana.

Esports in Sri Lanka has seen tremendous growth in the past years with recognition by the National Olympic Committee and representation at the 18th Asian Games with the support of the Sports Ministry of Sri Lanka. Gamer.LK’s Inter-University Esports Championship is endorsed by the Sri Lanka Esports Association, the governing body for Esports in Sri Lanka.

The championship provides a unique platform for students from Universities and higher education institutes to compete across the most popular video games in Sri Lanka. This year’s event will feature team games – Call of Duty 4, Counter Strike: GO, Dota 2, League of Legends, Overwatch, Rainbow Six Siege, PUBG Mobile & Mobile Legends, along with individual games – FIFA 19, Tekken 7, Fortnite, Mortal Kombat XL, eRacer (simulator racing), & Clash Royale. A dedicated women’s league with Mario Kart 8, PUBG Mobile, eRacer (simulator racing) & Mortal Kombat XL will also take place at the Championship with the aim of promoting Esports to women.

Last year’s championship saw the participation of over 40 leading government and private universities as well as educational institutes such as the University of Colombo, University of Peradeniya, University of Jaffna, APIIT, SLIIT, IIT, ICBT, ESOFT, ACBT, Sir John Kotalawela Defence University, NIBM, NSBM and many more. The event which began in 2016 with the intention of bringing the positives of structured competitive video games to universities has grown year on year with the following universities claiming the Championship over the years:
2016: Asia Pacific Institute of Information Technology (APIIT)
2017: International College of Business & Technology (ICBT)
2018: Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT)

This year’s event will feature qualifiers where participants from all universities will take part. Thereafter, the top 2 universities from the qualifier will move on to a grand finals where participants from each of the two qualified universities will take part across a selected set of games.

This years championship is powered by Sri Lanka Telecom PLC who comes onboard as the title partner for the event. All games and live streams will be run via super-fast SLT Fibre connectivity allowing low latency, lagless gameplay and streaming. Sri Lanka Telecom PLC has been at the forefront of empowering digital entertainment and Esports in Sri Lanka with product offerings catering to gamers in the country.

A trusted brand in the technology sector, DELL is the gaming Laptop partner for the event. DELL is delving into the gaming space with their DELL Gaming line of Laptops – premium design with thin bezels and lightweight for portability. 

Red Bull comes onboard as the official Energy Drink partner – giving wiiings to the gamers’ Esports sessions and facilitating performance at the next level. Red Bull will be conducting several unique engagements at the qualifiers and grand finals.

FriMi comes onboard as the official Digital Banking partner for the event. Registration fees and purchases at the venue are seamless with the FriMi app, along with great cashback offers for all participants paying using FriMi. Enabling today’s youth with an end to end digital experience, from opening their primary banking account to handling all their day to day financial transactions, payments and money management all on their mobile phone.

Taco Bell and Pizza Hut are the official food partners at the event, keeping hungry gamers fed and satisfied with food stalls situated inside the tournament premises. Scope Cinemas is Cinema partner and Atom Media is digital signage partner for the event.

For more information and registration for the Inter-University Esports Championship, visit https://university.gamer.lk and follow Gamer.LK on Facebook via www.fb.com/gamerlk for updates.

Gamer.LK successfully held and concluded the SLT eSports Women’s Cyber Games 2019 on the 1st June at Play Arena. The top 8 Women Esports athletes were ranked and rewarded with a total prize pool of Rs. 100,000.

Each of the 8 contestants had their preferred game out of the 5 titles featured at the finals – Call of Duty 4, Mortal Kombat, Mario Kart, Subway Surfers and eRacer (Project Cars). A top placement in the game awarded 8 points, with each lower position getting one point less than the position above.

Call of Duty 4
First place: Kavindee V!n[K]y Kariyawasam (Clan: Noob Alliance)
Runner up: Kasuni tee-hee Lokuarachchi (Clan: Noob Alliance)
Third place: Janithi M-eS|SaLly CrUsher Gamage (Clan: Max Esports)

Mortal Kombat:
First place: Gnavindya buttercup magammulla (Clan: Xiphos Esports)
Runner up: Dhinelka PnX|BitSy Anthony (Clan: Phoenix Gaming)
Third place: Kavindee V!n[K]y Kariyawasam (Clan: Noob Alliance)

Mario Kart:
First place: Kavindee V!n[K]y Kariyawasam (Clan: Noob Alliance)
Runner-up: Yasara War Queen De Silva (Standalone)
Third place: Gnavindya buttercup magammulla (Clan: Xiphos Esports)

Subway Surfers:
First place: Gnavindya buttercup magammulla (Clan: Xiphos Esports)
Runner-up: Asanka M-es/ Supergirl Sajini (Clan: Max Esports)
Third place: Kasuni tee-hee Lokuarachchi (Clan: Noob Alliance)

eRacer (Project Cars):
First place: Dhinelka PnX|BitSy Anthony (Clan: Phoenix Gaming)
Runner-up: Yasara War Queen De Silva (Standalone)
Third place: Kasuni tee-hee Lokuarachchi (Clan: Noob Alliance)

Final standings
With all titles concluded, the final standing was as follows, along with the breakdown of the Rs. 100,000 prize pool which was transferred via the participants FriMi accounts. With the competition being so tight, we saw 2nd place 4th place being tied amongst 2 participants each!

1. Gnavindya buttercup magammulla (Prize money: Rs. 50,000) – 1st Place
2. Kavindee V!n[K]y Kariyawasam (Prize money: Rs. 17,500) – 2nd Place
3. Dhinelka PnX|BitSy Anthony (Prize money: Rs. 17,500) – 2nd Place
4. Kasuni tee-hee Lokuarachchi (Prize money: Rs. 3,750) – 4th Place
5. Yasara War Queen De Silva (Prize money: Rs. 3,750) – 4th Place
6. Asanka M-es/ Supergirl Sajini (Prize money: Rs. 2,500) – 6th Place
7. Laroshi chix0r Ganegoda Wijayatilake (Prize money: Rs. 2,500) – 7th Place
8. Janithi M-eS|SaLly CrUsher Gamage (Prize money: Rs. 2,500) – 8th Place

That brought to an end the first ever Women’s Cyber Games event organised by Gamer.LK with SLT eSports powering the event and FriMi being the official digital banking partner. Based on the success of the event, Gamer.LK plans to make this an annual championship with a larger scale next year!

The South Asia Champions Cup organised by Global Esports, a regional League tournament commenced on the 4th of May.

The following teams from Sri Lanka took part :

• PnX | Deiyo
• PnX | Lanka Lions
• PnX | R [ 3 ] D
• nA | Phase

Throughout the past few weeks these teams competed against the best in the region. The tournament ran a Round Robin format coupled with Single Elimination Bracket.

Group Stages Results

• PnX | Deiyo 2-1
• PnX | Lanka Lions 3-0
• PnX | R [ 3 ] D 2-1
• nA | Phase 2 – 1

PnX|Lanka Lions and PnX|Deiyo advanced to the playoff stages. Both nA|Phase and PnX | R [ 3 ] D on the other hand drew the short end of the stick. Their groups was stuck at a three way tie. Usual protocol would have meant that they played a tiebreaker against the teams tied together. However time constraints forced the organizers to consider the fastest win to split the tie. This meant that both teams were left at third place and could not proceed.

Playoffs Results

As PnX|Deiyo and PnX|Lanka Lions placed 1st and 2nd in their groups respectively they advanced onto the playoffs. Here the format was a strict single elimination with a best of three matchup. Unfortunately despite the best of their attempts both teams had to bow out of the tournament in the first knockout round. PnX|Lanka Lions went up against Team GraveKeepers and were defeated with score of 2-0. PnX|Deiyo went up against Team White Shadows which resulted in the same score.