SLT e-Sports Championship 2018, the Esports event with the largest prize pool in the country, organised by Sri Lanka’s premier telecommunication provider Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) in partnership with the Esports Partner, Gamer.LK, returned for its fourth consecutive year on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th of November at BMICH, alongside the INFOTEL 2018 exhibition.

This year’s event saw record numbers of participation with Esports athletes taking part from across the country making the event a platform for bringing communities together. Phoenix Gaming emerged the overall Champions, with Noob Alliance coming in close as runners-up and Xiphos Esports coming in at third place.

With a prize pool of over a million rupees in cash, this year’s Championship featured many popular online multiplayer gaming titles such as Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2 and League of Legends as well as single player titles such as FIFA 19, Project CARS 2, Injustice 2 and Fortnite with mobile game titles, Clash Royale and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile also included. With Sri Lanka’s first multi-camera production at an Esports event, this year’s Championship kicked off with matches being broadcast on the giant screen at the venue with a livestream also being broadcast on Facebook, Twitch, YouTube and Mixer for viewers who were not at the venue.

An Esports awareness area, equipped with facilities and demonstrations to educate visitors and newcomers to the event about Esports and its benefits, was showcased at this year’s event with careful attention being paid on the overall spectator experience. A dedicated mobile games arena was also setup at the venue in addition to the professional Esports arena where Esports athletes battled it out for 3 days. A Women’s Championship which saw the participation of many female Esports/ athletes was also held as well as a new Under 12 Kids segment being introduced as a new addition to this year’s event. SLT also held a Cosplay competition alongside the event, encouraging cosplayers to dress up as their favourite characters.

SLT also teased the launch of a mobile game development competition aimed at showcasing groundbreaking innovations and new trends in the mobile entertainment industry. Applicants will be able to enroll for the competition, for either Android or iOS mobile game applications, after it is launched in the near future.

SLT also launched their exclusive SLT eSports platform to the online gamers of Sri Lanka at the Championship, making SLT the first operator in South Asia to launch such a service. The launch was well-received by gamers who appreciate the efforts taken by SLT to improve their Esports experience.

SLT is no stranger to the Sri Lankan Esports scene as they have continued to empower Esports in the country since the inaugural SLT Esports Championship in 2015. which became an instant success. This year marked the initiation of new types of Esports events presented by SLT, held across different formats and regions of the country and aimed at promoting Esports and strengthening the SLT brand offering to the youth segment. The successful completion of the SLT Esports Championship 2018 marks the end of the Esports activities for this year.

The SLT e-Sports Championship was played on a network backbone powered exclusively by Sri Lanka’s Number 1 broadband network – SLT Broadband, famous for its low latency, dedicated and reliable connectivity which is compulsory for Esports and gaming. Showcasing speeds of over 100Mbps and optimized packet routing paths, gamers received an unparalleled broadband experience at the event.

To stay tuned to all the information about SLT Esports and find out more details about the event, visit www.slt.lk/esports.

The winners of the titles at SLT Esports Championship 2018 are:

Next up is their match against Paksitan’s Portal eSports, which is bound to be a tight match! Watch the stream below.

During the last decade, the Esports scene in Sri Lanka has continued to grow with new and exciting milestones being achieved each year. This year has seen many achievements in Esports. In this light, a talented group of Esports athletes hoping to make their mark in the international Esports arena are representing Sri Lanka at this year’s Esports World Championship organized by the International Esports Federation (IESF). After a long hiatus, this marks Sri Lanka’s return to the IESF Esports World Championship. Continuously supporting the exponential growth of local Esports, members of the Sri Lanka Esports Association will be accompanying this group. Sri Lanka, a member of the IESF since 2010, will be one of the 46 member nations to take part in the Esports World Championship. After a round of national qualifiers, the following Esport athletes were selected by the Sri Lanka Esports Association to represent Sri Lanka at the 10th Esports World Championship,

League of Legends

Counter Strike : Global Offensive

Tekken 7

The world’s governing body for Esports, the IESF will be hosting the tenth iteration of the Esports World Championship – its largest Esports event. Taking place in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, the 10th Esports World Championship’s main events will be held from the 9th of November to the 11th of November.

Formed with the intent of fostering steady and sustainable growth in esports, the International Esports Federation continuously strives to support its member nations regardless of language, race, and culture. Initially starting off with 9 member nations, the IESF now spans over 48 countries.

Featuring three game titles; League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Tekken 7, the IESF’s 10th Esports World Championships will have a prize pool of 54,000 USD, with 10,000 USD of the prize pool going to the overall champion nation.

After a meticulous selection process, Sri Lanka was awarded the highest points to be eligible for flight support, as well as allowances for food and stay. The IESF will also be sponsoring national federation’s athlete flights for 22 nations for team titles and 31 nations for individual titles, as well as food and stay for select nations.

Raveen Wijayatilake, President of the Sri Lanka Esports Association will be accompanying the esport athletes as the Sri Lankan representative for both the IESF General Meetings and the Global Esports Executive Summit happening in Busan, Korea.

MAS Twinery joins the Sri Lankan Esports movement by coming onboard as the main sponsor of the national Esports team taking part in the World Championships. Twinery is the source of innovations for MAS which is one of the largest apparel manufacturers in South Asia.

Red Bull who has continued to supported the culture of Esports in Sri Lanka during the recent years is the official Energy Drink for the team.

Stay tuned to Gamer.LK for the latest updates from Sri Lanka’s journey at the Esports World Championship.

SLT stepped into the limelight with the inaugural SLT Esports Championship in 2015. which became an instant success. Since then, SLT has continued to support the Esports industry in the country as it continues to grow. This year, SLT proudly initiated new types of Esports events held across different formats and regions of the country to further promote Esports and strengthen the SLT brand position among the youth segment. The company marks the end of its Esports activities for the year with the pinnacle event, SLT e-Sports Championship which promises to be more extravagant and colorful than previous years.

In addition to gaming, SLT is also encouraging cosplayers to dress up as their favourite characters as they will also be holding a cosplay competition to select the best cosplayer at the event.

SLT is excited to also introduce a mobile game development competition which will be launched at the event. The competition is aimed at showcasing groundbreaking innovations and new trends in the mobile entertainment industry. Applicants will be able to enroll for the event, for either Android or iOS mobile game applications.

In addition, SLT will also be launching the SLT eSports platform to the online gamers of Sri Lanka at the Championship, making SLT the first operator in South Asia to launch such a service.

Join the action at www.slt.lk/esports and be prepared for a mind-blowing gaming experience.

• Xiphos eSports
• PhoeniX Gaming
• Noob Alliance
• Maximum eSports
• Tech Morph Gaming
• WolfGang eSports
• Evox eSports
• Division eSports
• Death Pact

Consisting of 6 Dota 2 players per clan, the tournament will host 54 players. Split into 6 groups, the group stages of the tournament will be played in the single elimination format, but there’s a twist. 2 groups will have only 8 players. Based on a social media poll, two players will earn a slot in the final bracket, depending on their popularity. The 52 other players will have to duke it out in the group stage and the winner of each group will advance into the final bracket. The final 8 will play in the single elimination format as well

• 1 x Gamdias gaming chair
• 1 x HyperX Elite Gaming Keyboard
• 1 x HyperX Pulsefire Surge Gaming Mouse
• 1 x HyperX Cloud Alpha Gaming Headset

Second place –

• 1 x Gamdias gaming chair
• 1 x HyperX Pulsefire Surge Gaming Mouse

Third place –

• 1 x Gamdias gaming chair

On the 29th of November, SLT hosted the first iteration of the “ SLT Esports Lobby Challenge “.
The first Esports event for the 4th quarter of the gaming year, the SLT Esports Lobby Challenge gave teams the chance to benchmark themselves before the main and final events for the year.
The SLT Esports Lobby Challenge featured 3 different gaming titles, DOTA 2, FIFA 18 and Clash Royale, with DOTA 2 being the only multiplayer battle arena event. The DOTA 2 bracket was played in two formats, with an online qualifier and a LAN event from the semi-finals onwards.
Clash Royale and FIFA 18 had multiple qualifiers before the final bracket.

Here’s a recap of the event

The only mobile title at the tournament, Clash Royale saw a small, but talented group of competitors for its final ranked bracket. With 6 out of the 8 competitors split even between Phoenix GaminG and Noob Alliance, it was more of a question of which clan would walk away with the winnings. Heavily present in round 2, it was clear that the crown was likely to fall into nA’s lap, especially with the former titleholder, nA.Daniel competing. However, PnX-Parthifan and PnX-G4M3R_N4JEE8 weren’t out just yet. In a surprising upset, nA.Daniel suffered a crushing defeat against nA-Angmar.  Playing two close games against nA-Loch and nA-rN’b respectively, PnX won one game and lost one, with PnX-Parthifan defeating nA-Loch 2 points to 1. PnX’s hopes lied with PnX-Parthifan, with the 3 other semifinalists all from nA. While PnX-Parthifan put up a good fight, he was executed by nA-Angmar, 2 points to 0. On the other side of the semifinals, nA-Hanif swiftly disposed his clanmate nA-rN’b 2 points to 0. Knocked down to the bronze match, PnX-Parthifan outplayed nA-rN’b and won 3rd place, 2 points to 0. With both competitors from nA, the final match was theirs as predicted. Duking it out to a score of 3 points to 2, nA-Hanif pulled off a close win against nA-Angmar.

FIFA 2018 had the amusing draw at the SLT Esports Lobby Challenge, mainly due to the fact that roughly 50% of the competitors in the final bracket were from one single clan, Phoenix GaminG. Having the numbers advantage, Phoenix GaminG went on to dominate Round 1, with nA-VeNoM and M.eS-Pro being the only two players not from PnX to qualify for the second round. In an interesting turn of events, the duo faced off in Round 2 to play a close match, with nA-VeNoM winning 2 points to 1. With 3 competitors from PnX, the odds were stacked against the nA-VeNoM, facing off against PnX-Faz in the semifinals. Winning by a landslide, PnX-Faz defeated nA-VeNoM 5 points to 1 and advanced to the finals against, PnX-Dishi – who defeated PnX-SHARPSHOOT3R 4 points to 2. Knocked down to the bronze match, nA-VeNoM went on to duke it out with PnX-SHARPSHOOT3R and lost against a score of 8 points to 4. With all 3 top places under their belt, the finals were in Phoenix GaminG’s hands. A nail-biter of a match, the finals played into PnX-Faz’s favor, defeating PnX-Dishi 1 to 0.

The star title of the SLT Esports Lobby Challenge, DotA saw the most number of competitors.
With 28 teams and 140 competitors, DotA 2 had a colossal display of hero picks, item builds and playstyles. After 20 matches and 2 rounds, round 3 was down to be played between 8 teams.
Xiphos Esports, Division Esports, Noob Alliance, Phoenix GaminG and Tech Morph were the clans skillful enough to make it to the top 8. Playing tactfully and seizing every opportunity, x3-Victorious Secret, nA-team tempest, Div-Death Sentence, and nA-BedTime SamuraiS defeated their opponents and made it to the semifinals.

With one Noob Alliance team per semifinal match, was the crown going to nA? The first match, nA-BedTime SamuraiS vs x3-Victorious Secret. started off clearly in nA’s favor, with the early game clearly in their favor. However, x3 managed to turtle through the early game. Unable to capitalize the advantage they had, nA got punished heavily in the mid to late game by x3 and lost. As for the second match, nA-team tempest vs Div-Death Sentence, the game started with Div punishing nA in the top lane – nA’s safe lane. Unable to secure the need farm and most importantly contain Div’s Alchemist, nA swiftly fell to Div. Matched up against each other in the bronze match, nA-BedTime SamuraiS played in their comfort zone running an Anti Mage against nA-team tempest. Unable to zone out the enemy safe lane or out farm them, nA-team tempest fell to the wrath of nA-BedTime SamuraiS ‘s heavily farmed Antimage.

Matching up against each other, x3-Victorious Secret. and Div-Death Sentence were the last two teams left standing, a Best of 3 finals. Dominating the early and midgame marks, the game was easily within Div’s palm. Overconfident and complacent, Div dragged the game instead of going for the enemy’s ancient, making critical mistakes and giving x3 the opportunity to make a comeback into the game. Playing an impressive Invoker and Monkey King, x3-Victorious Secret. crushed Div-Death Sentence in the first game by capitalizing the late game. Learning from their mistakes and dominating the game just with their draft by playing a heavily farmed Phantom Assassin and Wraith King, Div-Death Sentence managed to crit their way to a swift victory and evened the score to 1 point to 1 against x3-Victorious Secret.. The tie-breaking and deciding game for the crown, game 3 was intense. Roaming lanes and not letting the enemy farm, the Tusk played by x3 zoned out the Div supports. In the mid lane, however, Div’s Viper was zoning out the x3 Tinker and delaying his boots of travel. As for the top lane, x3 shutdown Div’s Monkey King and starved him of farm. With an exchange of power In different lanes and matching up in terms of farm, both teams were neck and neck, but Div pretty much had the early game lead. But by making critical mistakes like not having a gem, not containing both the Tinker and Luna or not shutting down the Silencer who was stealing copious amounts of Int, Div gave x3 space and the opportunity to turtle on and make an easy comeback. Making use of the space they were given, x3 was merciless, felling Div to their knees and taking the crown for DotA 2.

With a wide range of talented clans taking part, the SLT Esports Lobby Challenge was just a taste of what’s to come for the major events for the year.
Will the same teams who emerged triumphantly do it again?
Or will other teams use the time they have left to study and outplay the champions?
Stay tuned.