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?

Sri Lankan start-ups can learn from the best on entrepreneurship, business and technology

24th July 2018: Colombo – Sri Lanka: Disrupt Asia 2018, Sri Lanka’s Premier Start-up Conference and Innovation Festival, was officially announced today. This year’s event is the 3rd edition of this ground-breaking event and is set to take place from 4pm to midnight on 11th August 2018 at the Trace – Expert City.

Organized by the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA), Disrupt Asia 2018 is supported by the Ministry of Telecommunication, Digital Infrastructure and Foreign Employment, International Partner – IKT Norge, Knowledge Partner – PWC, Supporting Partners – GIZ Sri Lanka and Trace-Expert City, Payments Partner – PayHere, Volunteer Partner – GudPpl, Eco System Partner – SLASSCOM, Makerspace Partner – Igniter Space, YouTube Partner – IdeaHell, Social Innovation Partner – UNDP Sri Lanka, Hosting Partners – Calcey Technologies, Orel Corporation, WSO2 and CodeGen and Creative Pavilion Partner – Gamer.LK.

Disrupt Asia 2018 is the progression of an increased effort by the ICTA to broaden the start-up landscape of the country and inspire the next wave of growth. Each and every aspect of Disrupt Asia 2018 has been carefully thought out to drive innovation and inspire the entrepreneurial mindset of all participants.

The conference will discuss the need for policy and strategy. Entrepreneurs sharing their successes and failures will provide inspiration to take the plunge. Experts from Sri Lanka, USA, Netherlands, UK and India will share their knowledge on AI, digital marketing, security and set the stage for disruptive thinking around STEAM education, creative industries and social entrepreneurship. Disrupt Asia will also address the need to build a second tier of angel investors through the unique Investor Forum.

Prof. Rohan Samarajiva – Chairman of ICTA opined, “As a result of the Academic Workshop on Entrepreneurship at Disrupt Asia last year, ICTA initiated the Educate to Innovate workshops for school teachers and ImagineIF startup boot camps for undergraduates to influence and inculcate entrepreneurial attitudes. This year, with the addition of the Innovation Festival, we are bringing in a whole new dimension to the event as we look to promote creativity in all its forms to ignite a different breed of entrepreneurs. We look forward to an exciting, informative event that will help all participants to re-imagine the possibilities of tomorrow.”

The Innovation Festival at Disrupt Asia 2018 is an entrance free opportunity which will showcase many technology innovations from Sri Lanka and also include works of art and digital activations that the public can experience and interact with. In addition, the Disrupt Asia Start-up Expo will be where technology start-ups will be presented with the opportunity to showcase their products to the attendees of the conference and visitors of the Innovation Festival.

The Investor Forum will be exclusively for professionals who wish to invest in technology start-ups. Participants will get valuable insights courtesy of an introduction to the start-up ecosystem in Sri Lanka, a knowledge sharing session conducted by experienced angel investors and a panel discussion on legal procedures applicable to start-up financing. Last year’s Investor Forum resulted in ICTA forming a special group – Disrupt Asia ecosystem builder’s forum – consisting of the major stakeholders. The knowledge forum acts as a decision maker towards building a stronger start-up ecosystem.

The Conference of Disrupt Asia 2018 will consist of 4 main sections – Main Stage, Stage Two, Investor Forum and Workshops – that will take place in parallel. The Disrupt Asia 2018 Start-up Battle, a competition where entrepreneurs will pitch their start-up and the top 3 selected in the preliminary rounds will pitch at the Grand Finale of the Disrupt Asia Start-up Battle on the Main Stage. The winners of the Disrupt Asia 2018 Start-up Battle will receive cash prizes and the chance to participate in the Oslo Innovation Week 2018 in September. Applications for the Startup Battle are now open at www.disruptasia.today/startupbattle while tickets for the Conference can be purchased online via https://disruptasia.today/buytickets/.

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.

The SLT Esports Cafe Challenge, the latest Esports event series of the Sri Lanka Telecom Esports brand concluded successfully yesterday. It was an action-packed event filled with exciting encounters and thrilling performances from over 300 Esports athletes who took part. There were a few major upsets as well with veterans being overcome by underdogs. The event was a ranked tournament recognised by the Sri Lanka Esports Association.

Overwatch takes center stage with PnX Syndicate coming out as Champions

The event kicked off at 9 AM with Overwatch which took center stage at the event, with many exciting and nail-biting encounters showcasing intense rivalries. The online qualifiers took place across the past week with the LAN finals being played at the event.

Tech Morph Too Old For This, Xiphos Esports Nitro Zeus, Noob Alliance Black Watch, Noob Alliance Team Catalyst, Noob Alliance The Money Team and Phoenix Gaming Team Syndicate made it to the LAN final rounds where Xiphos Esports team Nitro Zeus came out with an amazing performance of grit and determination to make their way into the finals overcoming nA Blackwatch who were tapped to be the better team between the two.

PnX Syndicate became the Champions of Overwatch and walked away with a cash prize and the bragging rights of continuing their streak as the best Overwatch team in the country.

PnX Jura beat his opponents in style to become the Tekken Champion

Tekken 7 saw a lot of new faces coming into the battleground with a lot of talent being showcased across some exciting games filed with insane combos and counter plays. One noticeable battle was the match between PnX.Amaterasu and nA.Blazer where PnX Amaterasu coming out on top after facing some critical sidestepping and counterplay manoeuvres. PnX Jura and PnX Amaterasu faced off against each other in a thrilling final with both players displaying their skills but with Jura eventually coming out on top with a 3-1 victory.

FIFA 18 crown claimed by PnX Sharpshooter

FIFA 18 drew the largest number of registrations with many looking to take a shot at winning the coveted first place. TM.Penaldo and nA.VeNoM went head to head in the other semis where the matchup was more even in terms of skill but Penaldo eventually making it through to the finals to meet PnX Sharpshooter who had shown tremendous growth since his previous tournament.

The finals were one of the most intense encounters with both players giving it their all but PnX.Sharpshooter managing to beat TM Penaldo to become the FIFA 18 Champion.

Xiphos continues their domination in Injustice 2

Injustice 2 saw an exciting set of matches coming out with some skilled plays and nerves coming out from some of the highest tier of competitive Injustice 2 players in the country. Xiphos Esports continued their dominance in Injustice 2 with X3 Redwire and X3 Rassyczar dominating the proceedings and ended up facing each other in the finals where X3 Rassyczar came out on top with a 3-1 victory.

X3 JKLV cruised to victory in Project Cars

The hype behind Project Cars continued with many players taking up the challenge behind the wheel. nA Brainfreeze Olaa and X3 JKLV faced off each other in the finals. Both players showcased some commanding victories over their opponents. Olaa looked to be in control in the finals until JKLV kicked into overdrive in the last minute and took the lead to never look back and went all the way to secure the victory.

Noob Alliance takes control of Clash Royale securing the top 3 spots.

Moving onto the title for Clash Royale and Project Cars, which are usually dominated by the likes of Joel “Daniel” Joung from n00b Alliance,  proceeded to go per normal, as he dominated against teammate rN’b in the finals with his unique decks and patience, along with some newly acquired tricks from his experience at the Asian Games qualifiers. Securing his usual number 1 spot once again taking the title 2-0

All in all the event was a great success showcasing some of the best talent that Sri Lanka has to offer in terms of Esports. As is the case with most SLT events, the turnout was topped only by the level of skill displayed by the players themselves. Sri Lanka Telecom has continued to stay true to its commitment of taking Esports and the online gaming experience to the masses over the last few years and has played a major role in improving Esports by continuing to organize top-tier gaming tournaments in the country. With the main SLT championship still to be held, we can expect even greater competition and skills as teams and players polish their skills and prepare for the final event.

The FIFA 18 qualifier for the Asian Football Gaming Championship (AFGC) was held in Colombo recently with the interest of many participants from across the country. Ahmed “Shark” Shaakir from Noob Alliance got the better of every opponent he faced and became the lucky winner of the qualifier. He is now representing Sri Lanka at the AFGC – considered to be Asia’s biggest FIFA tournament, which kicks off from the 13th to the 15th of July in Singapore.

Organised by the Singapore Cybersports and Online Gaming Association (SCOGA), the AFGC will showcase a total of 24 players from across Asia who will also be vying for a piece of the $2500 prize pool (LKR 390,000 approx).

Shaakir has been one of the most prominent FIFA players in Sri Lanka with multiple tournament finals under his belt and has proven himself a force to be reckoned with, beating down multiple high tier opponents during the qualifiers where he came out on top in the 4th bracket and then went to beat some of the best players in Sri Lanka and earned rights as the best FIFA player in the country right now.

Catching up with Shaakir, this is what he had to say on his way to take on the competition in Singapore.

“I would like to thank my sponsors Asus and Red Line Gaming for giving me the opportunity to represent Sri Lanka at the AFGC. Also special thanks to Noob Alliance for creating a platform to connect some of the best gamers from all over Sri Lanka.

My expectation of this tournament would be some really tough head on battles with the best in Asia. As it is a debut for Sri Lanka at this tournament, it would be nothing short of excitement.

Coming from a competitive background of tennis, I would be comfortable making key decisions under pressure at match situations which might actually help me overcome my opponents at this tournament.”

We wish Shaakir the best of luck in his games as he faces some of the best FIFA professionals in the region.