Do Gaming cancels rAge Championships, update from expo organiser Michael James

Telkom Do Gaming will be offering R200k in prize money for the Do Gaming Championships. However, the Championships will be held online due to the rAge expo being unable to offer a block booking of tickets to Telkom Do Gaming for the Championships.

Telkom Do Gaming had intended to run the Do Gaming LAN Championships at the rAge expo, which has been the case for the last two years. Last year, Telkom Do Gaming paid for gamers’ LAN tickets and had intended to do so once more. However, the rAge expo could not offer a block booking for the LAN, which meant that the only way to hold a competition would be for gamers to buy the tickets themselves.

However, given the speed at which tickets sell out for the NAG LAN, this could have resulted in many gamers failing to secure tickets, which would make holding a competition problematic. Seating at the LAN is also allocated on a first come first serve basis, which would result in Do Gaming League players being spread out all over the LAN.

Given that gamers play in the various leagues for four legs over the course of the year in the build up to the Championships, it was decided to rather maintain the integrity and intensity of the Championships and utilise the money that would have been spent on LAN tickets for prize money.

Telkom Do Gaming will therefore be offering R200 000 in cash across the various leagues and divisions within each league as prize money for the Championships which will now be played online.

Telkom Do Gaming regrets that the Do Gaming Championships could not be held in LAN format, as we are aware many gamers see it as the ultimate test of skill. Details of the Championships along with the prize money breakdown will be released in the near future.

**UPDATE**

Michael James, head of the rAge expo has commented on the situation and clarifies a number of things. It is interesting to note that the tickets for the competition area were only requested two days ago by Do Gaming, leaving things to the last minute?

Statement

Hi there,

I’ll be more than happy to fill in the gaps. The article on the site doesn’t tell the whole story and the problem is no matter how I answer this it’s going to look like blame shifting or whatever is read into it, but that’s always about perception. It’s important to remember that everyone involved is always trying to give the gamers the best possible experience because it’s good for the whole industry and that’s good for everyone.

The root of the issue is that the request for tickets to us was only made on Wednesday afternoon – this was 4 days before the tickets for the NAG LAN went on sale at Computicket (1 August 2010). I was not able to make any changes with Computicket in enough time (they have various contracts in place to protect the buyers and it would have required meetings, approvals and so on) to ensure that the tickets were secured. In terms of blame – as much as everyone loves a scapegoat there isn’t one in this case. It was just a timing issue that involved too many players and logistics to solve quickly – The NAG LAN and rAge are rather large and complicated events.

I can’t speak for Do Gaming about rAge 2011 but we’re always open to anything that will grow the industry. Remember, rAge is simply an event and is not affiliated to any competition or competitive gaming organisation.

Hope this answers your questions and sorry for any disappointment – everyone on our side did everything they could to make it happen.

Later,

Michael James
rAge Expo