Sure, there were thousands of gamers on the main expo floor, many of which undoubtedly thought highly of their gaming skills. However, If one had to search deep beneath The Dome, they would stumble into a large room in which the real professionals were duking it out.
Although The Internet plays host to most of the competitive gaming in South Africa, the Do Gaming league brought opponents together to battle each other face to face. A total of 560 gamers who battled out over the past few weeks and months to get to this pinnacle of their respective gaming leagues, rAge undoubtedly saw some amazing gaming taking place.
Battlefield 3, Call of Duty 4, Fifa, Gran Turismo, Modern Warfare 3 and StarCraft 2 all had their respective areas in the room with gamers battling each other for victory. The entire network had access to a whopping 120mb line, ensuring that each champion could share their prized moments over Facebook and Twitter without any delay. Seriously though, the lightning fast line was utilised by Do Gaming to post up results as well as live streams of many of the games taking place, accompanied by some good old fashioned shoutcasting.
What fascinated me the most was walking into the coffee shop adjoined to the Lan area. There were spectators relaxing at the tables or on the beanbags, watching the latest live game being broadcast on a large screen. The shoutcasters were in front providing blow by blow information on current affairs. Although this is a commonality in the East (having dedicated channels to gaming and such), it was pretty damn awesome to see it on home ground in such a casual environment. Imagine meeting up with friends to watch a local StarCraft 2 final at your favourite pub? Sports jocks may scoff at the idea, but I’m telling you, as a gamer, watching a pro/pro’s play a game near perfectly is downright entertaining.
If you would like to take a much closer look at what happened over the weekend (results, interviews, videos, etc.) head over to gaming.do.co.za. The local gaming community has never looked better, rAge bought together the best of the best, and next year can only be better.
Look out for a more in-depth look at the DGL tomorrow.
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Last Updated: October 8, 2012
