Anyway, overall, it’s been an amazing event, what with all the powerpacked competitions that occurred. Let’s count ‘em: Ragnarok World Championships, RF Online Novus Elite Squad, Perfect World Phoenix Council Wars, Fly For Fun Heroes of the Dragon Emblem, and Freestyle All Stars ‘08.

That’s five online games and five competitions, with the Ragnarok World Champions topping the list because it’s on a global scale, with a dozen teams from 20 different countries. Whew!

Sigh. To wrap up, I’m here to announce the winners in some of the competitions I’ve managed to catch on Level Up! Games’ live streaming of LU! Live 2008:

In the Ragnarok World Championships, Team Thailand took home the crown—again—after beating South Korea in an epic battle of heart, determination and strategy. Team Indonesia, on the other hand, bagged third place after defeating last year’s third placer, Team Philippines (known locally as The Bozanian Beast Fighters).

Here’s a better overview from Ragnarok Online Philippines overlord Carlo “Wauks” Ople:

Thailand pulled off a historic win over South Korea, making them back-to-back world champions for two years in a row. The defending champions literally bulldozed all of their opponents and showcased how good they were by constantly changing their tactics depending on their opponent. The finals between Thailand and Korea really proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that they were strong contenders deserving of slots in the finals. I don’t know if I’m calling this right but I think the main difference for the fight was when Thailand used the Gypsy. Apparently, Korea had low VIT characters and they almost often found key players stunned, which disrupted the overall flow of their teamwork.

Other Ragnarok World Championships participants include the United States, Russia, Japan, Brazil, France and Germany … at least, that’s all I can remember. For more information about Ragnarok Online, click here.

Ragnarok World Championships match: The Philippines versus Thailand

More Level Up! Live 2008 news and views after the jump.

In the Fly For Fun Heroes of the Dragon Emblem competition, on the other hand, Fly For Fun Philippines Shade server’s The Pink Paradise trounced Rekta from oldest server Bubble. Honestly, I was rooting for Rekta, since I’m a Bubble habitue and because I have an acquaintance in the team. Unfortunately, experience wasn’t enough to save Rekta from a downward spiral as The Pink Paradise (what a name for a clan/guild!) zoomed ahead to snatch the coveted crown.

I can’t seem to find a video of the match, so we’ll go on right ahead to the last competition I watched, Perfect World’s Phoenix Council Wars. This was just one competition I couldn’t afford to miss since I helped found one of the clans that duked it out.

It’s unfortunate the Guardians of Perfect World Philippines Tiger server failed to make a dent in their opponent, The Holy Order of Light from the Dragon server. Still, it’s nothing to be ashamed of since, after all, they beat all other clans that participated in the eliminations and came out on top.

In my honest and humble opinion, the members of the Holy Order of Light are just too damned powerful. Needless to say, the competition wasn’t really founded on equal footing. If they—the honchos at Level Up! Games and the players—really wanted a more or less equal match, they should have given the contestants pre-generated characters to that experience plays a bigger part than brute force.

Regardless of the outcome, however, let’s congratulate both Holy Order and Guardians for giving us a spectacular slug fest.

Post from: MMOtaku

Here’s an (edited) excerpt of the “rumor” from reliable online game portal 17173:

On the afternoon of April 14th, we received word that a famous NBA star will enter into an agreement with Freestyle Basketball. The star’s image will appear in the next version of the game and give players an opportunity to virtually interact with the NBA star.

The Chinese operator of Freestyle Basketball usually likes to use stars to present the game including Pan Weibo and Jay Chou. Some players who got wind of the news are guessing that the mystery NBA player is Yi Jianlian or Ba Dier.

Very iffy but very promising. I just hope Freestyle doesn’t turn into an NBA Live wannabe.

Oh, and for those who are going to ask if the mysterious NBA star will appear in other servers of Freestyle, the answer is “I have no freaking idea.”

Photo shows Pan Weibo at an event for China’s Freestyle Basketball.

Post from: MMOtaku