By Raveen Wijayatilake / President of Sri Lanka e-Sports Association
This past year saw Sri Lankan e-Sports slowly but surely solidify its position as a culture and a sport within the country. The start of the year saw a number of Sri Lankan clans take the initiative to organize tournaments, giving a large burst of activity to the local e Sports scene. With more tournaments being organized, the Sri Lanka e Sports Association was able to take a stronger role in regulating tournaments and introducing a solid ranking system, thus giving a non formalized Sri Lankan competitive scene some structure.
Sri Lanka took part in the IeSF 2012 World Championship for the second year running, with the participants being able to bring back invaluable experiences to share with the rest of the local community. The standards of local events and organizational processes have also being improved or re-structured based on observations, notes and discussions held with fellow members at IeSF conferences and events. The annual IeSF general meeting and World Championship has been a fantastic way for smaller countries like Sri Lanka to be directly exposed to the larger international scene, and enabled us to improve how things are done here in Sri Lanka. We are grateful for the support that is given to us by the IeSF every year.
The end of the year was witness to the climax of the e-Sports calendar in Sri Lanka, with the Sri Lanka Cyber Games 2012 Championship being held on the 16th, 17th and 18th November ‘12. With record breaking crowds and participating teams, SLCG ‘12 not only pushed boundaries in terms of participation, but also managed to bring e- Sports to the mainstream media with several media organizations taking notice of this mega-event. A glimpse of SLCG ‘12 : http://bit.ly/TxezWk (YouTube video).
The conclusion of 2012 left Sri Lankan e-Sports in a stronger position than it was ever before. We currently look forward to take part in the Asia Indoor and Martial Arts Games for the first time in 2013. New opportunities, new ventures and new partners – we look forward to 2013.
