Gamer.LK, the leader in e S p o r t s an d Di g i t a l Entertainment experiences in Sri Lanka, successfully organised the Inter-University eSports Championship 2018 – Powered by Dialog Gaming on April 21 and 22 at TRACE Expert City in Maradana. This was the third consecutive year that the championship was organised and it provides a unique platform which brings the excitement and thrill of eSports, exclusively to the University level.

This year’s championship saw the participation of over 40 leading government and private universities as well as educational institutes, which included University of Colombo, University of Peradeniya, University of Jaffna, SLIIT, IIT, ICBT, eSoft, ACBT, General Sir John Kotalawela Defence University, NIBM, NSBM, APIIT and many more. This year the championship was won by Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT). In 2017 International College of Business and Technology (ICBT) emerged champs while Asia Pacific Institute of Information Technology (APIIT) claimed the title in 2016. Sri Lanka’s largest University sports event kicked off with matches being displayed on the giant screen at the venue as well as being live streamed by Gamer. LK on Facebook for viewers at home.

The action across 14 competitive gaming titles, which included the popular team titles – Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, League of Legends, Overwatch and Special Force 2 as well as individual titles – FIFA 18, Project CARS, Tekken 7, Injustice 2 and Clash Royale. A women’s league aimed at promoting eSports amongst women was also held with Need for Speed: Most Wanted being the title of choice. In addition to these competitive titles, participants also were able to take part in tryouts for Sri Lanka’s Fastest eRacer.

Complete with Red Bull racing seats, racing wheels and pedals, largescreen TVs and the tracks on Project CARS, this is a brandnew concept devised by Gamer. LK and aimed at promoting simulation racing in the country. The eRacer tryouts saw the participation of gamers of all ages and genders. The Inter-University 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, where the winners walked away with 1TB of Dialog 4G data. In addition, they will be kicking off the Dialog Gaming League later this year, for which the Special Force 2 champions at Inter- University 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 were the Official Energy Drink for the event with the Red Bull wings team carrying out sampling at the venue. MSI came on board as the Technology Partner for the event. MSI officially launched their 8th generation high performance laptop series at the event. The launch featured the MSI GE 73 Raider laptop which was subsequently placed at the MSI experience stall at the event, with participants being able to test and feel the laptop’s sheer power and capabilities. TRACE Expert City was the Venue Partner for the event.

TRACE aspires to transform Sri Lanka into an economically sound, knowledge based, technocentric, sustainable business hub by promoting innovation, entrepreneurship and professionalism by technologically reawakening our culture of excellence. The event was supported by the Official Online Store Play.LK, Digital Media Partner ReadMe. LK, Cinematography Partner Stream Media and Audio-Visual & Lighting Partner Elektro Revo. At the end of two exciting days of exhilarating and nail-biting matches, SLIIT became the overall champions of this year’s Championship with a tally of 4 gold medals and 2 bronze medals.

APIIT came in as runners-up while ICBT came in as second runners-up. For more information, visit university.gamer.lk. The successful completion of the university-level edition marked the first of the three major competitions held annually by Gamer.LK for universities, mercantiles and schools. Up next are the mercantile and school-level events scheduled to be held in July and September this year respectively. These events will be powered by Dialog Gaming with MSI as the Technology Partner.