Pinoy Gaming Festival 2014 Event Report: A Disappointing Budget Meal

Written by Chad

October 27, 2014

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For the last three years, people will remember PGF or Pinoy Gaming Festival as one of the biggest and grandest eSports event in the country, but the wheel of fate has turned against the widely respected brand for this year. How bad was it? Read on to find out more.

Last October 25 and 26 at the Megatrade Hall 2 of SM Megamall, Mineski, PeSO or Philippine eSports Organization and Otakuzine formed a partnership to bring Pinoy Gaming Festival. Originally, PGF was handled by Rapture Gaming Network, but the demise of the organization left the PGF brand hanging. Then we heard news that it was acquired by PeSO, making a sudden announcement that they will be organizing the event at a short notice. Let us begin analyzing each aspect of the event to learn what went wrong.

 

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Entrance and Registration

They have the standard format for every convention; one area designated for the ticket selling while the other is for the information booth for other inquiries and concerns. Since the event only occupied one hall, so there are no separate entrance and exit points though they placed black curtains on both access points to prevent any bystanders from loitering near the area just to watch the event from afar. Tickets are priced at PhP 120 which is cheaper from the previous PGF events, except for summer events in which the admissions were all free.

 

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Event Area

Since PGF was organized by three groups; two for gaming and one for cosplay/otaku, the event should have been packed with lots of booths to cater both audiences. But one thing was noticed when stepping into the venue; it has a lot of vacant spaces. Most of the attendees were be found on the farther left portion of the event hall, where the stage is located, beside it was the card game section where players of Vanguard, Magic: The Gathering and other card games can hang out, play and purchase cards or decks, a set of tables were prepared for them as well. On the opposite side, the console group and merchandise booth can be found there, including the Ozine maid café, but unfortunately the merchandise booths were much fewer than from the previous Ozine/Otaku Fest events, which was a letdown for some otakus who were looking for merchandises to purchase and not mention the maid café wasn’t that much of an attraction, a possible reason is that most of the esports audience there were not interested on some otaku-oriented attractions. On the good side, the console area was now composed of three communities; Hotseat for fighting game enthusiasts, PinoyPS for the PlayStation community and newcomer Smash Pilipinas for the Super Smash Bros. community, majority of the attendees gather there when they wanted to try some of the latest games for the PlayStation 3 and 4 or just looking for a friendly match or even join a competitive tournament, and it never gets empty.

Going back to the vacant space, there were areas that were empty in which some attendees can just sit on the floor anywhere they want, this was rather surprising for an event co-handled by Ozine (and even for a PGF standard) as they were known to put up a lot of booths in their venue, maybe due to the fact that the event was rushed that there were not enough time for other exhibitors to prepare.

 

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Stage Area

When people hear PGF, they would be expecting a really good stage setup with giant screens. Unfortunately it was the opposite; the stage screen was very small, it’s more like a size of a standard projector screen, and the audience were having a hard time watching it. They even have to turn off some of the lights at the stage so more attendees that are far away from the stage can watch the matches, but it did not help much thanks to the very small screen, adding a second screen at the middle of the event area would have been better. The match audio was rather weak or non-existent in some selected matches, as you can only hear the shoutcasters more, it was still uncertain if there were some technical difficulties in the game audio or rather it was intentional so that you should listen to their shoutcasters, which could be a turn-off to some con-goers that are not interested on the matches and were just roaming around the event as that would be the only ‘background music’ they would hear in almost the entire event.

 

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Event Activities

Another problem why gaming and otaku-oriented activities cannot just mix that easy. As majority of game matches can last for an hour or more, depending on the game, there would be a very high chance that some other stage activities be delayed in a much later time, and putting a different activity in the middle of the momentum of the games could kill the excitement of the attendees, forcing them to leave the premises. A karaoke competition was scheduled right after a certain match, the whole crowd just went empty in a matter of seconds, you will definitely notice that it was not what they were after, the audiences’ expectation for another promising match was interrupted by something that they are not interested at and would only return if they hear the obvious loud screams from the shoutcasters; signifying that there was an ongoing match happening. It would have been better if PGF separated the different activities per day, like for example focus more on anime and cosplay on the first day and then focus more on tournaments on the second day.  Despite PGF announcing that there would be a cosplay competition, there were a few number of cosplayers that showed up at the event, even from the outside of the venue there only a few number of them, ranging from 10-15 cosplayers

Another problem found on PGF is that the event started very late, some reported that it opened late in the afternoon for both days, which commonly all events start at the opening of the mall or maybe an hour after the mall opens. The delay on the event was a result on some technical issues on the stage and on the PC areas for the tournament.

 

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To close this event report, sadly to say, Pinoy Gaming Festival 2014 was a very disappointing event, all the expectations of a ‘PGF-like’ quality was dead gone, only replaced with a typical Ozine event with less booths and minus their stage performances and replaced it with a different title. The Summer Assembly of PGF had more offerings compare to this, and to think that the Summer Assembly was a free event. It really felt that the event was rushed for it to be materialized as some quick money generator, there was no love for the event and for the community. To add more, we even heard rumors that the three organizers already had a shaky partnership from the beginning; a possible reason could be that the three of them can’t agree on who should get the bigger slice of the pie, so it’s possible that they did not gave their full effort for this event.

It’s something like you went to a restaurant and the only thing they offered there were cheap budget meals, then you were disappointed to the meal you had and regretted  that you even went there. It would have been better if they should let the PGF brand ended last year with a bang instead of giving it a slow, painful and humiliating death.

You can check more photos of the Pinoy Gaming Festival 2014 by going to our Facebook Page

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20 Comments

  1. Bulok Mineski

    Bulok talaga pag mineski may hawak, hanggang angas lang kayo, isama mo pa yang PeSO hanggang ngayon hindi parin marunong maghandle ng events ng maayos!

    Reply
  2. X!ツ (@xvrxvrxvr)

    Di din kase talaga pinaghandaan yang pgf e kumbaga pinilit nag announce na matutuloy yung pgf october 8 na talagang hindi planado di tulad nung mga nakaraan pgf na 3 months before the event may announcement na kung kelan pre selling ng tickets kaya nung pumunta kame di na kame nabigla kung bakit maliit event konti ng booths di kase pinaghandaan di tulad ng nakaraang pgf na kahit saang sulok e may booth

    Reply
  3. xshuyinx

    Mukhang mas napaghandaan pa yung last year pgf kesa ngaun..

    Reply
  4. fukai

    Kawawa pa yung mga babaeng players ng DOTA 2 tournament, pinagantay nila ng almost 9hrs! Masyadong gabi na nag start (9:30pm) Di nila naisip na pwedeng may mangyaring masama sa mga girls pag umuwi ng ganung oras. #PGFailed

    Reply
    • ayos

      kung di ba nmn kase matatalino mga tao dun, may mpgl (wildcard ata?) at class g dun– trentang PC lng pprovide? kalokohan tlga eh.

      Reply
    • mimi

      WEH? eh may booth kmi dun at inannounce na ung winner tourna ng girls wala pang 9pm. Anung imbento yan?

      Reply
      • Di Ice To Tol

        Oh? Talaga? Eh bat mismong mga kasali nagsasabi na inabot na daw ng umaga bago natapos? Anung imbento yan?

        Reply
      • Ulul bobo mo tanga

        Bobo wala ka naman nun tanga oct 25 6:30 nagshowmatch girls the rest games ponapuntang mi shaw 930 n nagstart ulul bobo mo tanga. Cocomment comment ka di ka namn gamer! Bobo

        Reply
          • Dontwannasaymyname

            Ganito po yan. Group A to D bracketing ng girls division. then nung mga 6:30 p.m (sat) start ng game sa girls Freya and Extreme which is in bracket A. siguro naman po narinig nyo after nun pinatawag captains ng mga girls team. then sinabi samin na hindi nga po aabot sa time kasi yung boys late na matatapos. kaya sa M.I shaw ginanap yung ibang laro. after nun yun yung sinasabing madaling araw na natapos.

  5. wah

    At least it’s not worse as Dashcon

    Reply
  6. ayos

    pinaka walang kwentang event na napuntahan ko. sayang oras.

    Reply
  7. PGF2012 The best

    PGF2012 The best pa rin sa lahat ng PGF na organize, sana maulit yung ganung event. Isa yun sa mga masasabi kong Epic na napuntahan ko, sagot nila pati transportation ng mga players to MOA to Mineski Taft.

    Reply
  8. Wataaaaa

    Panget ng PGF ngayon. Dapat kasi talaga matagal pa lang nag announce na sila para yung iba makapag show ng product nila or kung ano pa nman. DAPAT KASI HINDI BINITAWAN NG RAPTURE GAMING ETONG EVENT NATO. Siguro na feel ng RGN garapal na yung mineski sa pera. Halos sila na may hawak ng buong esports. PGF 2012-2013 parin mejo maayos na na experience ko .hahaha

    Reply
  9. MINESKI GARAPAL SA PERA!

    Pinerahan lng ni yung Ozine! Walang nilabas na pera mineski ang bobo pota!

    Reply
  10. David D'Angelo

    When someone told me that there is PGF last October 25-26, I told them that it had been held already last October 3. Well, I confused it for another PGM event – Philippine Gaming Festival, http://www.gamefestival.ph/. I am sad to hear what happened to the PGF but perhaps this is because the management by Rapture Asia under Joebert and others was really well planned and knowing that they have the license to the World Cyber Games representative. The demise of rapture and eventually WCG seems to make PGF irrelevant in the absence of a recognized international competition. I wonder what will be the future of e-sports after what happened.

    Reply
  11. myra

    sino ba coordinator nito?

    Reply
  12. Red Avenue

    mukang kawawa mga nag bayad naka upo sa sahig… anyareh??? sino ba organizer nito???? last yir ganyan din.. 2015 na!!! sa sahig pa rin kami naka upo…

    Reply
  13. ZebramaN

    SQUATTER YUNG COMMENTATOR NG DOTA 2 KAKARINDI SA TENGA

    Reply

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. Last Wave of Interesting Events This Year • Deremoe - […] enough for its target audience. It’s a recommended Palate cleanser for those burned by the disappointing budget meal Pinoy Gaming…
  2. Geek Conventions: A Look Back at the Lessons That We Can Learn - […] A lot of factors can contribute to the fall of a certain convention or expo, these examples could include…
  3. Deconstructing the Allegations Against Ozine • Deremoe Deremoe - […] the former being with the Mineski Events Team and PESO’s (Philippine eSports Organization) Pinoy Gaming Festival held last October…
  4. Deconstructing the Allegations Against Ozine • Deremoe - […] the former being with the Mineski Events Team and PESO’s (Philippine eSports Organization) Pinoy Gaming Festival held last October…
  5. Event Report: ROG Masters Philippine Finals - […] We left the event at around 5:30 in the afternoon with much disappointment after having witnessed enough. As it aims to become…

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