So what went down in this year’s PGF Summer Assembly?

Summer in the Philippines has become synonymous to the annual gaming and Esports extravaganza that is the Pinoy Gaming Festival Summer Assembly. Held last April 28 to 30, 2017, at the TriNoma Activity Center, the event opened its gates to more than 10,000 attendees for a 3-day showcase of gaming competitions and highlight matches for games of different platforms, PC, Console and Mobile. And, as part of our usual post-event routine here at Reimaru Files, we take a deep dive into this year’s Pinoy Gaming Festival Summer Assembly, and take an in-depth assessment as to what went down at the TriNoma Activity Center, starting from what was bad, to good, to what could have been better.

Not without its flaws

The PGF Summer Assembly has been regarded by many as one of the benchmarks as to how a community gaming convention should look and feel like after a succesful string of events over the years, well except for 2014, that doesn’t count, however, as the old adage says, no event will be without a flaw and PGF became an addition to that as multiple issues were noticed, more of which took place during the event’s first day.

While the barren stage may have been the bane of Day 1, Days 2 and 3 went smooth when it comes to the Stage activities such as the Sakitan Nights segment.

Technical issues plagued the event during its first day resulting in many delayed or otherwise cancelled stage matches, this resulted in a barren stage if not for spots given to presenters, and the surprise segments which involve giveaways and raffles. In contrast to its previous years, this year’s PGF stage felt empty when it comes to community related segments, which we assume is because that most of the stage time is reserved for the competitive matches, although after the day 1 fiasco, days 2 and 3 went by smoothly if not for the remade League of Legends match during the closing hours of Day 3 due to a technical error.

Multiplatform Goodness and a spot for Local and Mobile

Perhaps one of the Pinoy Gaming Festival’s highlight for this year, or maybe it’s BIGGEST highlight, is the competitive tournament for Project Xandata, a locally developed multiplayer FPS, which is a first for the event, as it was known to previously showcase more of the bigger Esports titles such as League of Legends and Dota 2. The presence of Project Xandata in PGF Summer Assembly, might also mean that perhaps in the future, we can expect more locally made games have their spot at PGF in the near future, particularly competitive ones like Ranida Games’ Bayani.

The sheer number of people at the Mobile Legends booth may have been the biggest attribute to PGF’s more than 10,000 attendees.

As it tries to move more into becoming a multiplatform event from previously being an event centered around competitive PC titles, this year’s PGF also hosted not just 1 but 2 mobile game titles, VainGlory and Mobile Legends, with Mobile Legends, together with PGF’s main presentor, Globe, hosting perhaps one of its first major competitive events here in the Philippines, that being the PGF Mobile Legends Tournament, which had a whooping 64-team attendance, all fighting for the major share of the PHP 25,000 prize pool. Given the popularity of Mobile Legends here in the Philippines, it’s safe to say that majority of the crowd was concentrated on Globe and Mobile Legends’ booth, resulting in a frustratingly fun adventure for those who wish to navigate the event’s grounds due to the sheer size of attendance.

Still we are wishing for more

While it did give the share of the spotlight towards PC, Console and Mobile titles, this year’s PGF had a significant absence of competitions for your usual Esports titles, such as Dota 2 and League of Legends, both titles which are left to be witnessed by the crowd through stage matches. For what is tagged as the “Esports event of the Summer” PGF 2017 could use more Esports highlights from both the already popular and uprising Esports titles. Apart from Dota 2, League of Legends, CS:GO and Overwatch, perhaps PGF can also shine its competitive spotlight on Esports titles such as Street Fighter, Tekken, Mortal Kombat, or even NBA 2K.

The positive crowd reception towards Project Xandata could help invite more local developers that are developing competitive gaming titles to be part of PGF in its future installments.

Overall, the Pinoy Gaming Festival Summer Assembly 2017 still stays true to its nature in delivering quality and enjoyable gaming event experience for attendees, players and its partners, and even with a few mishaps here and there, we are still greatly looking forward to what next year can offer.