This year’s Pinoy Gaming Festival breaks off its old meta and takes a turn for something more community-centric.

Less is more, that is one way to describe this year’s Pinoy Gaming Festival Summer Assembly as the video game convention once again offered something new to the Filipino gaming crowd in 3-days of jam-packed activities featuring existing and upcoming video game hits.

A new year, and a new venue

Held last March 23-25, 2018, the Pinoy Gaming Festival Summer Assembly 2018 once again moves to a new home as the venue goes to the Glorietta 3 Activity Center, miles away from last year’s venue at Trinoma. Commonly being held at the Cyberzone Activity Center in SM City North EDSA, this year’s PGF Summer Assembly 2018 venue moves towards the heart of Metro Manila’s business district, albeit still maintaining ease of accessibility for the attendees.

Less is More

One of the most notable things about this year’s installment of the Pinoy Gaming Festival is the obvious lack of game showcases in contrast to its previous years. Initially known to be peppered with popular Esports titles, only League of Legends remains to be part of the usual game highlights, although this did not really mean that the event lacked in terms of content as the attendees were introduced to relatively new competitive multiplayer titles and even ones that are developed locally.

While there may be an obvious absence of other big Esports titles like Dota 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, PGF Summer Assembly 2018 attendees are treated to showcases of other competitive titles that have also been making waves in the realm of Esports and competitive multiplay such as mobile titles, VainGlory and Arena of Valor.

Garena’s battle royale title, Free Fire was also one of the highlighted games in this year’s Pinoy Gaming Festival, together with Bandai Namco’s newest fighting game Dragon Ball FighterZ, but perhaps the most interesting video game highlight was Project Xandata, the upcoming shooting title created by local developer Secret 6, who went on and held, not just community matches but also a full-on Esports tournament.

Community Games taking center stage.

Community-centric may be the best term to describe this year’s Pinoy Gaming Festival Summer Assembly as the event and its partners turned towards crowd interaction for a major portion of its activities both on-stage and off-stage. A lot of the games invited not just seasoned veterans but also Filipino gaming community members to participate. Personalities such as Suzzysaur, Sh1n Boo, and GLOCO mingling with the crowd and playing with their fans on the big stage, and Garena holding an on-the-spot community tournament are just some of the notable highlights when we talk about community interaction at this year’s Pinoy Gaming Festival.

This very welcome addition is a big break from the event’s usual showcase of Esports pros and sanctioned tournaments and puts the community in the spotlight in a very major way. Although there might be a chance that the adjustment is temporary given that PGF Summer Assembly 2018 is held on the same days as Mineski’s Philippine Pro Gaming League, we’re still looking forward to having more showcases of community matches to be a regular part of the Pinoy Gaming Festival moving forward.

Redemption from last year’s mishaps

If you have been to last year’s PGF you may remember how messy it felt as numerous technical issues plagued the event which resulted in a very heavy delay of matches and activities, not just on the stage, but also on the individual gaming booths. This year however, the event was able to redeem itself with a near perfect program flow for the 3-day gaming extravaganza. While still certainly not one without issues, PGF Summer Assembly 2018 had minimal, and mostly expected delays, in terms of scheduling, mostly due to the length of the games which are commonly out of the organizer’s control, and everything from the registration to the booth activities went rather smoothly for the duration of the 3-day event. Still there are a lot of areas that need a closer look such how certain areas of the event are laid out, and, if there is one thing that I can personally ask from the organizers is the inclusion of an Assistance or Information booth which everyone from attendees to even the exhibitors can utilize should they need any, well, assistance, in regards to event related concerns that need to be resolved on the spot. It may just be a free event, but knowing where to go or who to ask should any concern suddenly come up is a big plus for everyone that is concerned.

As always, the Pinoy Gaming Festival still lives up to its expectations while at the same time introducing something new for this year’s installment with a major highlight on community interaction by way of inviting the attendees to be part of the big activities. While it can never be totally free of issues just like any other event, PGF Summer Assembly 2018 sailed rather smoothly for its whole 3-day duration, and as always, we’re looking forward to being part of it again next year.