Netopia Woos Gamers Anew with CyberLeague Gaming Tournament Relaunch

Netopia is now the biggest Internet cafe chain in the Philippines, catering mostly to mainstream Internet users in malls — but it wasn’t always so. Back in the bad old days of 56kbps dial-up Internet, most of Netopia’s business came from PC gamers.

As the Internet became more mainstream, and mallgoers started emailing and chatting and social networking, gaming at Netopia dwindled to the point that it made up only 25% of their business. Independent Internet cafes, with their low prices and cozy atmosphere and late-night operating hours, currently hold a huge chunk the Filipino gaming market.

Ambiance Versus Infrastructure

During the mid-2000s, Netopia experimented with a luxurious gaming lounge they called the “Extreme Gaming Grounds” or EGG. While I very much enjoyed playing in such a well-appointed gaming arena, EGG cost three times as much to build as a regular Netopia branch. The economics were unsustainable.

Clearly, Netopia couldn’t win back gamers with ambiance alone. Intrepid Filipino gamers can still find two smaller EGGs operating today, but the gaming lounges simply aren’t a huge part of Netopia’s business.

While a nationwide network of mall branches filled with mainstream Internet users doesn’t provide the coziness of a gaming lounge, it does provide the infrastructure for nationwide gaming tournaments. Netopia now hopes to leverage that infrastructure in a bid to win back gamers, by relaunching its annual gaming tournament. Dormant since 2005, Netopia’s CyberLeague tournament returns with a vengeance in 2010.

Relationships Matter

Leveraging its corporate relationships as the country’s largest Internet cafe chain, Netopia brings on board three Philippine online game publishers for CyberLeague 2010: Level Up, E-Games, and EagleGame. Level Up and E-Games are the two largest online game publishers in the country, while EagleGame is the new kid on the block.

If you’re a Filipino gamer who’d like to join the CyberLeague 2010 tournament, you’d better brush up on games from the aforementioned publishers. Level Up’s Iggy Javellana says his company will probably contribute specator-friendly online games to the tournament: a fighting game, a racing game, and a first-person shooter.

The other two publishers will probably contribute similarly spectator-friendly games. Expect less RPG grind and more arcade twitch.

Previous CyberLeague tournaments featured LAN-based games. CyberLeague 2010’s shift to online games shows off Netopia’s impressive nationwide connectivity. After all, Netopia is owned by the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company, the country’s largest telco and ISP.

Champions and Cosplayers

Netopia touts CyberLeague 2010 as a tournament where “Champions Meet Champions”. If you’re one of those Filipino gaming champions, register for the game of your choice at any Netopia branch from May 1 to 30. Eliminations will run from June 10 to August 22, at Netopia branches nationwide. Semi-finals will run from September 22 to 26, at selected Netopia branches. It all comes to a head during the grand finals on October 23 and 24.

Cosplay is inextricably intertwined with gamer culture. That’s especially true in the Philippines, where Filipina gamer Alodia Gosiengfiao reigns as cosplay queen. CyberLeague 2010 formally acknowledges this relationship between gaming and cosplay, by running a game character cosplay competition along with the gaming tournament.

Aside from the cosplay competition, CyberLeague 2010 will also run a gamer fashion competition. Of course, I usually play games in a shirt and shorts, but more fashionable gamers will get a chance to literally wear their geeky passions.

Netopia COO Jito Grau admits that they can’t provide the ambiance for late-night gaming — but they can certainly provide the hardware for competitive gaming. CyberLeague 2010 will remind gamers of that fact.

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