Celebrate the Christmas season with us as we launch our new online show, LIVE! The Show: Merry LU! Christmas!, which airs from Dec. 15-19.

This is our very first Christmas online show, following the success of the Level Up! LIVE 2008 Live Blog and live video stream, and our first online show, Reliving LIVE: The LIVE 2008 Experience

Merry LU! Christmas! is our way of thanking the LU! community for your unwavering support, as well as responding to the request of viewers to make online shows and video chat sessions with our GMs a regular offering on our portal.

See your favorite GMs and our studio guests on the live video feed while chatting with them on the Live Blog. We have lots of fun segments, cool giveaways and exciting surprises in store for you, so be sure to tune in and tell all your friends about it.

Keep visiting our LIVE! The Show: Merry LU! Christmas! page to see the full Dec. 15-19 schedule and our list of confirmed guests.

The video stream and Live Blog will start on Monday, Dec. 15, at 10 am, Philippine Standard Time.

Merry LU! Christmas, everyone!

We are pleased to announce the official winners of the recently concluded Level Up LIVE 2008 event. Thanks to all our loyal LU gamers for making this historic event a huge success!

Props and congratulations to all the talented groups and individuals for winning the respective tournaments/contests below!

Ragnarok World Championships 2008

• Champion: Thailand
• 1st Runner-up: Korea
• 2nd Runner-up: Indonesia

LIVE 2008 Tournaments 

RPC 2008

• Champion: Bozanian Beastfighters
• 1st Runner Up: – Renegades -
• 2nd Runner Up: Demented  

RF NEST 2008

• Champion – Immortals (Bellato – Praxis)
• Runner Up – MasterMinds (Accretia – Nexus)  

FlyFF HODET 2008

• Champion – The Pink Paradise (Shade server)
• Runner Up – Rekta (Bubble server)  

PW Phoenix Council Wars 2008

• Champion – Holy Order of Light (Dragon server)
• Runner Up – Guardians (Dragon Server) 

FreeStyle All Stars 2008

• Champion – Turbulence
• Runner Up – UPC Elites of Batangas  

LEVEL UP LIVE 2008 OFFICIAL CONTESTS 

National Art Competition

Digital Senior

• 1st – Camille Tan
• 2nd – Roland Joseph Mangahas
• 3rd – Jan Peter P. Arceo

Digital Junior

• Gregorio Francisco C. Lagrosa

Conventional Senior

• 1st – Eunice Yap
• 2nd – Mark Elbert C. Salazar
• 3rd – Roshier M. Garcia

Conventional Junior

• 1st – Alvaro M. Castro

On-the-Spot Art Contest

Senior Division

• 1st Place: Lorenzo Manalaysay
• 2nd Place: Noel De Leon
• 3rd Place: Mars Sunray Bozar

Junior Division:

• Justen Paul Tolentino

Level Up Annual Film Festival

• 1st place – Noel Tuting – “Lords of Perfect World”
• 2nd place – Edwin Guillermo and Diwa de Leon – “Hindi Ako Botter”
• 3rd place – Jan Michael P. Bautista –“Rise of the Gaming God – Test of Courage”

LIVE 2008 Cosplay

• Best Male: Rommel Mark O. Madlangbayan as PW Male Yu Ling
• Best Female: Shelah Zephaniah S. Espino as RF Level 55 Corite Mystic
• Best Monster/NPC: Jacob Gil as Bloody Knight
• Best Junior Cosplayer: Alex Mei Alegria as RO Alchemist
• Best in Craftsmanship: Timothy Dy Ning as RF Orange Mau
• Best Group: Frost Jokers
• Crowd Favorite: Aiken Pe Yang as RO Dullahan

Level Up City (Guild Booth)

• Best Ragnarok Booth – El Muchachos (Valkyrie server)
• Best FlyFF Booth – Most Wanted (Shade)
• Best Perfect World Booth – Cnocturna (Tiger)
• Best RF Booth – E.C.O. Unit (Nexus)

 Again, congratulations to all the winners! You deserved it!

Did you miss the BIGGEST GAMING EVENT in the Philippines? Did you fail to catch the live streaming videos of the exciting matches, side events and other activities?

Fear not! Tomorrow, November 10, is your chance to experience LIVE 2008 all over again via the Reliving Live 2008 liveblogging feature. Here, we’re going to replay featured moments PLUS give you bonus interviews, chat and performances.

Here’s the announcement from the Level Up site for your convenience;

The Reliving LIVE: The LIVE 2008 Experience video stream and Live Blog will start on Monday, Nov. 10, at 10 a.m., Philippine Standard Time.

This five-day online show, which will air from Nov. 10 to 14, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Philippine Standard Time, consists of a new Live Blog and a video stream that combines footage from Level Up! LIVE 2008 and live segments from our studio, where our guests will chat with viewers, who will be able to see them via the live feed.

See the GMs of our different games while you chat with them, and watch all the tournament matches from Level Up! LIVE 2008. Other highlights from the LIVE 2008 video footage include the FILharmoniKA orchestra performing the themes from Ragnarok, the speech of Ragnarok comics creator Lee Myung-Jin, the interview with RWC 2008 Team USA’s Lana Anderson on stage, the cosplay competition, and the concert.

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To help you prepare for the show, CHECK OUT THE OFFICIAL SCHEDULE HERE.

Pass the word.

GM T

One of the winners of the LIVE 2008 Cosplay (Best female cosplayer) is “that Cora Girl”. Well, she’s not a “Jane Doe” anymore.  Her real name is Shelah Zephaniah S. Espino or simply “Zeph” for short.

My good friend Master Diwa, also a reknowned cosplayer, did an interview of Zeph. Apparently, this is the first time that Zeph cosplayed for a major event. I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of Zeph in the coming months. ”It feels great! We were ecstatic, we were overwhelmed and surprised! There are a lot of good cosplayers out there, and I wasn’t even thinking of winning then. I just wanted to get it over with, in a good way though. I loved being in my Cora costume, so it helped ease the pressure.” Zeph said.

With Master Diwa’s permission, I am replicating his video interview with Zeph. Coming up after the jump.

Video Interview with Zeph, the Cora Girl

Here’s another shot of Zeph when she was at Level Up for the Yspeak TV interview.

Whew! October was a big, big month… not just for Level Up but for gaming as well.

Big ticket, of course, was the immensely succesful Level Up LIVE 2008 where the RWC was held for the first time outside of Korea. Sadly, team Philippines didn’t make the top 3 but they sure showed the competition that we’ve got the spirit and the drive to win. It was one helluva fight. For that, we are proud. After the smoke settled, it was Thailand that took the crown (a repeat of 2007) from stalwart, Korea 3-2 in their best of five finals match.

More October 2008 Highlights

• LIVE 2008 – You can check out my day 1 and day 2 photo coverage of the event. For everything about LIVE 2008, you can click here and browse the category section. One of the most memorable things that happened in the event was Gerard Salonga and Filharmonika playing the Ragnarok themes. Oh yeah, don’t forget the traditional cosplay.
• For the tournaments, you can go and check out the official RWC results as well as the official results of the other local tournaments such as RF NEST, PW, FlyFF and Freestyle.
• LIVE 2008: an event of Firsts
• The local MMORPG gaming scene just got a shock when Level Up CEO Jane Walker and yours truly announced 3 new, sizzling titles that we’ve acquired.
  • Rohan Online – a PvP-based MMORPG which has “revenge” as its main feature
  • Emil Chronicles Online – aka ECO. A cute, cell-shaded game which has distinct features never before seen in an MMO
  • Hello Kitty Online – aka HKO, the game I’ve been waiting for. It’s soooo cute, you’ll scream pink for the rest of your gaming life. Check it out here soon.
• Perfect World gets a shot in the shoulder as it launched the very succesful Moon Valley patch, new dungeons and quests for high-level players. That’s not all, the PW team slashed off hundreds of bucks worth on several key items within their item mall. Props to Keith Morales and the PW team. Great job!
• Of course, Grand Chase opened its gates to its CBT last October 14. This side-scrolling action game rulez! You gotta check it out.
• Even before LIVE, we held a prelude of how huge things were to be in the Road to LIVE event at the SM  MOA. Here, Boza claimed the RPC 2008 crown.
• The Crazy Kart marketing team led by Jeff Paulino took CK to the next level by building a real-life drift car and organized the first ever CK Drift Event. Sweet!
• Meanwhile GM Atma and GM Tyler have been very busy evangelizing about the great new features of FlyFF Version 12. This one’s launching this month. So, all FlyFFers, prepare for that. That’s not all! GM Atma and his team broke a record in gaming history by giving all FlyFF players the longest EXP event ever – more than 3 months of continous EXP. Brilliant!
• We’ve also talked to the pRO community to get their feedback on the upcoming RO Server Merge. Baldur, Tyr and Freya will merge into New Chaos soon this November. Right after that, we have the exciting Demise of Morroc patch for pRO. Hats off to Ryan Sacares and the RO team, Ryan’s my new and brilliant RO Brand Manager for his great management skills. Kudos to you, sir and thanks for all the great work.

I guess now you know how busy me and the entire team at Level Up are. All our efforts are for you, our dear LUG loyal players. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank EACH AND EVERYONE of you for patronizing our games. I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other more in the weeks and months to come where we’ll be bringing you more exciting events, promos and other gimmicks for your favorite LU games.

Strength and Honor,

GM Tristan

One of the highlights of the recently concluded RWC and LIVE 2008 event is a special performance by the Filharmonika Orchestra. Conducted by maestro Gerard Salonga, the 50-piece orchestra played well-known Ragnarok in-game background music such as “Theme of Prontera” and “Theme of Juno”.

Special thanks goes to Gerard and the entire Filharmonika for this first-ever performance for a gaming event. I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Charles Rapaport of AmbientMedia for coordinating with me and the LIVE organizing committee and making this idea a reality.

The video after the break.

After the great performance, the Filharmonika orchestra played the music to a 100% Pinoy-made CG movie entitled RPG.

Bravo!

Truly awesome and one of the unforgettable moments of the event.

Everyone in the Level Up team is glad that LIVE 2008 was a huge success. We’re so happy to see the “ocean” of gamers. In fact, our visitors and VIP guests from various publishers and friends from the industry were all impressed and in awe of the event. It’s also nice to hear positive feedback from our foreign RWC competitors.

I’m now at the tail-end of much needed “recharge” – 1 entire week of vacation and I’m eager to hit the desk again and get back to work with the team to bring you better events, promos and a whole slew of stuff to do in-game.

Meanwhile, in retrospect, Level UP LIVE 2008 was indeed an event of FIRSTS. Let me list it down for you after the break…

LIVE 2008 – An Event of Firsts

It’s the first time that…

• the RWC was held outside of Korea
• The Philippines hosted an international MMORPG tournament of this magnitutude
• A 50-piece orchestra played the theme-song of a game (here in the Philippines)
• we rented 3 entire halls just for the event
• there was a back-to-back winner for RPC (Boza)
• there was a back-to-back winner for RWC (Thailand)
• we had more than 40 guild booth areas
• We had a real-life gaming car (the Crazy Kart drift car) inside the event
• we ordered a gigantic tarp of JUNO to cover the entire WTC wall (the back of the stage)
• we sold LU game jackets (finally)
• someone brought a real tent and camped out at WTC for the Early Bird
• Early Birds were there as early as 4pm of Saturday
• More than 20,000 gamers attended a single event
• We had LIVE video streaming of the event
• We had liveblogging coverage of the event
• Our marshals had communications equipment
• we had Philippine cultural dance in the opening number
• I lost my voice in a LIVE event
• We had a record number of submissions for the Filmfest (more than 20 in total)
• It never rained for 2 days during the actual event sched (a couple of years back, we had a storm)
• We finished on time on Sunday (an achievement! Coz WTC charges and arm and a leg for overtime)
• We announced 3 new games at a LIVE event
• first time I wasn’t a commentator for a match. All our commentators were good (they don’t need me hehehe)
• It’s also the first time I had an executive tournament committee to help me out (Gawd, you guys rock!)
• We had so many giant video walls
• First time I saw so many girls being part of the pro teams competing for the tournaments

I’m sure I missed out on some other FIRSTS. The above are just some of the things I remember.

Again, in behalf of Level Up, our partners, sponsors, guests and friends, I’d like to THANK YOU ALL FOR ATTENDING and making LIVE 2008 as the BIGGEST ONLINE GAMING EVENT here in the country…. hmmm…. maybe in the world, eh?

Let me check the numbers. ‘Til the next post.

Cheers!

GM T out…

The annual cosplay is one of the main attractions at LIVE. And this year, we were once again in awe of the creativity of the Pinoy cosplayer. Even my friends from Gravity were impressed. That makes me proud to be Pinoy! Thanks to all those who joined and special thanks goes to GM Lilith for being the uber-lady-in-charge of the LIVE cosplay. When it comes to cosplay, we always defer to her. Thangs, Leng for a fantastic job, as always.

I’ve managed to shoot some photos during the cosplay. But since I was really busy, I wasn’t able to document the entire thing. Cosplay slide show follows the jump.

Enjoy!

Level Up Live 2008 Cosplay

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Did you get more pics than me? Feel free to share it with GM T readers via commenting below and putting in the link.

/thx

By now, you guys already know the official list of winners for the 2008 Ragnarok World Championships, right? This time around, let’s pay our respects to the deserving winners of the other LIVE 2008 tournaments. They are all Champions and worthy of the crown. I admire their dedication and passion for their game. It’s good to know that the Filipino spirit of competition is alive and these guys are all role-models that other players should follow. They (and their guilds) have prepared for this moment for months.

To all the winners – hats off to you! You have earned the right to be the true “Gods of Gaming”.

The list after the jump.

RPC 2008

• Champion – Bozanian Beast Fighters
• Second – Renegades
• Third – Demented

RF NEST 2008

• Champion – Immortals (Bellato)
• Runner Up – MasterMinds (Accre)

FlyFF HODET 2008

• Champion – Pink Paradise (Shade server)
• Runner Up – Rekta (Bubble)

Perfect World Pheonix Council Wars 2008

• Champion – Holy Order of Light
• Runner Up – Guardians

FreeStyle All Stars 2008

• Champion – Turbulence
• Runner Up – UPC Elites of Batangas

Again, congratulations to all our winners.

I hope to have another great tournament next year. Dapat ngayon pa lang naghahanda na kayo!

Strength and Honor,

GM T

PS. Once I get the list of winners from the other contests (Filmfest, National Art, etc), I will also post it here. Thanks.

We’ve just uploaded the final batch of videos for RWC 2008.

The above video is the first match between Thailand and Korea for the Grand Finals. Of course, we all know that Thailand is the RWC 2008 Champion.

In this round, Thailand takes first blood. For more videos of the succeeding rounds, head on over to the official Level Up youtube channel. Peace out!