Sports

University sports continue virtually with Gamer.LK’s Inter-University Championship

Published

2 years ago

2021/06/27

With traditional sports coming to a standstill in the pandemic-stricken “new normal” – Esports take the limelight as university students go head-to-head virtually in their favorite video games. Organised annually by Sri Lanka’s premier Esports tournament organiser Gamer.LK, the Inter-University Esports Championship powered by Softlogic and Dell this year will attract participation surpassing those of its traditional sports counterparts. Samsung Sri Lanka joins as Smartphone partner and the event is energized by Red Bull.

Held for the sixth consecutive year, the event features 16 of Sri Lanka’s favorite video game titles spanning mobile, PC and console. University students from across the country are able to participate remotely from the safety of their own homes, coming together in a virtual arena connected via the internet. The featured titles are Call of Duty 4 – 5v5, Call of Duty Mobile – Solo, Clash Royale – 1v1, DOTA 2 – 5v5, FIFA 21 – 1v1, Assetto Corsa – Race, Free Fire – Solo, League of Legends – 5v5, Mario Kart Tour – 1v1, Mobile Legends – 5v5, Rainbow Six Siege – 5v5, Real Cricket – 1v1, Rocket League – 1v1, PUBG Mobile – Solo, Valorant – 5v5, Call of Duty: Warzone (exhibition) – Solo.

Last year’s championship was the first time the event was taken online fully, and still saw no shortage of players. There were over 630 registered players across 57 universities and higher education institutions from all over Sri Lanka. The competition between the universities has also never been more fierce, with each year a different university stepping up to take the title of champion from former victors.

Previous winners of the Inter-University Esports Championship:

● 2020 – National School of Business Management (NSBM)

● 2019 – Informatics Institute of Technology (IIT)

● 2018 – Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT)

● 2017 – International College of Business & Technology (ICBT)

● 2016 – Asia Pacific Institute of Information Technology (APIIT)

This year’s Inter-University Esports Championship is powered by Softlogic and Dell. Softlogic Holdings PLC is a diversified conglomerate in Sri Lanka, and is known to be one of Sri Lanka’s most dynamic and progressive conglomerates, with industry leadership in six business verticals — ICT, Healthcare, Retail, Financial Services, Automobiles and Leisure.

Softlogic has always been in the forefront of introducing the best technologies the world has to offer to the Sri Lankan consumer. Softlogic has contributed to the development of the Sri Lankan IT infrastructure immensely over the years through decades of dedicated service as a retailer of high quality consumer electronics.

It is this same ambition that drove Softlogic to officially become an authorized distributor of Dell laptops and computers in Sri Lanka in early 1990s. Since then, Softlogic has been offering a wide range of computers and laptops suitable to be used at home, work, to study, gaming or simply for entertainment.

With the global demand for e-sports on the rise, Softlogic has been an avid supporter of the growing gaming community in Sri Lanka. To extend this support to the gaming communities, Softlogic will offer some of the world’s best Gaming Dell laptops and computers at unbeatable prices, exclusive discounts plus interest free easy payment schemes via all Softlogic and Softlogic MAX outlets island-wide, as well as on www.mysoftlogic.lk.

Samsung Sri Lanka comes onboard as the official Smartphone Partner. Samsung has been at the forefront of developing products and services for gamers and promoting E-sports in Sri Lanka over the years, as it was identified that the youth are very passionate about it. As a result, Samsung has successfully initiated and completed three large scale gaming competitions in 2020 alone with over 1000 participants from all around Sri Lanka and a staggering 175,000 people streaming the tournaments each time. Samsung continues to amplify E-Sports in Sri Lanka not only with such events but with their products as well. Samsung’s recent introduction of Galaxy S21 series has features such as Game booster technology, display with 120Hz refresh rate, gaming processors and much more on offer. Samsung has revitalised their technology to be more focused on proving the ultimate gaming experience to its users.

Red Bull steps up to Energize the championship with their signature brand of flair and energy. Giving wings to Sri Lankan gamers by partnering with and conducting unique Esports events, Red Bull has been a significant part of Sri Lanka’s Esports growth over the years. Red Bull Campus Cricket was replicated on the virtual battlefield with Red Bull Campus Clutch earlier this year, where Sri Lanka’s top campus Valorant team was given the opportunity to represent the country on a global stage. Red Bull MEO was conducted in 2020 giving Sri Lankan PUBG Mobile athletes the opportunity to showcase their skills amongst the world’s best. One of Sri Lanka’s largest PUBG Mobile events in 2021, Red Bull Fight or Flight, had over 400 squads competing for glory.

Registrations for the Inter-University Esports Championship will conclude on the 29th of June.

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Sports

Rajapaksa, Arshdeep deliver winning start for PBKS

Published

5 hours ago

2023/04/1

Priyan

Bhanuka Rajapaksa hit fifty off 32 balls. (pic BCCI)

A power-packed, collective performance with the bat set the platform for Punjab Kings’ winning start as they downed Kolkata Knight Riders by seven runs (DLS method) at the PCA stadium in Mohali on Saturday (April 1). Bhanuka Rajapaksa (50 off 32) registered his maiden IPL fifty while Shikhar Dhawan struck a 29-ball 40, and along with useful contributions from the rest of the batters, PBKS posted a formidable 191/5. Andre Russell top-scored for KKR but they lost wickets at regular intervals and eventually fell short of the DLS par score as they finished with 146/7 in 16 overs when rain forced the players off the field.

Brief scores:

Punjab Kings 191/5 in 20 overs (Bhanuka Rajapaksa 50, Shikhar Dhawan 40; Tim Southee 2-54) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 146/7 in 16 overs (Andre Russell 35; Venkatesh Iyer 34; Arshdeep Singh 3-19) by 7 runs (DLS method).

Sports

Ruturaj 92 in vain as Titans win opening game

Published

19 hours ago

2023/04/1

Priyan

Shubman Gill set the platform for a terrific run-chase in the season opener

A brilliant 92 from Ruturaj Gaikwad went in vain as defending champions Gujarat Titans beat Chennai Super Kings in Ahmedabad on Friday (March 31) in the tournament opener. Gaikwad’s innings was nullified to an extent initially by Shubman Gill before a few vital blows towards the end of the game from the Titans middle order got the job done for them with four balls to spare.

Brief scores:

Chennai Super Kings 178/7 in 20 overs (Ruturaj Gaikwad 92; Rashid Khan 2/26, Mohammed Shami 2/29) lost to Gujarat Titans182/5 in 19.2 overs (Shubman Gill 63; Rajvardhan Hangargekar 3/36) by 5 wickets

Sports

Bowlers, Stirling lead Ireland to their first win in Bangladesh in any format

Published

20 hours ago

2023/04/1

Thilina Walpola

Paul Stirling was as free-flowing as ever as he guided Ireland’s chase

Ireland finally notched a win on their tour of Bangladesh by scoring a seven-wicket win in the final T20I in Chattogram on Friday. Mark Adair led the bowling charge with three wickets as Bangladesh were bowled out for 124, and Paul Stirling, later named Player of the Match, was at his inventive best as he struck a 41-ball 77 to headline the chase. It was Ireland’s first T20I win over Bangladesh since 2009 and their first win in any format in the country.

Bangladesh had already taken the series after winning the first two games earlier in the week, and made two changes, perhaps to try out alternatives. Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Mustafizur Rahman went out; Rishad Hossain was handed a debut and Shoriful Islam made a comeback. It was the batting that came unstuck, though.

After opting to bat, Bangladesh were 61 for 7 in nine-and-a-half overs. Shamim Hossain, however, scored his first international half-century, making 51 off 42 balls with five fours and two sixes to give them a competitive 124. One of those sixes was a particularly eye-catching shot, when he reverse-whipped Curtis Campher hit over backward point for six.

But with Stirling in blistering form, and playing a few inventive shots of his own, the chase was done and dusted in 14 overs.Bangladesh’s slide started in the second over. Litton Das’ slash towards deep point against a wide Adair delivery landed in George Dockrell’s lap. It was the first time Bangladesh had lost a wicket in the powerplay after three matches.

Najmul Hossain Shanto was next to go, hitting a slog-sweep off Harry Tector straight to deep midwicket. Campher juggled the catch but clung on. In the next over, Campher himself got a wicket, when Rony Talukdar holed out at deep midwicket.

Towhid Hridoy and Shakib Al Hasan, however, went for their shots in keeping with Bangladesh’s new approach, and hit a couple of big ones, but both were gone in the space of three balls. Shakib was caught at short midwicket mistiming a pull off Adair, while Hridoy holed out off Ben White in the seventh over

Matthew Humphreys had two wicketless ODIs in Sylhet, but the left-arm spinner had a better start to his T20I career. He took a wicket off his first ball when he yorked Rishad for 8.

That made him the first Ireland bowler to take a wicket with his first ball in T20Is. This was, however, not the first time a debutant had done this against Bangladesh. Previously, Rory Kleinveldt, Pragyan Ojha, Lockie Ferguson and Cole McConchie have all achieved the feat.

Humphreys added his second off his third ball, when Taskin Ahmed was caught at deep midwicket for a duck.Shamim and Nasum Ahmed added 33 runs for the eighth wicket before Nasum was caught in the covers off Gareth Delany’s legspin. Adair took his third when he removed Shoriful, before Fionn Hand took Shamim’s wicket in the final over.

Stirling didn’t get going at the start, as there were two early wickets, of Ross Adair and Lorcan Tucker, but once he was set, there was no stopping him. He cut and swept Shakib for fours to kickstart the chase, and then deposited Hasan Mahmud’s half-tracker for his first six next over. No bowler escaped his wrath, or his inventiveness, as he hit ten fours and four sixes in his 41-ball innings.

Many of those came in one Shoriful over, the 11th of the innings, when he pulled a six and hit three fours to take 20 runs. Rishad put an end to the mayhem when he had Stirling caught at long-on in the 13th over – it was Stirling’s 22nd half-century in T20Is and Rishad’s first international wicket – but Campher closed out the chase with a four and a six off Taskin.

Brief scores:

Ireland 126 for 3 (Stirling 77, Campher 16*, Tector 14*, Rishad 1-19) beat Bangladesh 124 (Shamim 51, Adair 3-25, Humphreys 2-10) by seven wickets