The atmosphere was intense and the crowd eccentric. The players were all sweaty yet determined, despite continuous knocks from the opponents. Mothers were praying for their children to win the title whereas the fans cheered at the top of their voice. In the midst of this, one of team wins, grabbing a phenomenal appreciation from the excited commentators and a prize money of Rs 3,00,000. If you are thinking this to be the description of a usual cricket match, then you are mistaken. This was the ASUS ROG gaming event in India.
The ASUS ROG Masters is one of the renowned gaming events organised on an international platform. Participants from various countries are given an opportunity to play against opponents from the world and prove themselves. As you must have guessed, the event is organised by ASUS, giving them an opportunity to showcase their gaming line-up's prowess.
Bengaluru witnessed the South Asian semi-finals of the event, which saw some of the best professional gamers from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India battle it out over intense sessions of two popular multiplayer titles — DOTA 2 and Counter-Strike: GO. The winners won a maximum cash prize of Rs 3,00,000 and a gateway to the finals, which is due to be held at an undisclosed location.
However, the ROG Masters is not only about the players and the competition. It strives to bring together the kind of people who like and love to have long discussions or debates on the relevance of a power-efficient graphics card versus two top-spec NVIDIA cards. The ROG Masters provides platforms to let those interact who breathe high scores and CPU-overclocking numbers.
Hoards of youngsters and even aged enthusiasts concentrated on the live display, predicting the upcoming moves and devising their own strategies. Senior family members, who had come to attend the event along with their kids, were discussing the benefits of PC games for the all-round development of their young ones. Those who were bored of the flashing disco lights and the persistently exciting commentary wished to get a photograph with the real-life game characters or the Justice League superheroes.
Apart from that, the venue was surrounded by a collection of the best gaming laptops and desktops from ASUS, each hosting a multiplayer session of the popular games that the attendees could participate in. Whether it be desktop setups with two NVIDIA GTX 1080 cards in SLI or adequately powerful rigs with triple displays, there was everything for everyone. Also, latest gaming technologies like VR gaming and cross-platform gaming (Xbox One S and Windows 10 PC) were on display to let the visitors get a glimpse of the upcoming gaming technologies.
The ROG Masters Bengaluru chapter was a glimpse of a world that exists on computer keyboards and joysticks, one that involves extreme fascination for high-end computer hardware to get the best experience on the monitor. Of course, this happens every single year, which means that the circus will be back with more action and content to experience first-hand.
