Gets $1,000 cash aside from iPhone
When Strife officially opened up their game for open beta, they started a promotion dubbed Race to 70. The premise was simple – whoever gets to level 70 first (the game’s level cap) wins, and gets to visit S2 Studios (the developer of Strife) at their US office at Kalamazoo Michigan to see where the magic happens. Pinoy gamer WG King (real name Alvin Rillera) managed to blaze through the challenge and take the crown.
(Read our review of Srife here!)
Unfortunately, Pinoys traditionally have a lot of issues trying to secure visas to travel to the US, so instead of travelling, WG King opted instead to grab a brand new iPhone 5s plus an additional cash prize of $ 1,000.
“Pinili ko yung alternate prize kasi alam naman nating mahirap kumuha ng US visa dito sa PH. Bukod doon, matagal pa! 1 month to set an appointment, malamang naman madedeny ka rin lang.” (“I took the alternate prize because we all know it’s difficult to secure a US visa from the Philippines. Aside from that, it takes a long time. It takes 1 month to set an appointment and chances are you’ll just get denied”), WG King said on the official site.
WG King’s fears aren’t unfounded. Gian Adriano, Product Manager for Strife PH knows firsthand just how difficult it is for pinoys to get visas to compete overseas, which is heartbreaking, considering just how much raw talent our pinoy gamers have.
“Recently, there had been a lot of news concerning players who were supposed to go to the U.S. but were denied getting visas. We together with S2 formulated this alternate prize because we do not want WG King or Alvin’s efforts to go to waste. Having shown that a Filipino gamer can compete with the rest of the world means something not only to him but also to us as a community,” Adriano said.
WG King is happy to get the iPhone 5s, considering that his personal phone was stolen recently which is what he uses to communicate with his wife who is located in Canada. The $1,000 doesn’t hurt either.
Congratulations again to pinoy gamer WG King!
