MUMBAI: The mega finals showdown of the Animax Grand Gaming Challenge 2007 held on 28 February in Mumbai brought the regional winners from the four zones - North, South, East and West to battle it out for trophies in different game categories such as sports, racing, strategy, on-line and first person shooter.

This is the first activity of the lifestyle youth brand from the Sony stable after its re-launch in June 2006. Commenting on the on-ground initiative, Animax Marketing Manager Supriya Bambawale says," The Animax Grand Gaming Challenge 2007 was devised to tap into the gaming phenomenon that has invaded the lives of Animax's core audience, the wired generation, comprising 15 - 24 year olds who are tech savvy, gadget friendly and trend conscious youngsters in the country."

Among the winners teams, ATE - winners of Gamebox took home the trophies and a cheque for Rs 100,000 for winning NCS, the popular first person shooter game. SOD from Chennai were declared the best strategy gamers playing DOTA after a nail-biting win over FYO from Mumbai, taking home a cheque worth Rs.30,000 apart from the AGGC trophies. Dark Messiah won in the best online gaming category, for Gunz Online and were rewarded with a 19" TFT monitors and the AGGC trophy, informs an official release.

While in the single player games, in the sports category, Sandeep from the North zone won the trophy playing Fifa while Sathya from the South took home the trophy for racing, playing Need For Speed. Apart from the trophies, they also took home a graphic card worth Rs.30,000 each.

For the best game jockey category, there was a tie for the AGGC trophy finally and an opportunity to pursue their passion for gaming as a career. The game jockeys representing the South and North zone were promoted to carry out the responsibility of a Regional Game Jockey with Sify Gamedromes. 

The semi-finalist clans XGI and ECO represented the gaming culture in their cities of Jaipur and Cuttack respectively, putting to rest the myth that gaming is popular only within the metro cities, says the channel.

Conducted by Sify Gamedromes across 240 outlets and 66 cities, it was the first event of its kind to be rolled out on such a scale and dovetailing into such a grand finale.

Host Siddharth Kannan presents awards to winners
Present at the event were members of the band Aasmaa - Jimmy, Sangeet and Vasudha and the celebrity host Siddharth Kannan to cheer the gamers and present the trophies.

"Overall, the entire AGGC evoked a stupendous response with hordes of registrations, premier gaming clans and proficient gamers. It has clearly reinforced the position of Animax as a youth channel that's a lifestyle destination for our wired generation," adds Bambawale.