Event Coverage

Harvey Norman Games Hub kicks off a weekend of games at its flagship Millenia Walk superstore

By Koh Wanzi - 23 Sep 2017

Harvey Norman Games Hub kicks off a weekend of games at its flagship Millenia Walk superstore

Players waiting for the games to start!

Harvey Norman Games Hub is celebrating its first birthday this weekend, and it’s cramming a slew of activities into a 2-day period spanning 23 to 24 September.

The Games Hub is located in the Harvey Norman Millenia Walk Flagship Superstore (there’s another at Parkway Parade), and is intended to let gamers immerse themselves in a range of gaming experiences and try out various products before buying.

It boasts extravagant setups that you’re not likely to see elsewhere, such as a sprawling triple-screen configuration with three Lenovo Y27g gaming monitors and a Razer Leviathan sound bar.

You can get first-hand experience with all sorts of gear at the Games Hub.

Today, you can easily buy a gaming system online and have it delivered to your doorstep. But when you’re going to spend upward of S$2,000 on a high-performance machine, you probably want to check it out in person first.

The Games Hub is the place to do that, and there are a wide range of systems available, including a Microsoft Xbox, Sony PlayStation 4, various laptops and desktops, and even gaming peripherals from brands like Corsair, HP, and Logitech.

But you can experience all that on your own time, and the highlight of the weekend is without doubt the Harvey Norman Gamers Cup and the various lucky draws and prizes to be won.

This year sees gamers competing in Overwatch, Blizzard’s hugely popular team-based shooter. The top eight teams from two earlier qualifiers will duke it out for the top prize of S$5,000 worth of cash vouchers and prizes, including an Omen by HP keyboard, mouse, and mouse pad.

Hmm, who will lift the trophy this time?

Omen by HP desktops and monitors are powering the entire tournament. These desktops are all sorts of powerful, featuring an Intel Core i7-7700K processor, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080.

The monitors are 24.5-inch displays, with speedy 1,920 x 1,080-pixel 144Hz panels.

The desktop costs S$3,199, but Harvey Norman is also bundling the aforementioned Omen by HP gaming monitor (worth S$499) with selected Omen desktops.

Everyone's playing on Omen by HP desktops and monitors.

In addition, there are generous discounts to be taken advantage of, such as up to 50 per cent off Omen by HP gaming accessories and 20 per cent off Logitech gaming peripherals. The HTC Vive is also on sale at S$1,188 (U.P. S$1,349), and you get a S$50 Harvey Norman voucher with every purchase.

That said, most of the action took place outside the store, where the Overwatch competition was held. This tournament also happens to be the first offline debut of Chaos Theory, which made the news recently as Singapore’s first professional e-sports team. All six players draw a monthly salary, and also get CPF contributions and medical benefits.

The team managed to win two straight sets against Alacrity in their first game of the day, but it wasn’t for a lack of competition. Oasis saw both teams play the full five points, where Chaos Theory came back from being down 0-2 to win the map in a reverse sweep.

This is Singapore's first fully professional e-sports team.

There was live commentary on hand as well, courtesy of Afiz ‘Sodafiz’ M. Noor and Stephanie ‘Tsuki’ Tan, prominent figures in the local Overwatch community.  

To help spice things up a little, the audience was invited to predict the winners of each match by casting their vote into the predicted winner’s box. After the match concludes, names are drawn from the winning team’s box, and one lucky winner will receive a Harvey Norman voucher.

Everyone is given four prediction slips – they can choose to use one slip for each of the four matches in a day, or put all four slips to use to increase their chances in a single draw.

There are four set timings for tomorrow’s draw – 12.15pm, 2.45pm, 5.15pm, and 7pm – so you can stop by and try your luck if you’re in the area.

On top of that, anyone who spends S$100 in a single receipt on 23 September will be eligible to take part in a lucky draw, where winners get the chance to purchase select items for just S$1.

This took place at intervals throughout the day, and winners got to choose from prizes such as a Nescafe Dolce Gusto Piccolo coffee machine (worth S$99), a Samsung J1 Ace smartphone (worth S$199), a 50-inch Philips TV (worth S$1,469), and an Omen by HP 144Hz gaming monitor (worth S$499).

Winners will get to pick from a limited set of three items in each draw.

Finally, Harvey Norman introduced its Gamers Quest Card, which encouragers gamers to experience the different stations in the Games Hub in order to receive a S$10 Harvey Norman voucher.

There are a total of four experiences you’ll need – one minute of PC gaming, another minute of console gaming, another with a VR headset, and one racing car simulator game. Get your card chopped, and get your voucher!

Fancy yourself a speed demon?

The second day of this 2-day gaming extravaganza will see all eight Overwatch teams return for the rest of the double-elimination format. No one’s out yet, so there’s plenty of room for a comeback if they make it to the finals!

If you missed out on going down today, there’s still tomorrow, where you can support your favorite teams or simply pop in to the Games Hub to check out some of the latest hardware.

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