1v1: Astana hosts Kazakhstan Republican Cup cybersport championship
The best teams and cybersportmen in Kazakhstan competed for the Republican Cup on May 12 in Astana. Organizers, Qazaqstan CyberSport Federation (QCF) held qualifying tours online, followed by the LAN-finale in three disciplines: CS:GO 2, Dota 2, Mortal Kombat 1. Winners received a cash prize and an opportunity to represent Kazakhstan in an international arena, Kazinform News Agency correspondent reports.
Championship started with Mortal Kombat 1, player Adilzhan Kairatuly, known as lemmerrtt, coming out victorious. He shared with the Kazinform correspondent that despite the exams, he was confident going into the finals: “I didn’t do much preparation, that is, I was quite confident. (...) This is, in fact, my first experience in such big tournaments. Before it was just online, or smaller championships.”
Captain of NA RAHATE, victorious team of the second discipline, which was Dota 2, Aldiyar Moldabekov is known in game as melvin. In an interview with the Kazinform correspondent, he shared that not all of the team members are professional players, but those who love the game: “We just have players who play Dota, one professional player, and the second is semi-professional, i.e. Tier 1 and Tier 2 level. (...) This tournament is absolutely amazing. It’s very cool that the tournament is being held not like last year at the university, but in such a center. Cool overall.” Aldiyar also said that there were no plans for the team to go international, but some of the players might pursue that route individually.
Kazinform correspondent Diana Bizhanova also interviewed the captain and one of the players of Lewandownskie team, also known as ex-Avangar, who won in the Counter-Strike 2 discipline.
Daniyar “Pumpkin66” Buldybayev and Sanzhar “def1zer” Talgat shared: “We have been training together for a year now, throughout the year, for the tournament. Of course, being a good team in Kazakhstan, we have to prepare, and that’s what we did and won the tournament. (...) We didn’t prepare for this tournament specifically, we, in general, played together. Time passed, our level grew and we just looked at our opponents, analyzed their play and, one might say, our actions and their actions were adjusted.”
Ex-Avangar is already a five-time champion, despite this the players shared their excitement: “The emotions are the same, and it’s always nice to win, get paid for it, do what you love, and the audience also helps and supports. Support is always important, we appreciate it, and this always great.”
In the future the team plans to reach European qualifications and play on an international level with more championships to come.
The Qazaqstan CyberSport Federation started their work in 2018 with the main goal to popularize and develop cybersport in Kazakhstan. Temirlan Baidauletov, QCF representative, in an interview with the Kazinform correspondent shared that anyone willing from the age of 14 can take part. The federation provides opportunities for players to find teammates through their channels, also takes care of all the travel expenses and even sends out release letters to schools, universities and workplaces of the players if needed.
How many teams participated this year in total?
Look, we had 6 disciplines in total. In Counter-Strike there were more than 85 teams in the qualifications. In every qualification. This is our record. This turns out to be 420 people per discipline. The number of participants in other disciplines was smaller. For Dota, for example, there were 28 teams. But in total there are more than a thousand participants in the entire discipline. Every year the numbers are growing. We once had numbers of 500-400. Now it’s many times more.
As far as I understand you have separate female championships too?
We are currently having selections for the ISF. There are two disciplines with a focus on women's teams. These are CounterStrike 2 and Mobile Legends Bang Bang. We have already held qualifications, and the winners of these qualifications have already been revealed. We will send them to the regional stages. The regional stage takes place in two stages. First online, if they pass there and win, then they go to the offline stage. At the offline stage there will be a prize. They will fly to China to play there. If they prove themselves there, they will receive a cash prize and a ticket to the LAN finals. Let's hope the female cast shines. At the moment, we don’t have many teams gathering yet. In CS we had only 8 teams, and in Mobile Legends there were 4 teams.
What is the next step for the participants after the Kazakhstan Republican Cup?
I think the cup is a good boost for whoever wins, it motivates them to try to participate in larger tournaments. And take gold medals on behalf of the Kazakhstan team. That's what we want. This is our goal.
