Wargaming Boasts over 250,000 Guests at WGFest 2019!
3 min readOn September 15, the heart of the Belarusian capital was taken by storm: 250,000 people from 28 countries gathered in Victory Park to revel at a grand event called Wargaming Fest: Tanker Day, organized by Wargaming together with the Minsk City Executive Committee and the Ministry of Defense of Belarus. The total number of people celebrating was even more impressive, with 2.6 million viewers from all over the globe witnessing the fun online and taking in what their favourite games’ developers had to say.
This year, the festival stepped up in scale, engulfing a territory of 1 square kilometre with an enlarged set of 120+ entertainment zones scattered all over Victory Park for the guests’ enjoyment: from the giant “Tank Twister”, arcade games and quaint labyrinths to breakdance masterclasses and a DJ school.
Within the special zone commissioned by the Armed Forces of Belarus, the revellers could familiarize themselves with some modern weaponry and take selfies with real tanks including the T-72B3 used by the Belarus national tank biathlon team to claim second place at the World Championships.
The festival featured over 30 photo zones, 130 food court establishments, and interactive activity stands set up by the event’s partners.
The competitive spirit permeated the largest open-air video game spot in Belarus. Here, World of Tanks PC aficionados were battling each other on more than 200 stations for bonus codes in their beloved game. At the World of Tanks Blitz spot, the three best tank commanders (by XP gained) on this lovely day were awarded Honor 10 smartphones. A demo zone for Caliber offered a first look at the new tactical action about the world’s spec-ops forces.
The Premium Garage zone featured an extra gaming joint with 100+ PCs for World of Tanks, Caliber, and the new action RPG, Pagan. The World of Tanks: Mercenaries diehards could duke it out on powerful Xbox One X consoles, savouring the photorealistic 4K graphics. The Premium Garage also hosted the “Steel Hunter: Battle of Bloggers” tournament where 20 self-made celebrities from different countries clashed in the World of Tanks PC special battle royale mode for hefty prizes. At the end, the special “Main Caliber” award and 110,000 Russian roubles went to __NIDIN__ for dealing the most damage over the course of 10 matches. The third place overall together with 150,000 roubles were taken by Cresp1ks, the second one (and 150,000 roubles) were grabbed by __NIDIN__, and the famous LeBwa became the champion, taking home the grand prize of 500,000 Russian roubles (approx. $7,800).
Main Stage, Huge Battle
The main stage of the festival was the place for an epic armoured engagement: the Clan Super Cup match between [DE-VI] Delicious Vicious and [MERCY] Monik—the best teams of the European and CIS regions, respectively. A string of 15-vs-15 battles went in favour of the CIS champs who demolished their opponents 5:0 claiming the prize of $25,000 and 500,000 in-game Gold together with quality gaming accessories from the event’s partner.
The Headliners
According to the festival’s traditions, the headlining bands represented Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia. Krambabulya, Vopli Vidopliassova, and Zveri all sang in unison with the people in the huge crowd before the main stage, who knew the lyrics by heart. The show was topped by the best fruit of the Orange County punk scene, The Offspring. The renowned punk rockers shook the audience (and most of Minsk) with a set of their hit numbers.
The collaboration between World of Tanks and The Offspring will not be limited by the show. From September 18 up to October 7, the band will play inside the game on a virtual stage in the Garage for those who were not able to attend the concert in Minsk. Animation of the band members’ avatars will be based on motion capture, which will be implemented in World of Tanks for the first time. Also, the tankers will be able to keep the rockers from The Offspring in the game’s client for good.
The festival revellers cooled off looking up at a grandiose firework show that followed the musical concert and painted the late evening sky over Victory Park with a myriad of lights, marking the closure of Wargaming Fest: Tanker Day 2019.
About Author
