By Silma Suba
Fingers tapped away on gaming consoles but the eyes of the two players competing remained transfixed on the game on the big TV screen. Minds were set on one goal: winning first prize of a 500GB PlayStation 3 gaming console and a copy of the new FIFA football video game.
After 12 minutes of intensive gaming against his opponent in the final round, Ahmed Mokahal, a freshman at Texas A&M University at Qatar was announced as the winner of Ultimate FIFA Champion, a gaming event that was held on October 3rd in the CMU-Q East-West Walkway that included 32 competing players.
“The gaming culture is big in Education City, but the gaming events are not,” said Sandeep Pamulapati, a senior at Northwestern University in Qatar and vice president of Just Play, the gaming club at NU-Q.
“We’ve always wanted to organize events which provided one big platform for all gamers in EC to come and have fun,” Pamulapati said. “This competition was our unofficial launch party of the FIFA 14 game.”
FIFA releases a new version of the game ever year, he added.
Just Play organized the event in collaboration with the gaming club in CMU-Q. Although they only had 32 registered participants, approximately 55 students from all over EC showed up on the gaming night. Many rounds were played and the winner was the person who managed to knock out all other players in the rounds played. Although this was a collaborative event organized by two universities, students from many of the other universities in EC also participated in the competition.
“We needed this to happen. Most students are always so stressed out with work and exams. Events like these help take their minds off the stress,” said Ali Elgazar, president of the gaming club in CMU-Q.
Though most of the participants were male, Aisha Jassim, a sophomore from NU-Q was the only female participant.
“I was conflicted at first about participating in the event. I was the only girl and I knew my skills were nowhere near to par with the others,” Jassim said. “I decided to stick through it mainly because I love football so much that I don’t let even my deepest insecurities tarnish my passion for the game.”
Ayah Hamad, a freshman at TAMU-Q said that most gaming club events aren’t as active as other clubs. She also added that female gamers don’t often have a say in what games are played.
“Not everyone likes FIFA. There are other games too, like Mortal Kombat, Mario Kart, Spyro and so on. If there was a gaming event with more options, we would all turn up!” said Hamad, who’s an avid gamer herself. “Most boys look at me incredulously when I say I am a gamer, they keep asking if I really know how to play. I love Resident Evil and other action, thriller games. There are a lot of female gamers here (in Education City).”
Adam Abou-Gad, a freshman at NU-Q, also enjoys playing action and adventure games, like Hamad. He would also like to see a wider variety in the games played on campus.
“I like FIFA, but I absolutely love and enjoy playing Mortal Kombat, Tekken, Call of Duty etc.,” Abou-Gad said. “It would be fun to play these games with people from all over EC–it’s entertaining and thrilling.”
Rizan Baig, a junior from TAMU-Q, said that it’s important to have a gaming culture not only because it offers a breather between classes and after a long day, but also because it promotes unity and brings students together with their knowledge and expertise.
“Gaming gives you an ability to be the very best,” Baig said. “ It lets you experience new realities, worlds [and] gives you the ability to be what you want to be. There’s something for everyone. There should be a lot more events!”
