Power League Gaming (PLG) is a sports league focusing on getting gamers to play and compete against each other. Last Thursday, they held a tournament for the upcoming game, Injustice: Gods Among Us (or ‘’The Mighty Among Us’’ if you live in the Middle East). What makes this tournament so different from the other tournaments here in Bahrain is that the game isn’t due for release until April 19. For those who do not know, Injustice is a fighting game developed by NetherRealm Studios (the people who brought us 2011’s Mortal Kombat reboot)for the Xbox 360, PS3 and Nintendo WiiU. This game has characters from the DC comics universe fighting against each other in an all-out brawl.The winner of the tournament organized by PLG would get an all expense pay trip to Dubai to compete in the Middle East finals tournament held in Middle East Film & Comic Con, where the winner would compete against the winners of the Saudi, UAE, and Qatar tournament winners for the title of Injustice Middle East champion and advance to the world tournament held in Paris, France.The game has a modified Mortal Kombat engine, and that accounts for a completely different experience. The system in the game consists of 3 attack buttons, light, medium, heavy and a ‘’character trait’’ button which uses the character’s special ability hence making each fighter in the game completely unique. They had an early build of the game which had four stages and a limited character roster so it did not include characters such as Bane, Aquaman or The Joker(What a drag! I wanted to try him out so badly).
The tournament which was held on the 21st of March 2013 had what I would consider the greatest set of rules in any kind of video gaming competition. The winner of the tournament had to maintain the highest winning streak in order to win. If a competitor loses a match, his streak is lost but he can compete again by building up his streak from scratch so not all hope is lost for those who were unlucky the first time. We asked a few gamers who were competing about their opinion of the rules, and all the ones we asked said that it was a fair way of knowing who the best among them was. I personally like the idea of being able to try again even if you got your butt kicked by a guy who spams with The Flash.In order to help everyone who were completely new to the game, they gave away printed out character move lists to the competitors so that they would at least be able to know the moves, being an unreleased game and all. No-one in this tournament had ever got their hands in the game before so everyone has an equal advantage.
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My friend Mohammed Jaberi (AKA Babz) and I sat down with the founder of Power League Gaming, John Lacey for an interview regarding Power League Gaming and Injustice.
Jaberi: What is PLG exactly?
John: It’s a video game sports league in nine countries and eleven cities in the Middle East, located in Bahrain, Egypt, Lebanon, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, UAE, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
Zubari: What is your inspiration for Power League Gaming?
John: The region needed a gaming platform where gamers, teams and clans would compete against each other
Zubari: Now regarding Injustice, How did you get your hands on an early build of the game?
John: We got the official beta straight from Warner Bros. and NetherRealm studios
Jaberi: who is your favorite character and why?
John: My favorite character is Batman, because he’s a well-balanced character overall.
Jaberi: What would the winner of the tournament get?
John: An all-expense trip to Dubai to compete in the finals held at Dubai Comic Con. We would handle all the expenses including plane tickets and hotel reservations.
Zubari: What do you think of the overall game as compared to Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe and Mortal Kombat 9?
John: I didn’t like MK vs. DC Universe but Mortal Kombat 9 was a great game. Injustice has a different control system, a different fighting engine and design which makes the game completely different than Mortal Kombat.
Jaberi: What or who is your favorite video game developer or creator?
John: My favorite developer would be Blizzard
Zubari: Now for the ultimate question, what is your favorite video game of all time, and why?
John: That would definitely be World Of Warcraft, because it’s the best Player Versus Player game ever.
Zubari:All right then, thank you very much for your time John, hopes to see you again.
John: My pleasure
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After our interview, Jaberi and I competed in the tournament to finally try out the game.Even though we didn’t stand a chance against the other competitors, we enjoyed the game so much to the point that we didn’t want to let go of the controller. The game was delightfully cinematic for a fighting game so it also felt like watching a movie in some cases. Each character has their own finishing moves which unleash a devastating attack on their opponent which is a sight to behold. My favorite finisher has to be Batman’s, he punches and throws Batarangs at his opponent and then does a back-flip in slow motion to make way for the Batmobile which runs over the other player(Cool looking stuff right there!). I can definitely say the visuals are very outstanding for a fighting game, might be one the best looking fighting games I have ever seen.
Injustice has that Mortal Kombat vibe and similar combo system in it but it is a completely new fighting experience. Before we got our hands in the game, we initially had the idea that it was just Mortal Kombat with DC characters but after playing it, we were proven totally wrong. The game is sure to be quite an epic title to die-hard DC fans and to fighting game fans alike. Jaberi and I are very excited to get our hands on the game when it comes out this April.
This was Mohammed Zubari, thank you and have a nice day!
Keep on gaming everyone. Hope to see you again!
