The Parallel tournament at the YGG Play Summit saw YGG Esports player Zeliaser walking away with the US$20,000 grand prize of a US$100,000 prize pool after besting Bullbence 2-0 in the finals.
Zeliaser is one of the longest-serving players of YGG Esports, Yield Guild Games’ esports team led by team captain Disi and YGG Head of Esports Mike Ovecka, former Blizzard Program Manager for Hearthstone Esports. Besides Parallel, YGG Esports also has teams competing in Axie Infinity and Sipher.
“I just want to say thank you to everyone that supported me. Everyone was so friendly. Everyone in the Parallel community is super nice. I just had so much fun meeting everyone,” said Zeliaser, who traveled from South America to compete at the invitational, the first of its kind to take place in Asia.
Parallel game ambassador Alliestrasza presented the champion with his prize and congratulated him on winning the tournament while representing YGG at the YGG Play Summit. Asked by Alliestrasza about his journey toward the Prime Championship, Parallel’s US$500,000 competitive event series, Zeliaser shared he is working toward reaching the Top 8 of the game’s leaderboard to qualify for the tournament, which will take place in March at the HyperX Arena in Las Vegas. “I’ll probably be there,” Zeliaser said. “I’ll probably be in Vegas.”
Since first entering playable status in 2023, Parallel has taken the web3 gaming landscape by storm, attracting many web2 TCG professionals to commit to the game full-time. Fans of the game have attested to the flexibility of its deck-building systems, variety of winning strategies, and the quality of its lore as compelling reasons to stick with the game for the long term.
The Parallel championship competitors consisted of 16 of the best in the world, all making it to the tournament after finishing at the top ranks of a 128-player online qualifier. The tournament capped off a week filled with esports and competitive matches from games such as Arena of Faith, Anichess, and Indus.
“It’s great to see a major web3 tournament happening in Manila at the YGG Play Summit, especially for a game as high-quality and competitive as Parallel. Having it here at the beating heart of web3 gaming and seeing the best of the best fly in from all over the world says a lot; web3 esports is only going more and more mainstream. Of course, the best thing is to see one of our own come out on top, Zeliaser, representing YGG Esports,” said YGG co-founder Gabby Dizon.
Outside the esports tournaments, the five-day YGG Play Summit had events for newcomers and veterans to web3 gaming, including the successful red-carpet premiere of the Metaverse Filipino Worker series, which took place at the SM Aura Premier Cinemas on November 20. Still lined up for the week are a massive cosplay competition and the first in-person GAM3 Awards, where Parallel is once again nominated for Game of the Year after winning the prestigious award in 2023, and Alliestrasza is nominated for Content Creator of the Year.
Event attendees also had a chance to try demos of new and upcoming web3 games through the event’s Gamer Expo, where 30 projects participated. Showmatches were also held throughout the event, featuring well-known web3 personalities as players and shoutcasters.