The tanks have landed—and they did so with a bang on the 5th of May 2012 at the Alienware Arena, Singapore. Barely a month into its release here in South East Asia, the developers of World of Tanks, Wargaming, are keen on making a good first impression on the region. Hunkered down in the LAN shop formerly known Jcube, 8 tenacious teams met in an enthralling first-to-three elimination series.

Entre of the World of Tanks

Alienware Arena, let armageddon begin!

First to the kill!

The war began proper at 12.45 PM, with the first four teams taking centre stage amid the increasingly teeming onlookers. While it was predominantly a local affair, two teams in particular stood out, and they were Chinese outfits S.S.Panzer and LGuan. Led by their highly energized and charismatic leader, team S.S.Panzer blitz past team C.O.W with relative ease in the opening round. Not to be outdone was team LGuan who, comprised of three Chinese nationals and two Singaporeans, ran team Nutz ragged with their solid teamwork.

Full house at the arena

Team LGuan hard at work

Break time!

Chit chat after round one

The semi-finals saw both Chinese teams trading lead with local teams, xSGx and Big Bang. However even the concerted effort of the home sides were not good enough to withstand the Chinese onslaught. Sadly because there wasn’t any local representative in the finals, support for the final match up wore thin. Eventually though, team S.S.Panzer routed their counterparts in straight sets, earning themselves the title of Singapore’s very first World of Tanks champions.

Team xSGx in action

Competitors gather for the award ceremony

The prize package

Champion of the very first WoT tournament - Team S.S.Panzer

The champion posed with the 1st runner-up, team LGuan

The 2nd runner-up, team xSGx

As the day drew to a close, visitors and participants alike were treated to lucky draw in which goodies courtesy of Wargaming and Steelseries were given away, ensuring that the event closed on a high. However, given the relative small scale of the tournament, many believe more can be done in future World of Tanks events.

Lucky draw

Winning the top giveaway

Free to play computer - full booked!

Zehan “LGenZe” of 2nd runner up xSGx said after the tournament, “We were expecting the tournament to be [of] a lot bigger scale—a lot of people didn’t know about this actually. This is just a start; we hope they’ll bring in more people, maybe from the NA (North America) and Russian servers [in the future]. But it’s good publicity for the South East Asian server nonetheless.”

Group shot

Developed by Belarusian outfit, Wargaming, the World of Tanks is a unique “play 4 free” vehicle shooter released late 2010 that has won numerous awards over the years. For more information about the game, visit the official site. As for more information on the competition, as well as updates on the SEA and future events, keep tabs on the official Facebook Fanpage.