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The recently concluded Parallel TCG tournament held at the YGG Play Summit saw Colombian YGG Esports player Zeliaser walk away with the $20,000 grand prize out of a $100,000 prize pool after besting Hungarian player Bullbence 2-0 in the finals.
The deciding round was a rematch of the Upper Bracket semifinals, where Bullbence had outplayed Zeliaser 2-1 and sent the YGG Esports player to the losers bracket. Zeliaser fought in two more grueling battles to reach the grand finals and turn the tables on Bullbence, who ultimately conceded after Zeliaser’s dominant performance.
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 has teams competing in Axie Infinity and Sipher.
“I just want to say thank you to everyone who 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 Colombia to compete at the invitational, the first of its kind to take place in Asia.
Zeliaser shared with Parallel game ambassador Alliestrasza that 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 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,” YGG co-founder Gabby Dizon said.
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.