I spent almost the whole day of Saturday at MidValley Exhibition Center for the Samsung WCG 2008.
Man what a day it was.
Okay let me tell you about my day.
I woke up early in the morning to drag myself to the Samsung WCG 2008 happening at MidValley Exhibition Center for our special mini-CS competition happening at the Samsung booth there.
There were going to be 8 Nuffnanger teams (each with a requirement of at least ONE female player) and the Nuffnang team was going to be one of them competing in the competition.
4 of us Nuffies from the Nuffnang KL Office were taking part and we got Jolene to be our female player.
Not too long after I arrived, we played our first game and the Nuffie team won.
The Nuffnangers were playing our small competition here at the Samsung booth
While the big boys of the real WCG played in these computers here.
Heck the big boys are the big boys.
You know they take gaming so seriously when they insist on bringing their own mouse and keyboard to play at the competition.
Heck soon they’ll insist on bringing their own computer.
At one point of the WCG, they started broadcasting one of the games that the big boys were playing on two big screens.
Both of the teams were really good but one was better than the other and the better team was kicking the ass of the other team.
Gosh so embarrassing, imagine having everyone at the WCG watching you getting thrashed. Fortunately I gave up trying to be a professional gamer long time ago.
Speaking of which… for many many years I have always heard so much about the Samsung WCG that happens each year. I mean what’s there not to love for a gamer, it’s like the Olympics for computer games but I never went.
Why? Because I thought it was literally just a computer game competition so if I weren’t playing and my friends weren’t playing then why go right?
But going there yesterday, the truth was that there were just so many things going on for the public all day long.
Some of us KL Nuffies were there to play around with all that.
All sorts of games, and all sorts of prizes to win. And when I say prizes I don’t mean like a WCG T-Shirt… I mean Samsung MP3 players, mobile phones, Intel-powered desktops and stuff like that.
The other notion I had about the WCG was that it was an event full of guys because computer games are mostly a guy thing. Well that turned out to be not true either… I saw soo many girls there… heck even Cynthia and Debbie came to support us!
The Nuffie team played up till the finals but right before the finals we decided to have lunch.
Over lunch we knew that we were going to lose anyway. The team who was up against us in the finals was just far better than us… it’s like they studied Counter-strike in school or something.
We took some photos at lunch.
I have no idea how I managed to take this shot of Jolene with a flower exactly covering her face.
Sorry Jolene. Didn’t mean for it like that haha.
And here’s Pinky who went that to cheer us on that day too.
Anyway after lunch we got our asses whooped by the other team in the finals and when everything was over, everyone was just waiting for one thing… the prize-giving ceremony for the best blog entries of “My Favourite Computer Game of All-Time”, a contest that Samsung held on the Nuffnang Community a few weeks ago.
At stake were mainly 3 prizes. A Samsung Digital Camera for the Most Creative Entry, an MP3 player for the Samsung favourite and the grand prize… a 32″ LCD TV for the Funniest Entry!
Mr Gin won the MP3 player for the Samsung favourite and this guy won the most creative bringing home the digital camera.
Then it came to the time to announce the Nuffnanger who was going to walk home with the 32″ LCD TV that everyone was waiting for.
Just a few minutes before the winner was announced though, Robb came up to me and whispered into my ear
“Tim… I tell you a secret that you’re not supposed to know yet ok?”
I looked at him and said
“What what? I love secrets.. tell me!!!”
Then he went on to say
“The Samsung client said that they think your entry was the funniest entry and the entire team there agrees so they want you to win the 32″ LCD TV”.
A little taken aback I said
“No lah dude…. I don’t think we should do that”.
But Robb was already ahead of me.
“I know Tim, I told them that but they all insist that you win it, they thought your entry was the funniest, even if it was just done for fun”.
I didn’t think my entry was the funniest but well this put me in a really difficult position. I mean how would it look if I won a contest even as a blogger that was organized by Samsung on the Nuffnang Community.
In the few minutes I had before the prize was announced I quickly called up a very close friend to ask for him for advice.
His answer was simple…
“Look! The client picks the winners… not you or anyone in Nuffnang so if they insist your entry was the best and if you want to take it then what’s wrong? Besides some people are going to say what they’re going to say anyway… in the past even when you had done nothing wrong they would make up stories to try to put you down so why should this even stop you?”
I put down the phone and a few minutes later the winner for the 32″ LCD TV was announced. I heard the emcee shout the name “Timothy Tiah” and everyone started clapping.
As I went on to the stage, my mind suddenly had the answer. I couldn’t do it.
Up there I told the client and the emcee that I couldn’t take the prize. It’s not because of what people might think but what I would think of myself if I led that happen.
The Samsung people (Lynne, Sue and Annabelle), being as nice as they always are… insisted that I take the prize.
and the emcee went on to make a quick joke
“WAH!! 32″ LCD TV YOU DON’T WANT TO TAKE AH!! WHY TOO SMALL FOR YOU AHH??”
Even the two Samsung blue-haired girls were surprised
Then when they were certain I didn’t want to take the prize they asked me what I was going to do with it and I didn’t have an answer yet.
So we just went on with the prize giving ceremony while I told the Nuffnangers there that I would find another way to give out this 32″ LCD TV.
We had tea after the event and we decided that we would give the 32″ LCD TV to the Nuffnanger that wrote the best entry about the WCG event and well everyone was happy.
I spoke to many people that day and I had mixed opinions.
Some thought that I had done the right thing, but others thought that I had made a mistake.
This is Sue from Samsung and I with the 32″ LCD TV that I would’ve wonTo put it in the words of another Nuffnanger
“You can’t always be so nice.. you’re going to get stepped all over one day”.
Well, I slept well last night so I think at least my heart thinks I did the right thing.
What do you guys think? Do my poll on my sidebar.
If you’re one of the Nuffnangers who were at the WCG, click here to see how you can win the 32″ LCD TV.
So everyone, that’s the day I gave up an 32″ LCD TV that I would’ve been really nice to have.
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space