Virtual World of Tanks battles were preceded by a solemn ceremony hosted by the Brest Hero-Fortress Memorial Complex. Accompanied by a military orchestra, participants laid flowers at the Eternal Flame. Meanwhile, the Head of Brest garrison, Yevgeny Zaitsev, presented medals to mark ‘70 Years of Victory since the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War’ to five Armed Forces veterans (present on the day). Mr. Zaitsev thanked the men for their faith in Armed Forces’ traditions and for their enduring work to protect the spiritual and moral upbringing of coming generations.
The Victory Portraits tournament was organised by Wargaming company (which developed the game), jointly with the Defence Ministry. The Head of the Vayar Military-Information Agency of Belarus’ Armed Forces, Andrey Shubaderov, noted that computer games promotion has been part of the Defence Ministry’s programme for eight years, aiming to encourage a patriotic upbringing. He commented, “Happily, we have our own Belarusian game, World of Tanks, which enables us to use a common language for communicating with young people. The game helps young people understand the nature of the Great Patriotic War and the importance of preserving traditions fought for by our veterans, grandfathers and great grandfathers.”
The tournament was hosted by Brest’s Regional Centre of Youth Arts, the large building being crowded by gaming fans of all ages. In fact, around 140,000 World of Tanks gamers are registered in Brest (almost half of the city’s residents).
There were team competitions and individual battles, with long queues for the 35 computers. A rich entertainment programme of contests and panel games kept everyone busy, while a field kitchen served traditional soldiers’ porridge.
In April, Minsk will host a final competition between the strongest teams from the capital, as well as from the Minsk, Mogilev and Gomel regions. Similar events will take place in Smolensk, Volgograd, Krasnodar, Voronezh, St. Petersburg and Tula, with the winners of eight regional tournaments and a team of professional cyber-sportsmen then competing online, for the Moscow finals, on the eve of May 9th. The winner will receive a ticket for eight people to visit French Saumur’s Tank Museum.
By Boris Svetlov
