What Wargaming’s Singapore gaming hub looks like (PICS)

If you’ve ever doubted that Wargaming.net’s World of Tanks had clout in Southeast Asia, this article might just convince you otherwise. We visited its Singapore gaming base over the weekend and were very impressed with everything we saw.

“This is the hub known to all Singapore World of Tanks players as the HQ (headquarters) of Wargaming,” Jay Yang, Marketing Coordinator for Wargaming.net Singapore told me, as we watched teams duke it out for Singapore’s TanksAsia National Series.

The LAN centre – located within the local train station – seats up to 80 players, and is fully outfitted with Alienware desktops and peripherals. There, customers aren’t just spoiled by the choice in gaming hardware; their bodies get quite the pampering too, what with sleek leather racing seats costing upwards of S$300 ($241) for every computer station.

Apart from the eighty seats, there are two eSports studios placed against the far end of the LAN centre. Built for the 7v7 gameplay unique to World of Tanks, it’s reminiscent of the soundproof boxes you see onstage at big eSports competitions over in Korea. The studios aren’t soundproof, and noise-cancelling headphones are used instead to block out the live commentary booming across the gaming arena.

There’s also a special VIP area hidden away behind the main stage, good for eight players at a go. Unfortunately we didn’t snap a photo of that because it was cordoned off for the on-going TanksAsia National Series tournament.

At any one time, two staff out of a total of eight are on duty at the counter. They keep watch over some impressive (and very nice, but unfortunately not-for-sale) Wargaming memorabilia and run the show from 10:00am to 11:30pm daily. These staff are also in charge of handling the membership system of the LAN centre, which allows you to earn points and redeem them for prepaid cards or for free hours at the centre.

If you’re in Singapore and planning a visit, be assured that the LAN centre isn’t reserved solely for playing World of Tanks (or the soon to be released World of Warplanes for that matter). Customers are free to play other games of their choice. It makes good business sense to allow that since man can’t live on bread alone the same way one cannot just play one game for their entire lives.