LAST NOV. 7, LEVEL Up! Live 2009 was held at World Trade Center, Pasay City?a two-day event considered to be the Philippines? biggest online gaming event, gathering gamers and non-gamers from all over the country.

This year, with the annual Ragnarok World Championships, and 5v5 competition for the best fps teams, Level Up introduced a new FPS online game, KOS: Secret Operations. There were also free trials for other games including Hello Kitty Online.

Besides the usual game tournaments and competitions that Level Up usually has for this event, players from each respective Level Up game (Ragnarok Online, Rohan Online, RF Online, Perfect World, Flyff, Grand Chase, Crazy Kart, and Freestyle) came in to represent their guilds/teams by making their own booths with game-related trinkets and paraphernalia to sell. It was a best booth competition.

Game items handcrafted by the players themselves were up for grabs, with a few other personalized items. The winner for Best Booth last year, Eco-Unit from RF Online, was around again, trying to keep its title the second time. This year, the group made its own costumes based on the game. It took them six months to plan and create a photo booth.

Other notable booths were Shadow Legion?s booth for RF Online, which had just about anything you could personalize right on the spot; Holy Order with mugs, lanyards and buttons; Team Lotus with a variety of headgear inspired by Ragnarok Online; and others which included glitter tattoos, pillows, shirts, keychains, tumblers, and action figures.

7-Eleven Slurpee, Nescafé, Netopia, Enchanted Kingdom, PLDT MyDSL, and other sponsors had their own booths. A booth was set up to remember the recent ?Ondoy? tragedy.

This event was not just to accommodate gamers. Photography enthusiasts joined the fun. Anyone with a camera was encouraged to join Nokia?s Digital Photography contest with the theme ?United We Play.?

Cosplayers came in as their favorite gaming characters. The cosplay competition had two categories?group and individual cosplay. The group cosplay had people act out scenes or skits inspired by the respective game they played. The competition catered to every age, the youngest being 5 years old. A little girl won the ?Best Junior? award for coming as Lire from ?Grand Chase.?

Almost all the costumes took around a month to make, and some of the younger cosplayers even admitted to using up their allowance to make their own costumes. Some went green by using recycled materials for just about the whole thing, spending only on paint. One of the eye-catching costumes was the Acretian Robot, which took four months to make. There was a cosplayer who even had to have someone slip him a drink once in awhile because his costume was too hot, and didn?t allow for much movement. Each of the cosplayers exerted extra effort just to play his character for the day and to have fun.

Several performers and bands, including Kamikazee, provided more entertainment.

Truly, Level Up participants outdid themselves this year.

The success of Level Up! Live 2009 promises even more fun and a bigger and better event next year.