Youth Zest 2018
Organised by eCarnivalBD, SkyWalk and Flora Limited, the prominent tech carnival, Youth Zest, was held from October 9 to 13 with over 850 young tech enthusiasts visiting the venue at Purana Paltan. The Daily Star, DBC News and Radio Dhoni 91.2 FM were the media partners and Debuggers Studio assisted the organisers in the web and app development section. The event consisted of e-sports competitions like DOTA 2, Counter-Strike: GO, Vain Glory, Rainbow Six Siege, League of Legends, FIFA 18 and Clash Royale, a cosplay competition, a cosplay workshop conducted by Shadab Shayeree Ahmed, Ofelia Chakma and Rusmat Safin Pracchad, a project showcase, and a tech-talk session conducted by Nahidur Rahman from Dynamic Solution Innovators and Hossain Al Farabi, the founder of Spike Story. The programme closed with a concert by Soulmate Shall Die, Exenemy and #DirtyMind.
The winner of the cosplay competition was Sadia Mumtahna with Faria Chowdhury as the first runner-up. The winner of the DOTA 2 competition was Oshustho Returns with No Strategy as the first runner-up. The Council won the Counter-Strike: GO competition with Red ViperZ as the first runner-up. CSBD Anonymous, Red ViperZ and Corrupted Legion were the consecutive winners of Rainbow Six Siege, League of Legends and Vain Glory. MD Abrar Hossain Ador and Shoaib Akhter were the consecutive winners of FIFA 18 and Clash Royale. Eye Movement Controlled Electric Wheelchair by Team FS^2 won the project showcase competition with Project Farmover by Team Atlas as the first runner-up.
"Our aim was to provide young gamers, programmers, engineers, and artists with a platform where they can display their talents in the right environment," said the chairman of eCarnivalBD, Muntasir Alam Chowdhury. He plans to establish the term "cyber-athlete" as a well-recognised profession in Bangladesh in the future.
Tasnim Shagufta, a tenth grade student of Viqarunnisa Noon School and College, said that she had an enjoyable learning experience at the programme. Renowned gamers like Waleed Monir in FIFA 18, Raahib Reza from Team Oshustho Returns (DOTA 2) and Mohiuddin Rahman Sajol from Team IBG (DOTA 2) shared that the organisers provided an e-sports supportive environment and despite the repetitive schedule changes, the facilities were good.
Youth Zest 2018 showed how passionate the Bangladeshi youth are about e-sports, arts and creativity. With the increasing possibilities in the e-sports sector, as a developing country, we must acknowledge its importance and help the industry to grow.