For the first time in history, Catalan gaming will reach the official circuits of electronic video game competitions. This was announced today by Noé Bosch, co-founder of the Catalan circuit of competitions and tournaments Gamesports Electrònics, at the presentation of SAGA, the new gaming room promoted by Plataforma per la Llengua and with the support of the Department of Culture.
"This is a historical recognition", Bosch stressed, "because it shows that the greats of the video game industry include talent in Catalan". This celebration has crowned the presentation of the ambitious Platform for the Language project, the SAGA gaming room.
"The administration helps initiatives such as SAGA because there is a demand for video game content in Catalan and we believe that it is an industry with significant room for growth," explained Francesc Xavier Vila, General Secretary for Language Policy of the Generalitat de Catalunya.
In fact, Catalonia concentrates 50% of the turnover of the video game sector in Spain. A figure that arouses contradictions if one takes into account the deficient supply of content that is produced or that includes Catalan officially. For this reason, the main objective of SAGA is to be a meeting point for the video game sector in the Catalan-speaking territories and to promote the language within the industry.
The fair will offer a very extensive repertoire of activities, in addition to its own prizes, which have a popular vote. The intention is to attract people of all kinds and to feel challenged by the different disciplines of video games. Thus, not only games will be presented, but competitions and electronic sports broadcasts in Catalan will also be given relevance.
For two days, the fair will offer forty exhibitors at the Farga de l'Hospitalet, a 36-hour marathon of video games in the LAN space, with more than 300 seats; Barça eSports exhibition matches, the final four of the Valorant game LlOP competition and an All-Star Cup of the League of Legends (LOL) LlOP competition, the games that have the most participants in electronic competitions worldwide.
All the competitions will take place on a 14-meter stage in the hall and can be followed live on a giant screen and also through SAGA's Twitch account. The broadcasts will be carried out by Aniol Novas, Marc Álvarez and other members of Gamesports Electrònics.
Also, the final of the Copa de las Estrellas will feature the broadcast and analysis of Xixauxas, a member of Barça eSports and broadcaster of the Professional Video Game League, which will premiere in Catalan on SAGA.
On the other hand, meeting and game spaces will be enabled between the video players of all the teams of the LOL and Valorant LlOP competitions, in addition to the LOL team of Futbol Club Barcelona.
Finally, the first SAGA prizes will be awarded to the best video games in Catalan. They are divided into six categories, which correspond to the best narrative, the best visual art, the best soundtrack, the best gameplay, the best video game chosen by the public and the best video game of the year chosen by the professional jury. The popular voting period is now open on the SAGA website and will last until November 27.
This is how the new Catalan gaming room SAGA has been presented, with the hopeful news that, for the first time, the Catalan electronic competition league will be recognized, starting in January, in the official circuits of the most played video games worldwide.
La Farga de l'Hospitalet will host the SAGA show on December 3 and 4 and the organization has already confirmed that this initiative intends to be an annual event and the main benchmark in the Catalan-speaking territories. This Platform for the Language initiative, with the collaboration of the Department of Culture, aims to further promote Catalan in the video game industry.
