Synergy88 Digital Launches Barangay Basketball, A Mobile Game With Many Pinoy Firsts

Wazzup Pilipinas!
 

Synergy88 Digital, a pioneering digital solutions company based in the Philippines, has recently announced the release of Barangay Basketball on Google Play. A distinctly Pinoy gaming experience, Barangay Basketball is not only the first story-based mobile game created by Filipinos but is also the first to reflect local community life in the Philippines.

A GAME WITH A UNIQUE PINOY FLAVOR

Barangay Basketball follows the story of Wax, son of a former Filipino basketball legend, as he tries to step out of his father’s shadow and become a basketball star in his own right.  Along the way, he meets a slew of interesting characters who can help make or break his dream.

Players will get to hone their skills in dribbling, shooting, blocking and dunking through a set of challenging and fun mini games. As they clear one challenge after another, they will get to follow Wax’s journey from the humble hoops of the barangay court, to the grand stage where the “big boys” play.

Aside from its awesome gameplay and story, Barangay Basketball features world-class art and animation created by Synergy’s pool of talented artists and animators. Teen stars Patrick Sugui and Ysabel Ortega, and veteran actor and former pro baller, Joey Marquez, lent their voices to breathe life to the game’s protagonists.

Set in Tondo, Barangay Basketball perfectly captures the atmosphere of a working-class neighborhood, making it an excellent backdrop for a narrative that Filipinos can definitely relate to.

QUIRKY PINOY CHARACTERS

A cast of colorful characters fill up the canvas to make the story come alive.

Coach B, a former professional basketball player serves as coach and mentor to Wax, while his son Robbie becomes Wax’s kuya or older brother as well as his best friend. Gasti, the barangay’s iron-pumping bully, makes life less easy for Wax and challenges him to improve his skills on the court.

To help with Wax’s training, Coach B enlists a group of basketball “masters” who will assist Wax in understanding the rudiments of Pinoy street basketball: Croco Martin, a sharp-shooting policeman by profession, gives Wax a lesson in shooting outside the paint. Popoy, who peddles coconuts for a living, teaches him how to block his opponent’s shots. Boy Pana, the barangay’s resident troublemaker, helps improve Wax’s dribbling skills. And Gardo Distrito, the neighborhood’s beautician, instructs Wax on how to dunk a ball with flourish and flair.

And, of course, no story is ever complete without some romantic inspiration. That’s where Vicky, a geeky and yet pretty young lady, comes in as the lead character’s “secret crush.”

SLAM DUNKS AND FUTURE PLANS

“We’re proud and very excited to share this unique mobile gaming experience not just to Filipinos but also to people in other parts of the world,” says Jackeline Chua, Managing Partner of Synergy88 Digital. “There are only a few games out there that highlight the fun and positive side of the Filipinos and we feel that Barangay Basketball is a game that will definitely help fill this gap.”

Because of the game’s high production value and unique storyline, Barangay Basketball was recently nominated under the People’s Choice Award category of the International Mobile Gaming Awards for Southeast Asia.

When asked about the future of Barangay Basketball – the Synergy88 Digital team shared that an iOS version of the game will soon be available for download on the App Store, additional chapters in the story are in the works, and an online player vs. player (PVP) mode is in the development pipeline.

Barangay Basketball also serves as a prequel to the story of an upcoming anime TV series, Barangay 143. The show, co-produced by Synergy88 Entertainment Media, August Media and TV Asahi, will revolve around the challenges, defeats and victories of a group of basketball-loving Filipino teenagers. The show will initially be aired in the Philippines but will also make waves on international shores later on.

Barangay Basketball can be downloaded and played for free using any gaming-capable Android device. For more info about the game, visit www.barangaybasketball.com.

Mark Striegl Talks About Manny Pacquiao’s Influence, Training with Brandon Vera

Wazzup Pilipinas!

ONE Championship bantamweight standout Mark “Mugen” Striegl (14-2) is set to face Brazil’s Rafael Nunes (10-1) when the promotion returns to the Mall of Asia Arena on Friday, December 2 for ONE: Age of Domination. Streigl, 28, joined ONE Championship in 2015 and was recently named one of the hottest prospects in Asian MMA.

The Filipino-American stalwart splits his training between Evolve MMA in Singapore and the high-altitudes of Baguio City for his next matchup and says mixed martial arts is getting really big in the Philippines.

“Baguio is one of the best places to train in the Philippines because it’s high altitude. It’s 5,000-feet above sea level. It’s great for strength and conditioning,” said Striegl. “Manny Pacquiao also trained in Baguio in the past for some of his biggest fights. It’s been fantastic for my training.”

Striegl made his ONE Championship debut in April of 2015, defeating American Casey Suire impressively by first round submission. In his second bout months later however, he fell to Filipino-Australian prospect Reece McLaren.

Since his last bout, Striegl has been hard at work preparing for his return, training with none other than ONE Heavyweight World Champion Brandon “The Truth” Vera.

“Here in Manila I’ve been fortunate enough to train with Brandon Vera and AJ Matthews. Mark Munoz also came through one time so I got to pick his brain a bit,” said Striegl. “There are so many good gyms to work with in Manila. MMA is getting really big in this country. I’ve just been jumping around and training with Brandon and it’s been great.”

A well-rounded mixed martial artist with strengths in both striking and grappling, Striegl is one of the country’s top combat sports athletes. He began his career competing for various MMA promotions across Asia before landing a roster spot in ONE Championship last year.

As someone who has seen the rise of MMA as a sport in Asia, Striegl can’t help but feel in awe of the tremendous growth of combat sports in the region and credits a majority of it to eight-division boxing world champion Manny Pacquiao.

“MMA is getting really big in this country, thanks to ONE Championship. There’s a deeply embedded combat culture in this country with boxing. There are a lot of gyms all around and so many good places to train and so many good people to work with,” said Streigl.

“One of the greatest fighters of all time, Pacquiao, is a legend here and pretty much all over the world. He has put the Philippines on the map as far as fight sports are concerned. He’s a true global icon and one of my inspirations.”

During his time in Manila, Striegl says he just recently met Pacquiao for the first time in person. Pacquiao is training for his highly-anticipated return to boxing against WBO welterweight champion Jessie Vargas this November 5. He is also a full-time politician who owns a seat at the Philippine senate.

“I went to one of [Pacquiao’s] senate hearings and met him afterwards,” said Striegl. “Super nice guy, super down to earth guy. Just a humble, nice guy and I think that’s why he has so many fans. He’s the people’s champ. Everyone can relate to him.”

Pacquiao’s unique style, Striegl says, is something he tries to emulate in the MMA cage. And just like Pacquiao, Striegl aims to bring a world title back to the Philippines.

Against Brazil’s Nunes this December, Striegl has the opportunity to get back on the right track in his pursuit of ONE Championship gold. It won’t be easy, but Striegl says by channeling his inner- “Pac-Man”, he hopes to be able to make his people proud by becoming a world champion.

“One thing I love about Manny’s fight style is that he’s an action-packed fighter. He just keeps going and going and moving forward. That’s something I try to do in my fights,” said Striegl.

“You’ll never see me in a boring fight. I always press the action, I always come forward. I’m not a point fighter. Sometimes I put myself at risk by doing that but it’s better than being a point fighter, like a Floyd Mayweather-style kind of fighter.

“My goal when I entered this sport was and is to win a world championship title for the Philippines and bring it back here to Manila. That’s what I think about and it’s been my goal since I was young.”

Hitachi Data Systems Introduces New, Enhanced Flash Storage Lineup

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS), a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE:6501), today announced new systems and software designed to deliver better customer experiences and return on investments. Powered by the next generation of Hitachi Storage Virtualization Operating System (SVOS) and backed by a 100% data availability guarantee, the expanded Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform (VSP) lineup delivers performance, resiliency and workload scalability beyond what is offered by other platforms.

In today’s digital economy, it is critical that customers receive information in real time and that businesses recognize maximum cost-efficiency from their operations. To meet these needs, the new SVOS 7 has been engineered with an improved flash-aware I/O stack and selectable data services:

·         Quality of Service (QoS): Enables predictable performance for a consistent user experience. Data reduction services can be dedicated to workloads for more predictable response times as data levels grow.

·         Adaptive data reduction: Provides deduplication and compression for 2:1, 5:1 or greater capacity savings. SVOS 7 can offload compression to Hitachi flash modules (FMDs) for more scalable data reduction than other flash arrays.

·         Cloud tiering for all-flash VSP F series: Transparently moves files to private or public cloud storage, reducing data center footprint and enabling lower, more predictable storage costs for superior IT efficiency.

SVOS 7 is available on all new and existing Virtual Storage Platform G series and F series systems. Existing customers can take advantage of SVOS 7 and its deduplication and compression features through a nondisruptive upgrade.

For businesses that need to drive IT consolidation and support both open-system and mainframe applications, HDS is offering two new high-end VSP models. The all-flash VSP F1500, built on new high-density FMDs with raw capacities of up to 14TB, delivers over 4.8M IOPS and up to 40PB of effective flash capacity. It scales to 576 FMDs, providing up to 2304 extra cores for handling data reduction and enabling superior price and performance value.

For businesses looking to transition to all-flash over time, HDS offers the new VSP G1500, which offers 4.8M IOPS - a 20% improvement over VSP G1000.

VSP G1000 customers can upgrade to VSP G1500 via a data-in-place, nondisruptive migration. This simplifies the transition to the more powerful VSP G1500 platform and reinforces the HDS commitment to protecting our customers’ investments.

In conjunction with the release of SVOS 7 and the enhanced VSP lineup HDS is upgrading its management stack to simplify data management. New versions of Hitachi Storage Advisor, Automation Director and Infrastructure Analytics Advisor enable customers to more easily implement new SVOS 7 functions and reduce IT operational costs and complexity.

Supporting Quotes:

“The industry is moving to flash and the introductions of our new SVOS, FMD and VSP technologies dramatically expand the reach of flash technology and make it more accessible to our customers as the look to reduce overall costs,” said Bob Madaio, Vice President, Infrastructure Solutions Marketing, Hitachi Data Systems.

“Our customers are not only looking for increased efficiency, productivity and scalability, but also the guarantee of a support system for the longevity of the investment,” said Robert Fletcher, Dept. Lead Systems Engineering and Production, Drei-Banken-EDV, GmbH.

“In today’s market, we are seeing serious pressure for companies to embrace Digital Transformation, particularly due to its ability to deliver improved operations, processes and customer experience,” said Marty Sos, Senior Director, General Manager, HDS and Networking Business Units, Arrow ECS. “With its expanded VSP lineup and enhanced software capabilities, Hitachi Data Systems is helping us accelerate the customer journey to Digital Transformation.”

“The latest enhancements to Storage Virtualization Operating System (SVOS) from Hitachi Data Systems are game changers. With the accelerated flash engine in the new SVOS 7 offering, customers can intelligently manage data access to deliver lower latency, greater efficiency and improved uptime,” said Dan DiTucci, Cloud Chief Technologist, Continental Resources. “Furthermore, with deduplication and compression combined with direct cloud connect via Data Migrator to the Cloud (DM2C), our customers can achieve best-in-class total cost of ownership.”