Dubai’s GameExpo is under way, attracting cosplayers, gaming stars and families for the second year.
YouTube influencers Miniminter and AboFlah are the big names leading an esports tournament that pits internet personalities from the Middle East against ones from Europe and the US. The tournament begins on Saturday at the Dubai Exhibition Centre in Expo City.
It is part of Dubai Esports and Games Festival, which started on Wednesday and runs until Sunday.
Meanwhile, for those looking for things to do on the ground, the expo is split into different zones. One is retail, where local artists and vendors sell gaming and pop culture items.
Mahmoud Ismaeel, the owner of UAE Anime store, sells anime-related merchandise.
“We focus on the most popular anime shows, and we see a rise in popularity when one of them becomes more famous after a film of the same anime is released," says Ismaeel. "We recently sold more after Netflix unveiled the live-action One Piece show."
He added: “We sell a lot of replica katanas [an anime sword]; they look good on display. Many people use them to decorate their gaming set-ups.”
The event is popular with young fans, and many showed up in cosplay as their favourite characters.
Spark Makki, a father of two, came with both of his sons in cosplay. One dressed as Darth Vader and the other as a character from Dragon Ball Z.
“It’s the first thing they wanted to do, the cosplay,” he says.
Makki says he was happy the expo offered lots of gaming options that have piqued the interest of his sons, something he is familiar with as well. “I was just like them when I was younger," he adds.
The gaming expo also includes a tabletop zone, where fans of board games can sit in groups and compete against each other. The same zone also has a small racetrack for battery-powered cars that whizz by, as well as a Gundam model-making station.
Large businesses were also present, such as Geekay, a popular electronic games vendor in the region that had a large booth at the expo.
Geekay’s area manager, Hammad Qaiser, says: “People who come in cosplay like to purchase figures of their favourite characters."
Anas Al Masri, who handles distribution for the company, also notes the PC gaming market is rebounding after the pandemic and says it is "becoming better and better".
There is also a retro zone that houses a collection of classic arcade games such as Crazy Taxi, Mortal Kombat and Pac-Man.
The festival began with a two-day industry summit on Wednesday welcoming various gaming and tech companies from around the world.
The festival’s director Muna Al Falasi previously told The National: “The reason why we have launched the Dubai Esports and Gaming Festival is to position Dubai as a gaming hub in the region and to bring in investment from the international market.”
The gaming expo concludes on Sunday. Tickets start at Dh39 for a one-day pass..
More information is available at dubaiesportsfestival.com
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How to help
Donate towards food and a flight by transferring money to this registered charity's account.
Account name: Dar Al Ber Society
Account Number: 11 530 734
IBAN: AE 9805 000 000 000 11 530 734
Bank Name: Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank
To ensure that your contribution reaches these people, please send the copy of deposit/transfer receipt to: juhi.khan@daralber.ae
Armies of Sand
By Kenneth Pollack (Oxford University Press)
Fifa Club World Cup quarter-final
Kashima Antlers 3 (Nagaki 49’, Serginho 69’, Abe 84’)
Guadalajara 2 (Zaldivar 03’, Pulido 90')
Essentials
The flights
Etihad and Emirates fly direct from the UAE to Delhi from about Dh950 return including taxes.
The hotels
Double rooms at Tijara Fort-Palace cost from 6,670 rupees (Dh377), including breakfast.
Doubles at Fort Bishangarh cost from 29,030 rupees (Dh1,641), including breakfast. Doubles at Narendra Bhawan cost from 15,360 rupees (Dh869). Doubles at Chanoud Garh cost from 19,840 rupees (Dh1,122), full board. Doubles at Fort Begu cost from 10,000 rupees (Dh565), including breakfast.
The tours
Amar Grover travelled with Wild Frontiers. A tailor-made, nine-day itinerary via New Delhi, with one night in Tijara and two nights in each of the remaining properties, including car/driver, costs from £1,445 (Dh6,968) per person.
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Tamkeen's offering
- Option 1: 70% in year 1, 50% in year 2, 30% in year 3
- Option 2: 50% across three years
- Option 3: 30% across five years
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
2018 ICC World Twenty20 Asian Western Regional Qualifier
Saturday results
Qatar beat Kuwait by 26 runs
Bahrain beat Maldives by six wickets
UAE beat Saudi Arabia by seven wickets
Monday fixtures
Maldives v Qatar
Saudi Arabia v Kuwait
Bahrain v UAE
* The top three teams progress to the Asia Qualifier
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Bludgeon Brothers retain the SmackDown Tag Team titles against the Usos
Seth Rollins retains the Intercontinental title against The Miz, Finn Balor and Samoa Joe
AJ Styles remains WWE World Heavyweight champion after he and Shinsuke Nakamura are both counted out
The Undertaker beats Rusev in a casket match
Brock Lesnar retains the WWE Universal title against Roman Reigns in a steel cage match
Braun Strowman won the 50-man Royal Rumble by eliminating Big Cass last
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Company profile
Name: Dukkantek
Started: January 2021
Founders: Sanad Yaghi, Ali Al Sayegh and Shadi Joulani
Based: UAE
Number of employees: 140
Sector: B2B Vertical SaaS(software as a service)
Investment: $5.2 million
Funding stage: Seed round
Investors: Global Founders Capital, Colle Capital Partners, Wamda Capital, Plug and Play, Comma Capital, Nowais Capital, Annex Investments and AMK Investment Office
Key findings
- Over a period of seven years, a team of scientists analysed dietary data from 50,000 North American adults.
- Eating one or two meals a day was associated with a relative decrease in BMI, compared with three meals. Snacks count as a meal. Likewise, participants who ate more than three meals a day experienced an increase in BMI: the more meals a day, the greater the increase.
- People who ate breakfast experienced a relative decrease in their BMI compared with “breakfast-skippers”.
- Those who turned the eating day on its head to make breakfast the biggest meal of the day, did even better.
- But scrapping dinner altogether gave the best results. The study found that the BMI of subjects who had a long overnight fast (of 18 hours or more) decreased when compared even with those who had a medium overnight fast, of between 12 and 17 hours.
Common OCD symptoms and how they manifest
Checking: the obsession or thoughts focus on some harm coming from things not being as they should, which usually centre around the theme of safety. For example, the obsession is “the building will burn down”, therefore the compulsion is checking that the oven is switched off.
Contamination: the obsession is focused on the presence of germs, dirt or harmful bacteria and how this will impact the person and/or their loved ones. For example, the obsession is “the floor is dirty; me and my family will get sick and die”, the compulsion is repetitive cleaning.
Orderliness: the obsession is a fear of sitting with uncomfortable feelings, or to prevent harm coming to oneself or others. Objectively there appears to be no logical link between the obsession and compulsion. For example,” I won’t feel right if the jars aren’t lined up” or “harm will come to my family if I don’t line up all the jars”, so the compulsion is therefore lining up the jars.
Intrusive thoughts: the intrusive thought is usually highly distressing and repetitive. Common examples may include thoughts of perpetrating violence towards others, harming others, or questions over one’s character or deeds, usually in conflict with the person’s true values. An example would be: “I think I might hurt my family”, which in turn leads to the compulsion of avoiding social gatherings.
Hoarding: the intrusive thought is the overvaluing of objects or possessions, while the compulsion is stashing or hoarding these items and refusing to let them go. For example, “this newspaper may come in useful one day”, therefore, the compulsion is hoarding newspapers instead of discarding them the next day.
Source: Dr Robert Chandler, clinical psychologist at Lighthouse Arabia
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Director: Harmony Korine
Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Isla Fisher, Snoop Dogg
Two stars
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Director: Rohit Shetty
Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone
Rating: 3/5
MATCH INFO
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League A, Group 4
Spain v England, 10.45pm (UAE)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Ajax v Juventus, Wednesday, 11pm (UAE)
Match on BeIN Sports
