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Those who have done parkour in games will get to try the sport at Licence2Play.迷你倉 They can also play new titles at no chargeLicence2Play, the annual gaming convention, is back this weekend and it is free.After charging $2 for entry last year, organisers Sphere Exhibits, which is owned by Singapore Press Holdings, decided to make it free to the public again this year, though it declined to say why.Over 80,000 people are expected to attend the three-day event at Suntec Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Centre, which starts today and ends on Sunday.The first 100 visitors every day will get a free gourmet bratwurst from The Brat cafe. One lucky visitor a day will win a PlayStation 4 console in a draw.The free play zone comprises 40 gaming consoles where visitors can play the new Grand Turismo 6, which is being released today, for up to 30 minutes at a time. They can also play games already on the market, such as Call Of Duty: Ghosts, Fifa 14 and Grand Turismo 5 on Nintendo Wii, XBox 360 and PlayStation 3, for up to 30 minutes at a time.There will be about 60 exhibitors, including StarHub, Autodrift Radio Control Car, Genesis Frontier trading card gaming company and StGames gaming cafe.Besides gaming, the event will feature an East versus West cosplay contest and a flea market with more than 30 retailers selling items such as clothes, costumes, accessories and craft goods.Sphere Exhibits' consumer business director Mandy Wong, 38, says: "We are excited that Licence2Play is offering a wide variety of interactive games and thrilling tournaments in an exhibition area of over 4,000sq m. Besides the traditional tournaments every year, we have added more interactive components for everyone to enjoy. From console free play zone to extreme sports, it will be three days of non-stop lifestyle and entertainment experience."For the first time, it will have parkour performances, workshops and challenges. Parkour, which has its roots in France, is an athletic discipline in which practitioners use their strength and agility to run, jump, climb and tumble over obstacles from walls to stairwells to rooftops."We wanted to expand the event beyond traditional gaming and into other popular youth activities. Parkour has been featured strongly in games such as the very popular Assassin's Creed series, and文件倉this is a good opportunity for people to try it in real life," says MsWong.In games such as Assassin's Creed and Mirror's Edge, protagonists use parkour to travel and defeat opponents.An 8m by 11m parkour course of boxes and scaffolding has been constructed inside the exhibition hall for experienced parkour practitioners and newbies alike to scamper and jump across.Members of local parkour school Super Fly Monkey Dragons will perform parkour stunts and run free parkour workshops twice a day. Then, on Sunday afternoon, it will host a parkour competition for up to 20 of Singapore's best parkourers.Mr Derrick Su, 40, an Australian who co-founded the Super Fly Monkey Dragons here about a year ago, says he welcomes the opportunity to introduce the sport to gamers. "It's exciting to expose the discipline to a different crowd who may not have considered parkouring. Gaming is fun, but it's good to do something active outside of gaming," he says.Over $20,000 in cash and prizes are also set to be won in gaming tournaments and competitions over the weekend which include a chance to compete against Singaporean Ho Kun Xian, 23, winner of the 12th annual Evo Championships, the world's largest fighting video games tournament.Mr Ho, who travels as a professional gamer, beat 1,600 gamers from around the world to win the championship in Las Vegas over three days in July.He will be at the convention on all three days, where gamers can challenge him to a round of Super Street Fighter IV. The challenger who can beat him in five games will win $100 in cash."I'm looking forward to playing everyone. It's a great place to see different genres of gamers, how passionate they are, and to see and play many new games. And you don't have to travel overseas to see players play at an international level. You can watch it here live," he says.Gamer and cosplayer Yoo Jie Shen, 21, an aerospace engineer who will be competing in the cosplay competition as the character Drago Night from Dota 2, is looking forward to the weekend's events. He says: "It's fun to be in character and interact with other cosplayers, to play new games and see other people playing games and learn new techniques. I'm looking forward to it," he says.More than 80,000 people attended the convention last year, which is now in its fifth year.vlydia@sph.com.sg存倉