Bucket Tech: HUAWEI Kicks Off the Global XMAGE Awards 2023

 

Huawei has officially kicked off the HUAWEI XMAGE Awards 2023. As Huawei’s open platform for smartphone photographic excellence, the annual competition celebrates inspiration and creativity, through amazing photos and videos captured with Huawei devices around the world. Since 2017, users from more than 170 countries and regions have participated in the yearly competition, contributing nearly 4 million entries to date. This makes the HUAWEI XMAGE Awards a cultural heritage of its own, containing fragments of human history from worldwide perspectives.

Capture and Inspire: A New Direction for XMAGE Awards

This year’s XMAGE Awards hopes photographers everywhere – casual or professional – will seek inspiration in their photography. The award takes its name from Huawei’s proprietary Imaging Research & Development arm XMAGE. Like its namesake, XMAGE Awards aspires to help photographers find inspiration and be innovative in photography.

Launched in 2022, the XMAGE brand focuses on optical system, mechanical structure, imaging technology, and image processing in photography. All four pillars of XMAGE now form the tenets of Huawei’s new and upcoming smartphone camera technology, such as the latest HUAWEI Mate 50 Series’ Ultra Aperture Camera and HUAWEI P60 Pro's Ultra Lighting Telephoto Camera.

New Night Walk category to capture Wonders of the Dark

This year's competition has the following categories: Night Walk, Portrait, Art & Fashion, Outdoor, Hello Life, Storyboard, Action and Storytelling.

Night Walk is a new category, encouraging users to photograph the hidden wonders of night life, using Huawei’s unique night-photo settings.

 Attractive prizes and new judges

This year, the following prizes will be given out to outstanding submissions: 3 Grand Prize winners, 24 Best-in-Category winners, 27 Runner-up winners, and 5 Honourable Mentions. Winners can receive up to USD 10,000 in prize money.

New judges were invited, including Molife Kumona, GQ South Africa Editor-in-Chief. This also includes five leaders in photography: Chen Xiaobo, Vice President of China Photographers Association; Chinese fashion photographer Pei Tongtong; Portuguese landscape photographer José Ramos; Australian portrait photographer Jessica Hromas; and Li Changzhu, Vice President of the Consumer Strategy Marketing Dept at the HUAWEI Consumer Business Group.

The XMAGE Awards Submissions will close at 23H59 GMT+8 on August 15, 2023. We look forward to your participation and seeing your creativity come alive.

Users can visit the unified global submission channel via XMAGE Awards 2023 for their submission, as well as submit their entry via HUAWEI Community. Entries must be images or videos captured with a Huawei mobile phone, and there are no restrictions on when the work was captured or using which Huawei mobile phone.

For more information and competition terms and conditions, as well as submission, please refer to the competition website: https://gallery.consumer.huawei.com.

Tsogo Sun Roulette Masters 2017

Last week saw the media launch of the much anticipated Tsogo Sun Roulette Masters 2017. The tournament which is in it's fourth year running is already well under way and see's 14 casino's around the country partake in. It gives one lucky player a chance to walk away with a guaranteed first prize of R2 million, a glittering trophy and the title of 2017 Roulette Master. 

Suncoast Casino in Durban is one of the participating 14 casino's that are hosting the tournament and they invited selected media to have a little feel for the competition. Speaking at the launch, Louise Howell, Marketing Manager at Suncoast had this to say, "Although the buy-in of R100 remains the same as when the tournament began in 2014, there is huge excitement as there is a total prize pool of R3.1 million to be won. Roulette Masters 2017 is bigger and better than ever with a guaranteed whopping R2 million in cash for the Grand Winner". 

Daily heats have already begun and will take place in the qualifying rounds of the Roulette Masters at each of the Tsogo Sun's 14 casinos: Suncoast, Montecasino, Silverstar, Gold Reef City, Golden Horse Casino, The Ridge Casino, Hemingway's Casino, Emnotweni Casino, Garden Route Casino, Goldfields Casino, Mykonos Casino, Blackrock Casino, The Caledon Casino and Queens Casino until the 9th of March. Entry to each heat of the tournament is by way of a cash buy-in of R100 (cash chips and plaques will also be accepted) or point redemption for the same amount. Players can enter as often as they like. From the qualifying rounds, top scorers from each individual casino as per the unit's allocation (totaling 44 players) will earn a place in the Groups Quarters, Semis and Grand Final at Gold Reef City. 

Those that have made through to the finals will go head-to-head at the Grand Final at Gold Reef City on March 25th where they will be flown and put up at the resorts hotel. The total prize money to be won is R3.1 million. The five finalist that make it through to the Group and grand finals will compete for their share of under R2.4 million with the winner walking away with a guaranteed R2 million in cash, the trophy and the title of 2017 Roulette Masters Champion. 

At the launch were given the chance to try out hand at roulette and see if lady luck was on our side, unfortunately I crashed an burned in the first round, the roulette ball was not landing on my chosen numbers that day! But all was not lost as the team at Suncoast certainly know how to spoil us with great entertainment and delicious food from their various onsite restaurants, Cafe Vigor and Jeera. 

"We at Suncoast are holding thumbs that KwaZulul Natal will have the winning spin in the Finals this year. The Roulette Masters has produced plenty of thrills and entertainment since its inception in 2014. It is always a highlight on the calendar and we are looking forward to being a part of this annual event" Howell adds. "There is plenty of fun to be had on the gaming floor and our croupiers at Suncoast are ready to provide a great tournament experience at the tables for all Roulette lovers"

For more information, visit www.suncoastcasino.co.za or follow them on Facebook or Twitter