LeveL

"LEVEL" is a computer and video games magazine originating in the Czech Republic with branches in Romania and Turkey. These three brother divisions occasionally exchange content. In addition to publishing the magazine, "LeveL" also organizes many yearly gaming competitions for players in two of the countries (Romania's pro-gaming sponsor being the PGL - Professional Gamer's League); it is one of the biggest Turkish sponsors of international gaming contests (such as WCG).

"LeveL" was founded by Jan "Beast" Tomanek in 1995 in Czech Republic. Its first issue was released on 24.01.1995. The current "LeveL" editor-in-chief is Martin Bach (replacing Ondřej Průša).

"LEVEL" in Czech republic

"LeveL" was the third magazine, after Excalibur in 1991 and Score in 1994, about computer games, that has been released on Czech market. With the founder Martin Ludvik, "LeveL" began its history in January, 1995. For one and a half year, the editor-in-chief was Jan Tománek, followed by Petr Bulíř (half a year in charge) and Jan Herodes, who led the magazine for seven years. His former assistant Ondřej Průša, one of the few people who had been with "LeveL" for its whole history, replaced him during the following 4 years. The current editor-in-chief is Martin Bach. "LeveL" is considered the best selling magazine about computer games in the Czech republic with nearly 40.000 print-outs dispatched every month. Current editorial staff consists of more than twenty members.

"LEVEL" in Turkey

The Turkish edition was founded and initially written by M. Berker Güngör (alias "maddog") in 1997 and then Sinan Akkol joined the family couple of years later when he attended to a contest and became the heart of "LeveL"; today it is the leading computer games magazine in Turkey, with over 15 authors and distribution of 25 000 per issue . While global games magazines Gameshow (magazine) and PC Gamer at first competed in the Turkish market, their Turkish branches closed due to financial difficulty , leaving "LeveL" without competitors — and with extra staff poached from the failed publications.

The magazine encourages the purchase of legal copies of games, having published a series of articles about software piracy.

During August 2007, The magazine was sold to Doğan Burda, the leading magazine publisher of Turkey. Sinan Akkol and some of the staff left and founded a new magazine called Oyungezer. Fırat Akyıldız of the remaining staff (who had served as the editor-in-chief for Official PlayStation 2 Magazine Turkey and GamePro magazines in the past) became the editor-in-chief. Famous comedy duo Cenk and Erdem, Cem Şancı and writer Ali Aksöz (who is also the creator of a highly successful web organization named Lost Library) has returned to "LeveL" after the split. Also many writers from GamePro has joined "LeveL" and their new issue launched at November as well, giving a free copy of as promotion.

Staff (Turkey)

Editor-in-Chief Fırat Akyıldız

Managing Editor Elif Akça

Editors Ali Güngör Burak Akmenek Cem Şancı Şefik Akkoç a.k.a. Rocko Tuna Şentuna

Authors Ali Aksöz a.k.a. Ningauble or just "The N." Alp Burak Beder Cenk Durmazel Deha Uzbaş Doruk Akyıldız Doruk Cansev Erdem Uygan Hasan Başaran Kıvanç Güldürür Korcan Meycan Legoel Odaburda Meriç Erbay Nurettin Tan Ömür İklim Demir Ömür Topaç Recep Baltaş Sami Eyidilli Tunç Dindaş a.k.a. Turbo Ufuk Özden Ümit Öncel

"LEVEL" in Romania

In September 1997 Vogel Publishing Romania launches the first Romanian gaming magazine called "LEVEL" INTERNATIONAL GAMES MAGAZINE". Today it is the leading computer games magazine in Romania with 21.000 magazines per issue and 79.000 readers per issue. "LEVEL" Romania saw its ups and downs in its almost 11 years of activity. The magazine includes a DVD since 2006, it was the second romanian magazine to include a DVD, after XtremePC. The magazine also features a full game every issue since 2002, a very controversial decision back in the day because of the games' quality, which varied from issue to issue. The longest lasting author of "LEVEL" Romania is Marius Ghinea, who joined the team back in 1998 and raised the standards by writing high quality reviews, correlating gaming to forms of art and by having a very "refined taste" in games. Other authors that deserve to be mentioned for outstanding activity over the years: Mr. President, Claude, Wild Snake, Sebah, Mike, Mitza, Locke, Ciolan. "LEVEL" Romania is in direct competition with PcGames4Fun and used to be in competition with GameOver (which featured only 16 issues), the latter being considered by many to be the best gaming magazine ever written in Romania so far.

Staff (Romania)

Coordinating Author Mircea Dumitriu a.k.a. KiMO

Authors Vladimir Ciolan a.k.a. cioLAN Bogdan Amiteteloae a.k.a. BogdanS Marius Ghinea Mihai Calin a.k.a. Koniec

Collaborators Sebastian Bularca a.k.a. Locke Paul Policarp a.k.a. Silverbolt Andrei Neagu a.k.a. Zuluf Dan Darie a.k.a. Jack Ana Maria Todor a.k.a. Absynthe Laura Bularca a.k.a. Lara Marin Nicolae Dan Andrei Cruceanu Andrei Licherdopol

External links

* [http://www.level.cz/ Official website "LeveL" Czech Republic]
* [http://www.level.com.tr/ Official website "LeveL" Turkey]
* [http://www.level.ro/ Official website "LEVEL" Romania]