Summit X: Super Pass Project

A long time ago, at one of the Summits, I had a conversation with Jas Purewal about the impact of our individual actions. A single trip made on a bike instead of a car is nothing special, but when 27% of all journeys happen by bikes in the Netherlands, it yields massive benefits on the scale of the whole country as it all stacks up.

We thought of a way to make the conference have a small but tangible positive impact on the environment, hence the birdhouse initiative that we ran for three years; now, following the Limassol conference last year, we have transformed it into something else.

The questions that we asked ourselves were: (1) whether our involvement is a cost-saving tool, or an enabling factor; (2) whether it has the intrinsic motivation to prosper beyond our initial involvement; and (3) how long will this impact last.

In a few initiatives that we've been previously involved with, we later found that our contribution didn't really make it happen – it just allowed people to waste the previously allocated money elsewhere; in other projects, we discovered that they got dismantled after three or four years, as they were propped up by a passing interest. Having learned from these experiences, this is the story of how this year's Super Pass Project was born – and how its first phase got executed ––>

Cyprus

Cyprus is a fascinating country: it produces wine and it produces video games, with villages that haven't changed in a hundred years and offices that are engaged in a business that didn't exist even five years ago. We felt that it's a great match for what we're after, connecting the ancient land with the our modern community.

Carob Trees

Once we settled on Cyprus as the location, we looked at the indigenous trees that would be resilient in the face of the climate crisis and zeroed in on carobs that sustain all kinds of animals, and serve as the foundation of the local eco-system.

Kika's Garden

We then started looking for the place where our trees would be at home: not just planted and forgotten, but becoming a part of something bigger; we found the solution at Kika's Garden – a garden that grows its own produce and serves breakfast in the Paphos area, whose chefs, Kika and Marle, have won the award for the best brunch on the island this spring.

Kallepeia

Kika's Garden is located in Kallepeia, an area north of Paphos. The residents of the village were happy to be involved with the project, including the village's muhtar (its elected head). During the planting, we discovered that decades ago, it was these people who planted the fruit trees and the conifers along the local roads, which by now grew big and beautiful; their bond with the land is still going strong.

This sort of connection with the land, and with its people, is exactly what we were hoping for: making the first step on the path that the local community already well knows, and will watch over.

100 Carobs

When you register for Games Industry Law Summit, you can opt for a Super Pass that comes with the branded hoodie made to order in Vilnius, and with a tree planted in your name. You also get an upgrade if your firm is a sponsor, and you get a Super Pass when you serve on the Judge Panel of Legal Challenge.

When it was the time to plant the first round of carobs, we had close to 100 Super Passes, and we commissioned as many trees. The owner of the tree nursery came along to help us (shown in the photograph above, with Kika). In the seedlings we used, the root system is from the wild tree, while on top is the cultured variety that will produce a higher quality of seeds for all the birds and animals to enjoy.

The Summit Community

With 100 trees to plant, we needed a bit of help and on a short notice were able to mobilize a small crowd of studio counsels based in Cyprus: thanks, Darya Firsava, Roman Zanin and Mikhail Verbilo at Wargaming, Yahor Yefanau at Vizor Games and Aleksandra Mirgorodskaia at Gaijin Entertainment! Thanks, Evelina Georgiades, Ada Athanasiadou, George Mountis, Alexandros Georgiades and Pavlos Dekatris at Chrysostomides!

Once we wrapped the planting (and waited out the brief thunderstorm), we went for lunch that featured 0% wines from Oddbird (you'll taste them in September '25 in Vilnius) as well as the authentic carob syrup (you'll taste it in June '26 in Berlin):

The Carob Tree Grove

Thanks to every counsel who contributed to the initiative this year, whether as a judge, a conference partner, or through a direct Super Pass application. There is now a tree with your name, and a new grove of carob trees in the hills of western Cyprus – and while we cannot guarantee that the names will be still legible after a decade, we're pretty certain that these trees will be there 50 years form now (a week after the planting, we also brought a birdhouse for the barn owl for this corner of the field, to keep the black rats away from the seedlings in the heat of the summer).

For the Super Passes booked between now and when the conference begins, including all the cases where the specific names haven't been assigned yet, we'll do the second round of planting right after Summit X in September.

Full gallery: HERE.

Special thanks: Simas Bernotas and the team at Chrysostomides, as well as to Ray and Valik for their enthusiasm, and to Marle and Kika for hosting us!

// Sergei @ Charlie Oscar