End of World Cyber Games
Gamers here say it's
being losing steam
HEYDAY:
Banks of computer terminals mark the competition floor at
the World Cyber Games in 2005. ST FILE PHOTO
Report by WONG CONG XU
It's "Game Over" for one of the world's largest gaming
competitions, the World Cyber Games (WCG).
But Singapore gamers are not too bothered because the annual
competition, one of the oldest in the cyber world, had lost much of
its lustre with professional gamers.
Gaming site OnGamers reported earlier this month
that WCG CEO Brad Lee had told its partners in an e-mail that WCG
will no longer organise tournaments and events, including the WCG
finals.
While the reason behind WCG's decision is still
unclear, there is speculation that low profits could have been a
factor.
The WCG was started in 2000 by a South Korean
company, with Samsung and Microsoft among its sponsors.
It operates like the Olympic games, with each
country conducting its own qualifying rounds before sending its top
players to compete in a host nation.
Gold, silver and bronze medals are given to the top
three players in popular online games such as StarCraft, League of
Legends, Street Fighter and Fifa.
Last year, the competition was held in Kunshan,
China, and offered US$306,000 (S$388,000) in prize money, a huge
drop from the US$500,000 offered in 2009.
The event attracted 500 participants from 40
countries. At its peak in 2008, 800 players from 78 countries took
part.
Singapore hosted the WCG finals in 2005.
Mr Wilson Chia, 33, who won a silver medal for
Singapore that year playing the fighting game Dead Or Alive, said
the WCG had been in decline for the last few years.
"The number of participating countries and players
stopped growing and eventually started shrinking," he said.
Mr Chia, whose in-game name is Tetra, last took
part in the WCG in 2009, playing Virtua Fighter 5.
"I stopped attending because I didn't like the
games included in the recent WCGs," he told The New Paper.
FADING PRESENCE
Another Singaporean professional gamer, Mr Thomas Kopankiewicz
(in game name Blysk) agreed that WCG's presence had been
fading.
Said the StarCraft II player: "These days, we have
different tournaments for different games that players aim for. So
ultimately, WCG has become 'just another tournament'."
His manager, Mr Terence Ting, founder of the
Singapore gaming team Flash eSports, said: "While WCG started it
all for many of us, there are other major global tournaments for
different games right now, like the World Championship Series for
StarCraft II and The International for Dota 2."
Despite this, Mr Kopankiewicz hopes the WCG name
will not disappear. He said: "I thank WCG for all it has done for
the gaming scene, and hope that a new organisation can buy over the
WCG branding and once again establish it as the Olympics of
e-sports."
Mr Camillus Chia, 23, who made the quarter-finals
in the Asian open category of WCG in 2008 playing Dota, a strategy
game, also felt WCG's demise was a shame.
"It's a lost opportunity for gamers to interact
with others of different nationalities on the world stage," he
said.
News, The New Paper, Tuesday, February 11 2014, Pg 16-17