world-cyber-games posts

One of the world's biggest e-sports tournament organizations is holding its grand finals event over in Los Angeles. On Thursday, the World Cyber Games started its four day tournament with players and teams from 60 countries competing for their share of $250,000 in cash and prizes at the LA Convention Center (also the long time home of E3).

The grand final of the WCG, which is held in a different country every year, has several PC games in its tournament line-up including Carom3D, Counter-Strike, FIFA 10, StarCraft: Brood War, TrackMania Nations Forever, and Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. In addition the free-to-play game League of Legends and the Asian only online game Quake Wars Online are in the tournament as "promotional games.

Gamers from across the East Coast converged in The Samsung Experience located at the Time Warner Center in New York City to prove their skills auditioning for the second season of the World Cyber Games Ultimate Gamer competition. For those who aren't familiar with WCG Ultimate Gamer, it's a reality TV show where top gamers come together to compete for a $100,000 grand prize along with a Samsung electronics package and a chance to tour the world as a WCG representative. The show pits contestants against each other across a variety of different genres that include racing, sports and fighting games played both individually verses the computer and against each other. Additionally, the participants need to succeed in real-world challenges built around the theme of each game. In season one, players battled each other in a paintball match before blasting at each other in Halo 3 and sat behind the wheel of an actual stunt car in a drift competition before doing it virtually in Project Gotham Racing 4. All of season one is currently available to watch on Hulu.

The economic recession has caused a number of pro PC gaming leagues in the past few years to close their operations but one that has stayed afloat is the World Cyber Games. This week the league, which started out in and is still based in Korea, announced that their grand finals, which is held in a different city each year, will be hosted by Los Angeles for the 2010 edition. The event will be held at the LA Convention Center, home of E3.

The World Cyber Games previously came to the US to hold its grand finals in 2004 (San Francisco) and 2007 (Seattle). The 2009 grand finals will be held on November 11-15 in Chengdu, China as hundred of players from around the world are expected to compete in a number of PC and Xbox 360 game tournaments. There's no word yet on exactly when the 2010 Los Angeles grand finals will be held.

One of the few remaining pro gaming tournament organizations with tournaments in the US is the World Cyber Games. Recently the organization announced which games will be the official tournament titles that will be used in the WCG championships.

Some of the games have been used before like Counter-Strike 1.6, Starcraft: Brood War, and Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. The WCG will also use the PC version of FIFA 09, Carom3D (a billiards title) and the MMO game Red Stone. In an unusual move, the WCG have also added the racing game Trackmania Nations Forever as a new official title in tournaments. Regional and national tournaments will be held throughout the year all over the world. The WCG World Championships will be held in Chengdu, China on Nov. 11-15

Remember that old TV show on G4 called Arena where a bunch of gamers battled each other in various titles? Also, remember how horrible it was? Well get ready for its next incarnation in GameQuest. Variety is reporting that the Sci-Fi Channel has ordered eight episodes of the series which will debut this spring on the cable network.

The show is co-produced by the World Cyber Games pro gaming organization and will feature 12 contestants that will not only battle via multiplayer gaming but also in physical challenges inspired by the games they are playing. There's no word yet on which games will by used. Let's just hope Arena host Lee Reherman isn't available for similar duties this time round.

It's looking like the organizers of next month's E For All Expo are moving the consumer gaming event more into the pro gaming tournament (or e-sports) arena. The event was previously announced as the host for the US finals of the 2008 World Cyber Games and today it was announced that yet another similar event will be held at E For All as well.

The event in question is the Intel Extreme Masters league who will hold tournaments that will give out $80,000 in total cash prizes at E For All on October 3-5 at the LA Convention Center. Teams will play in World of Warcraft and Counter-Strike 1.6 matches and the top teams, besides winning prize money, will move onto the world finals of the Intel Extreme Masters in Germany during CeBIT in 2009.

It looks like the 2008 edition of the E For All Expo will indeed be an improvement over the somewhat rocky launch of the consumer game show in 2007. Today the show's organizers IDG World Expo, announced that the event will also be the host for the US finals for the World Cyber Games.

The US finals will have pro gamers competing for both cash and a chance to compete in the WCG world finals in Germany in November in a variety of PC and Xbox 360 games. The E For All Expo event will also have other competitions such as a mobile game tournament, a women's invitational tournament and more. As we have previously reported E for All 2008 will be held October 3-5 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. IDG World Expo still has not announced when registration will begin for the event nor how much the ticket prices will cost.