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World Cyber Games

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World Cyber Games
StatusActive
GenreEsports tournaments
FrequencyAnnual
Inaugurated2000
WebsiteOfficial site

The World Cyber Games (WCG) is an international esports competition with multi-game titles in which hundreds of esports athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competitions also known as Esports Olympics. WCG events attempt to emulate a traditional sporting tournament, such as the Olympic Games; events included an official opening ceremony, and players from various countries competing for gold, silver, and bronze medals. WCG are held every year in other cities around the world. The WCG 2020 competition received nearly 650 million views worldwide.

General

World Cyber Games is one of the largest global esports tournament, with divisions in various countries.[1] The World Cyber Games, created by International Cyber Marketing CEO Yooseop Oh and backed financially by Samsung, was considered the e-sports Olympics;[2][3] events included an official opening ceremony, and players from various countries competing for gold, silver and bronze medals. The organization itself had an official mascot, and used an Olympic Games inspired logo.[4] Organizations from each participating country conducted preliminary events at a regional level, before conducting national finals to determine the players best suited to represent them in the main World Cyber Games tournament event. All events had areas for spectators, but the tournament could also be viewed over internet video streams.[3][5]

Besides providing a platform for tournament gaming, the World Cyber Games was used as a marketing tool; sponsors, such as Samsung, using the space around the venue to set up product demonstrations and stalls.[6] In addition, advertisers saw the event as a good means to reach young male audiences, who may not be exposed to traditional advertising streams via television.[5]

History

Map of countries participating in the WCG

In 2000, the World Cyber Games was formed, and an event was held titled "The World Cyber Game Challenge", which began with an opening ceremony on 7 October. The event was sponsored by the Republic of Korea's Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Ministry of Information and Communications, and Samsung. It brought together teams from 17 countries to compete against each other in PC games including Quake III Arena, FIFA 2000, Age of Empires II, and StarCraft: Brood War. The tournament ended on 15 October 2000.[7] The competition initially had 174 competitors from 17 different countries with a total prize purse of $20,000.

In 2001, the World Cyber Games held their first main event, hosted in Seoul, Korea, with a prize pool of $300,000 USD. National preliminaries were held between March and September, with the main tournament running between 5 December to 9 December. The World Cyber Games quoted an attendance of 389,000 competitors in the preliminaries, with 430 players advancing to the final tournament; teams from 24 countries in total were involved in the tournament.[8]

In 2002, the World Cyber Games held a larger event in Daejeon, Korea with a prize pool of US$1,300,000; 450,000 competitors took part in the preliminary events, with 450 ultimately making it through to the final tournament.[9] The 2003 tournament, which took place in Seoul again, saw an even bigger prize pool of US$2,000,000, and was the first World Cyber Games tournament to feature a console based competition, with the game Halo: Combat Evolved on the Xbox.[10]

In 2004, the World Cyber Games held a tournament in San Francisco, California, United States, the first tournament outside of its home country. At this stage, the prize pool was at US$2,500,000; with 642 players competing in the grand final.[11] The tournament has since been hosted in various countries around the world; including Singapore in 2005 and Monza, Italy in 2006 - at this time Microsoft became a major sponsor to the event, who would provide software and hardware for all the events through to 2008. In addition, all games played at the tournament would be based exclusively on Windows PC's or the Xbox console.[12][13]

In 2006, the prize purse had risen to $462,000, and the event had grown to 9 different competitions and 700 qualified participants from 70 different countries.[citation needed]

In 2007, the event was hosted in Seattle, Washington, United States, with a total prize pool of US$4,000,000. In 2008, the tournament was hosted in Cologne, Germany; it was the first World Cyber Games tournament to incorporate a mobile-game based tournament, with Asphalt 4: Elite Racing,[14] In 2009, the tournament was held in Chengdu, China, and featured a special promotion of the game Dungeon & Fighter.[15] The tournament was also coincided to run alongside the World Cyber Games debut reality television show, WCG Ultimate Gamer. Season 2 of WCG Ultimate Gamer was aired between August and October 2010.

In 2014 February, the CEO Brad Lee announced the closing of WCG.[16] Several partners described difficulty working with the CEO and the organization.[17]

In March 2017, the former Samsung owned WCG Trademark was transferred to Korean Publisher Smilegate. Plans to develop the WCG "into the world's top digital entertainment festival in the future".[18] World Cyber Games 2018 should have been hosted in Bangkok on April 26–29, 2018,[19][20] but was cancelled subsequently. World Cyber Games 2019 was hosted in Xi'an, China on July 18–21, 2019.[21] The WCG 2020 competition received nearly 650 million views worldwide.[22]

World Cyber Game tournaments

Event Date Total prize (USD) Host location Participants Countries Games offered
WCG Challenge October 7 – 15, 2000 $200,000 Everland, Yongin, South Korea 174 17
WCG 2001 December 5 – 9, 2001 $300,000 COEX Convention & Exhibition Center, Seoul, South Korea 430 37
WCG 2002 October 28 – November 3, 2002 $300,000 Expo Science Park, Daejeon, South Korea 462 45
WCG 2003 October 12 – 18, 2003 $350,000 Olympic Park, Seoul, South Korea 562 55
WCG 2004 October 6 – 10, 2004 $400,000 San Francisco, California, United States 642 63
WCG 2005 November 16 – 20, 2005 $435,000 Suntec City, Singapore 679 67
WCG 2006 October 18 – 22, 2006 $462,000 Monza, Italy 700 70
WCG 2007 October 3 – 7, 2007 $448,000 Seattle, Washington, United States 700 75
WCG 2008 November 5 – 9, 2008 $470,000 Cologne, Germany 800 78
WCG 2009 November 11 – 15, 2009 $500,000 Chengdu, Sichuan, China 600 65
WCG 2010 September 30 – October 3, 2010 $250,000 Los Angeles, California, United States 450 58
WCG 2011 December 8 – 11, 2011 $303,000 Busan, South Korea 600 60
WCG 2012 November 29 – December 2, 2012 $258,000 Kunshan, China 500 40
WCG 2013 November 28 – December 1, 2013 $306,000 500 38
WCG 2019 July 18 – 21, 2019 $612,500 Xi'an, China 506 34
WCG 2020 September 7 – November 8, 2020 $285,000 ONLINE (Shanghai, China / Seoul, South Korea) - -

References

  1. ^ Hill, Jason (29 April 2011). "Let the Cyber Games begin". Brisbane Times. Retrieved 25 August 2011.
  2. ^ "Americans win gold at world video game championships". USA Today. 10 October 2004. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
  3. ^ a b Svoboda, Elizabeth (October 2004). "World Cyber Games Finals". IEEE Spectrum. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
  4. ^ "World Cyber Games: from Korea in 2000 to China in 2009 – and now on TV…". 9 March 2009. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
  5. ^ a b "Professional gamers draw big-name sponsors". NBC News. 13 September 2005. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
  6. ^ Rojas, Peter (11 October 2004). "World Cyber Games 2004 takes aim in San Francisco". Joystiq. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
  7. ^ "WCG - Official History - WCG Challenge". World Cyber Games. Archived from the original on 17 January 2012. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
  8. ^ "WCG - Official History - WCG 2001". World Cyber Games. Archived from the original on 17 January 2012. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
  9. ^ "WCG Official Website - WCG History - WCG 2002". World Cyber Games. Archived from the original on 28 May 2013. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
  10. ^ "WCG Official Website - WCG History - WCG 2003". World Cyber Games. Archived from the original on 17 January 2012. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
  11. ^ "WCG Official Website - WCG History - WCG 2004". World Cyber Games. Archived from the original on 17 January 2012. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
  12. ^ Dobson, Jason (13 April 2006). "Microsoft Announces World Cyber Games Sponsorship". Gamasutra.
  13. ^ Surette, Tim (14 April 2006). "Microsoft to sponsor World Cyber Games". CNET News. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
  14. ^ "WCG Official Website - WCG History - WCG 2008". World Cyber Games. Archived from the original on 17 January 2012. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
  15. ^ "WCG Official Website - WCG History - WCG 2009". World Cyber Games. Archived from the original on 17 January 2012. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
  16. ^ "World Cyber Games to close down all tournaments in 2014". 7 February 2014. Retrieved 25 March 2014.
  17. ^ Howell O'Neill, Patrick (February 5, 2014). "The Olympics of esports shuts down, partners say CEO was 'impossible to work with'". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on May 21, 2015. Retrieved May 20, 2015.
  18. ^ "WCG called e-Sports Olympics will be back". 29 March 2017.
  19. ^ "WCG 2018 Host City and Dates Announced". 7 November 2017. Retrieved 7 November 2017.
  20. ^ "WCG to Hold Regional Qualifying Rounds from First Edition". 18 February 2018. Retrieved 18 February 2018.
  21. ^ "WCG 2019 Host City and Dates Announced". 14 September 2018. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
  22. ^ "More than Half a Billion Tune In To WCG 2020 CONNECTED". PR Newswire. World Cyber Games. December 21, 2020. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
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