World Series of Video Games: The aftermath

Author: Andrew Clark
Published: 12th December 2006
Comments (10) Stumble
As professional gaming becomes more popular, the prize money just keeps on getting bigger.

As professional gaming becomes more popular, the prize money just keeps on getting bigger.

The World Series of Video Games Grand Finals have just come to their climax in New York City, America. The WSVG, as it is commonly known, is the first professional circuit of its kind, where hundreds of gamers compete in regional tournaments for those all important spots in the final event. Since June this year, Intel has presented us with five regional WSVG events which each sent two people from their respective games to the finals.

Ninety of the world's most talented gamers arrived a few days ago at the Chelsea Piers Complex to compete for a share of the $240,000 cash prize purse and Rolex watches. If that was not enough, all ninety of the competitors received a Dell XPS M710 laptop for taking part in the competition.

The tournament ran with no delays whatsoever, no small feat considering its size. Not everything was so smooth though, just two days before the Halo 2 tournament began the Major League Gaming organisation brought up some issues about the release form players had to sign. The form was simply so that the players could agree to appear on television without receiving extra payment from the organisers, producers and so on.

Bromberg, President of the MLG had the following to say at GotFrag.com, “We feel they should receive compensation for attending and the release from WSVG stated they could use their likeness and exploit them for nothing in return.”

“MLG is not going to allow the players to sign the release,” said Matt Ringel, CEO of The WSVG, “Bromberg said to me in a 10:00am phone call on Friday that MLG wasn’t concerned before because of the limited distribution of WSVG, but the recent announcements would cause confusion of the MLG brand.”

However, as all of the sixteen players in the Halo tournament are contracted to MLG, the concern over the form had the player’s best interests at heart. For the next 48 hours it was unsure what would happen, but eventually MLG backed down and allowed the players to decide the best course of action. With that small hiccup out of the way, the tournament went ahead as planned.

THE WINNERS

PC tournaments:
Counter-Strike: ALTERNATE aTTaX
Quake 4: Johan “toxic” Quick
Warcraft III: Manuel “Grubby" Schenkhuizen

Console tournaments:
Halo 2: Str8 Rippin’
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter: Hammer and Anvil
Project Gotham Racing 3: “xMaxFAT”

The event was broadcast on multiple television networks in America and through several online streaming services. CSTV and Gameplay HD networks showed the event, making it accessible to over 30 millions viewers. Time will show if the media exposure has any long term effects for the status of esports. Video Games for London 2012?

For those of you who did not see the live event, you’ll be able to catch up by giving Team Sportscast Network a visit. They will be uploading their video on demand content on the coming days and weeks.

There’s only one more major tournament left this year. The CPL Championship Finals, which will begin on Wednesday 13th December at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Dallas, Texas. Once again we will see the top gamers in Counter-Strike in action along side tournaments for Quake III and multiple console games.

Were you one of the people following the coverage of the WSVG? Let us know in the forums.
Quote BioSniper 12th December 2006, 09:29
I still don't understand why they still use CS and warcraft 3 for these game tourneys? Surely there are newer, better game out there that have surpassed them in terms of quality? Surely something more modern is what they should be using if they really want to thrust gaming as a serious "sport" into the limelight?
Quote plug_in_ross 12th December 2006, 10:38
Shame that the "Console Games" category were pretty much all X-Box games. What of the Wii or PS3? It'd be good to see some tournaments with a Wii, then it literally would be a sport!

Seems to me like they're just using the same games every year, which surely must get bloody boring after a while. In my opinion, the best gamers are the ones who are amazing at every genre of games (well, nearly every genre). For next year's WSVG, they should spice it up a bit. For example, they could create a list of about 10-15 games (which the gamers would go and practice on), but only reveal what games would actually be competed in (say about 4-5) on the day of the event.
Quote AClark 12th December 2006, 12:31
The Global Gaming League did actually make a formal application to the IOC about gaming being a exhibition sport at one of the olympic games, cant remember which though, pretty sure it wasnt London!
Quote Caj Darkmoon 12th December 2006, 13:06
Quote:
Originally Posted by plug_in_ross
Shame that the "Console Games" category were pretty much all X-Box games. What of the Wii or PS3? It'd be good to see some tournaments with a Wii, then it literally would be a sport!

Seems to me like they're just using the same games every year, which surely must get bloody boring after a while. In my opinion, the best gamers are the ones who are amazing at every genre of games (well, nearly every genre). For next year's WSVG, they should spice it up a bit. For example, they could create a list of about 10-15 games (which the gamers would go and practice on), but only reveal what games would actually be competed in (say about 4-5) on the day of the event.

Halo 2 is obviously a classic xbox game, so it's not like they're playing all new 360 games. I'd imagine most of it can be traced back to the fact that the launch titles for the PS3 and Wii aren't as quality as the established box titles, and in the case of Halo 2 it's more competitive then the newer games.
Quote DXR_13KE 12th December 2006, 13:09
this is becoming a bit of Déjà vu.... in every tournament i see counter strike 1.6... i know it is a great game, i know it is the most online played FPS ever, but FFS please evolve and play more modern games, many of the CS 1.6 players i know only play it because it is the only thing their crap computers play.

edit: lets see if valve makes a secondary version of CS.S that has all the weapon and map characteristics that CS 1.6 has but with all the visual and physical goodness the source engine has to offer.
Quote Djpuk 12th December 2006, 13:36
I really find it hard to watch other people playing, I really just want to be playing myself and the more I watch the worse it gets.

I like to see just how good these guys are though, it is reassuring that I am as bad at most games as I thought I was and I would never have been a pro no matter how much I practiced :)
Quote AClark 12th December 2006, 16:40
Quote:
Originally Posted by DXR_13KE

edit: lets see if valve makes a secondary version of CS.S that has all the weapon and map characteristics that CS 1.6 has but with all the visual and physical goodness the source engine has to offer.

There is a MOD being made at the moment that is intended to do just that!

http://www.cspromod.com (appears to be down at the moment though)

It has no affiliation with VALVE or any other company, just a bunch of guys with the know how!
Quote DXR_13KE 12th December 2006, 18:56
Quote:
Originally Posted by AClark
There is a MOD being made at the moment that is intended to do just that!

http://www.cspromod.com (appears to be down at the moment though)

It has no affiliation with VALVE or any other company, just a bunch of guys with the know how!

i heard of that mod.... but i think it is mostly dead.
Quote cebla 12th December 2006, 22:46
Everyone has been saying that the cspromod is mostly dead since it started, but so far it has kept going.
Quote metarinka 15th December 2006, 03:30
the reason they play Wc3 and Cs1.6 is because of pro level playability, they aren't object to playing newer games in fact the rather non mainstream painkiller was the FPS of choice for CPL for one season. Those games have to prove themselves viable on a pro level in terms of exploitability, level of play etc. In the same grain Soul caliber 2 is still one of the fighting games of choice for consoles, although Soul caliber 3 was better graphically and for the average player a "better game" it had a few too many hitbox issues, and some never ending combos/exploits that made it both frustrating and unfair on the pro level. Same thing with WC3 and it's competitors, in terms of team fps for PC there's really nothing that comes close to Cstrike. I for one was at the WSVG at MML and a former semi-pro cs player, it was nice getting a chance to scrim against Team 3D and watch them play the finals match (no one dominates with nades like they do), I liken it to basketball or football, it's not like you need to change the rules everyseason to make the game more interesting. Those games have been played by the same rules for decades. Graphical updates are nice but I have a feeling some of these classics are here to stay as standards for gameplay in a pro level game.

in terms of gauntlet challenges (aka play many games, or have a game you don't know what it is until you play) from a spectator point these are usually very underwhelming or banal, PAX has a gauntlet challenge (called the gauntlet I believe) and that old G4 show was a gauntlet challenge, here's the thing when you get 4-5games going you'll get mediocre performance in all of them. the matchees turn into bouts of amateurism as people who are decent at best go at it in a match of noob proportions. I'm not an avid spectator but the reason watching q4 or Cs pro's play is because it's the mastery of skills and stratedgy in one game and the level of play is unreal. Gauntlet tournies (which I've played in) are usually the guy who figures out the good move first, or the person who's inherently a lil better at that type of game winning. Giving people a training period would highten the matches and level of play somewhat and I would be impressed at a player who coudl conquer opponents in all genre's. In my experience it just doesn't happen, fatality is an excellent FPS player, but I assume he would flounder in an RTS tourney, just as he's floundering in Q4 right now. Same goes with top RTS players they would do less than passable in Cstrike and lets not even start throwing in racing and fighting games (games with steep learning curves)
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